The party has branded so many ideas as heresies

Only because they were triangulated by President Obama. These ideas were Republican first, and now that the President has succeeded with them, they are socialist, instead of good ideas along the way to solving our healthcare problem?

Republicans need to recruit some people who put country before party.

I agree, PP. The patients are running the asylum. It's time for the rational adults in the Republican Party to wrest control back from the wingnuts.

It's a shame how far the Republican Party has strayed.

Of the possible Republican field:

*Romney created Romneycare
*Gingrich used to back a health care mandate
*and (non candidate) Trump wrote a book in which he said we should have national health care.

(who knows what the other old hands thought)

The party has branded so many ideas as heresies, they are killing its vitality and dooming themselves to choosing between frauds and unelectable nuts. I know it's bad. Just look at Boehner. He WAS one of the radicals years ago, and even HE can't stand these people - at least the nuts in the House.

It means the man is very, very confused and has been warped 100% by the electoral process. I kind of feel sorry for him - it's like he has no idea who he is anymore. The various extreme right-wing factions of his party - which don't even agree with each other - have just completely screwed him up.

Go read All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. It pretty much breaks down how this process occurs.

by citing Romneycare. http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/26/14115083-romney-massachusetts-health-care-law-is-proof-of-empathy?lite

So does that mean when he repeals Obamacare, he's proving that he has finally banished that empathy from his soul??