Obamacare was THE political war of the last generation. Huffington Post reporter and longtime health care journalist Jonathan Cohn explains why that war happened and how it tore our nation apart. His new book, "The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage," explains how then-President Obama decided to go for it, and how the opposition to it coalesced. But was it centered on dislike of the law, or dislike for the driving force behind it? Barack Obama wound up accepting the moniker "Obamacare" as if to turn the fight over it on its head, and eventually, the opposition realized they had miscalculated greatly. Obamacare was among the chief reasons Democrats lost the House in 2010, and why they took it back in 20-18. Cohn also describes the key moment of John McCain dashing the final attempt to put a nail in the law's coffin. To understand America, we must understand the fight for universal coverage, how Obamacare became a compromise push, and the fight it then spawned.

Jonathan Cohn is available on Twitter at twitter.com/citizencohn

His writing can be found at huffingtonpost.com

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