It’s rapidly congealing conventional wisdom that Obama will benefit from the health-care debate entering into a campaign-style phase. Obama’s a brilliant campaigner, Republicans are still a weak and inviting target, etc., etc. The problem for Obama is that now, in contrast to the campaign last year, his words can be checked against actual existing legislation. He can’t just make dubious, free-floating, all-things-to-all-people promises. Or he can, but they are belied by the legislation he’s touting. No matter how often he says that people will be allowed to keep the coverage they have now if they like it, or that the cost curve will be bent downward, it doesn’t change the fact that the Democratic legislation does neither of those things. It may be that the harder Obama pushes on this, the more he discredits himself.