Happy Birthday, Health Care Disaster

It's now a year since President Obama launched the push for health care reform that consumed the vital first year of his presidency, writes Peggy Noonan. "New presidents should never, ever, court any problem that isn't already banging at the door," but Obama chose to boldly address the wrong issue at the wrong time and focus on an initiative that will prove to be, at best, a "colossal waste of time," Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal.

America sorely needs some cheerleading from the top, but it looks like Obama will need to do some more doom-mongering to justify "ramming through" the legislation, Noonan writes. The only way he could bridge the credibility gap he has on health care would be to get some Republicans to put a bill forward, and there's no chance of that because "the past decade has taught them what a disaster looks like, and they've lost their taste for standing next to one," she concludes. (More Peggy Noonan stories.)