Obama aides learning from Clinton

The Sunday NY Times takes an in depth look at the lessons Obama's aides have learned (sometimes too well) from the failure of Clinton's 1992 healthcare push.

The key paragraph:

Before Mr. Obama was elected, advisers began debriefing Clinton veterans to draft “lessons learned” memorandums. According to interviews with more than a dozen participants in the debates then and now, those lessons have helped the president’s proposals progress further through Congress’s committees than the plan advocated by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton did. All the while, the administration has held the tentative support of powerful associations for doctors, nurses, seniors, hospitals, drug makers and, as Mr. Obama recently put it, “even the insurance companies,” which did the most to defeat the Clintons.

So what lessons have Obama's people learned? According to the Times, there are 6 big ones:

Lesson 1: Failure Is Not an Option.

Lesson 2: Know your audience — insured taxpayers.

Lesson 3: Move before the honeymoon ends.

Lesson 4: Leave the details to Congress.

Lesson 5: Co-opt the opposition.

Lesson 6: Take what you can get.

Read the whole piece for more details on each "lesson," including which ones the White House learned too well.