Did Ted Kennedy Save Health Care Reform?  It might be crass to
ask, but will the death of Ted Kennedy help health care reform,
what Kennedy called "the cause of my life"? Yes, probably. But
maybe not!  First of all, whatever finally makes it out of
committee will probably be named after Kennedy. Which is,
instantly, much better branding. The Democrats have been bad at
this since forever. Clinton's health care package is still
called "Hillarycare." This is occasionally being called
"Obamacare," which is an improvement. But "Kennedycare" has a
much nicer ring to it. From a ball-busting non-stay-at-home wife
to a scary Muslim black man to drunk Irish Catholic American
royalty—the bill is getting progressively less scary to easily
frightened white people.  Noam Scheiber has raised the point
that a week or two of nonstop, mostly positive Kennedy coverage
is, by proxy, nonstop, mostly positive health care reform
coverage. At the very least, it distracts from the messy "what
secrets does the bill hold" and "what is