How a Democrat Did the Right Thing Against the Partisan Odds and Won

In 2004, Central Texas Democrat Chet Edwards faced a race for a U.S. House District that Texas Republicans had redrawn in the graven image of Tom Delay. Rather than triangulating on the issue of children's health insurance coverage like a few Democrats--including one of our own--are prone to do, Mr. Edwards embraced SCHIP for all the right reasons. And he embraced it in this advertisement on the real life losses of an insured child that ran before the 2004 election:

Democrats don't have to sacrifice medical coverage for the children of working class parents in order to win. This family's story resonates with many voters who look at their children and wonder how they are going to keep them healthy in the future, given the government's total abdication to private health interests.

Democrats should be hanging the health risks and the financial vulnerabilities of families with uninsured children around the necks of Republicans in the popular media from now until November 2008.