Health Bill Passes, Obama's Success may be end of Democrats, politically

Obama's health bill is not of the same quality as those big spending bills beloved of the US Democrats before.

It takes some ingenuity to add to the costs, inefficiency, and dysfunctions that government has already bequeathed to our health-care system, but the Democrats have proven themselves up to the challenge. Almost nothing about this legislation is free of dispute, but we are convinced that it will increase taxes, increase premiums, and increase debt, while decreasing economic growth, job growth, and the quality of health care.

The New Deal of FDR and the civil rights bill of LBJ had significant Republican and popular support. Obama's bill has no Republican support, has little public support, may be unconstitutional on several grounds and will probably be repealed come the change of the US Government in the mid term elections in November. The apparent political success of Obama is similar in nature to that of Republican Herbert Hoover in the 1920's. Hoover, like Obama was a political novice who had a major political win in his election to Presidency. However, in getting himself elected, Hoover traded off support which has haunted the Republicans since. In this light, it may well be that Obama's initial success may result in the long term destruction of Democrat power bases for decades to come.
according to Wikipedia,

The Great Mississippi River flood broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.

Hoover was a political novice, and he may not have needed to do the following to achieve power, but Wikipedia lists as a 'southern strategy' Hoover:

In order to gain Republican votes in southern states, Hoover pioneered a policy which would later be known as the "Southern Strategy". Hoover ousted many African American leaders in the Republican party and replaced them with whites. In Hoover's appeal to white voters, the result was the Republican victory in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. It marked the first time a Republican candidate for president won Texas. This outraged African American leadership, who broke from the Republican Party and began seeking candidates in the Democratic Party who supported civil rights

Hoover won the election with over 58% of the vote, carrying southern states that normally would vote Democrat.
It was not Hoover's fault that the Great Depression struck a few months into his office. However, FDR was successful in campaigning against Hoover claiming it was his fault (It had been largely a result of Democrat Woodrow Wilson's post war policy in Europe). The novice Hoover had traded off the black vote for support and FDR, who was to do nothing for black people enjoyed substantial support, as have Democrats following.
Hoover's mistake is a lesson in history, and Obama's success have many similarities. Obama, in promising to end blame games and division in politics has seized an opportunity to claim a giant pork barrel that few want. It may be the case that the US public will reward this new winner image. It isn't likely.
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Written for Zaya Toma's Blog