The implicit view of many smart bloggers, including Matt Yglesias, appears to be no.

But assuming you’re interested in the issue of whether or not the proposed federal health plan will work well on the whole, Brown’s point of view strongly suggests that it will. Massachusetts did something similar a few years back and it’s worked so well that even Republicans like Scott Brown happily embrace it. Canadian Conservatives love Medicare, British Tories love the NHS, and Massachusetts Republicans love Commonwealth Care. There’s a pattern here.

But Brown supported RomneyCare before it happened. (As I noted yesterday, RomneyCare also has a much stronger individual mandate than the Senate bill, which is not trivial.) This wasn’t an after-the-fact change of heart or embrace of the status quo. He also fought Romney for cutting education funds. He believes in a big state government that meets the needs of veterans, public school students, and many other constituencies besides. He just doesn’t think that the federal government can do as good a job of finding the right policies for Wrentham or Dedham or North Adams or what have you than the local legislature.

Am I the only person who doesn’t think that this view is obviously crazy or bankrupt?