Making History!

And after last night’s hard-won victory for health-care reform in the U.S. House of Representatives, The New Republic is declaring that Barack Obama “has sealed his reputation as a president of great historical import.” The Washington Monthly’s Steven Benen has more to say here and here on Obama’s combativeness, while Salon applauds House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her no less important “legislative savvy--mastery, really.”

At the same time, Republicans--who tried desperately over the last year to block any legislation that would rein in the power of insurance companies--are assessing the extent of their failure to participate in health-care restructuring. As former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote yesterday, the success of landmark health-care reform is the “most crushing legislative defeat” for the right wing in half a century.

Click here to see how reform’s win is playing nationwide.

READ MORE: “The Party of Anger,” by Stephen Schlesinger (The Huffington Post); “Repealicans: The GOP’s Risky Plan to Run Against Health Care Reform,” by William Saletan (Slate); “Republicans Might Reform Health Reform, but They Won’t Repeal It,” by Ezra Klein (The Washington Post); “Frightening GOP Behavior,” by James Zogby (The Huffington Post).