This Election Is All About Health Care

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- According to the latest Wall StreetJournal/NBC News poll, 55 percent of registered voters say theoutcome of this election will make “a great deal of difference”in their lives. That’s a 10 percentage point increase over the2004 election, and more than double the percentage of voters whofelt that way about the elections of 1996 or 1992. The stakesthis year are higher -- and most voters know it.

That’s not always the case. In fact, any given presidentialelection is usually less consequential than the competingcampaigns suggest. Candidates have every incentive to promiseyou the sun, moon and stars, and so they do. But no sooner doesthe winner adjust his chair in the Oval Office than the WhiteHouse budget director tells him they can only afford the moonand a few stars. Then the moon gets taken out by a filibuster,and the rule-writing process makes it so hard to get a star thatpretty much no one ever does. And that’s a good-case scenario.The Moon, Stars and Sun Act may never even make it out of theHouse Ways and Means Committee.