Doe-eyed newcomers get a quick education in D.C. It takes more than the ability to deliver an inspiring speech to accomplish anything. It takes real skills in coalition-building. The signature bill of Ronald Reagan's first one hundred days, his centerpiece tax and budget cuts, only passed the Senate because he was willing to horse-trade sugar subsidies for a few Southern senators' votes. Despite Reagan's clear ability to inspire, political victory came down to a willingness to swap subsidies of the kind he detested for passage of his legislation.

The German politician Otto Van Bismarck said that anyone who likes legislation or sausage shouldn't watch either being made. The process is messy and unappetizing. It isn't for starry-eyed idealists. It isn't for newbies. And it certainly isn't an on-the-job training kind of thing.

That's why I favor Hillary when it comes to health care. Sure, I don't like every detail in her plan (or Obama's or McCain's either) but I'm not sweating that because in the give-and-take of legislative compromise, not one of their plans will be enacted 100% whole. There will be plenty of opportunities to grind away any rough edges. The reason I favor Hillary is that she has learned from her previous failure at getting health care reform, and she's actually thought through - in detail-how to get it done this time. Moreover, she means it when she says it's a priority.

If she wins, her first 100 day honeymoon legislative package will have health care reform front and center. And she'll have a clear mandate from the voters because she's featured health care as the centerpiece of her candidacy. The same simply doesn't apply to Obama or McCain. Change is a slogan, not a legislative program, and McCain is just more of the status quo. If the Republicans were serious about health care reform, they'd have done more during the six years when they controlled the Congress and the presidency.