Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan believes a patriotic bipartisanship is the path forward on health-care policy, and she says the polls back her up. To fellow Republicans worried that compromising with Democrats and leaving much of President Barack Obamas signature health-care law in place would represent abandonment of seven years worth of repeal promises, the Pulitzer Prizewinning Wall Street Journal columnist serves up this metaphor:

The Noonan recipe revolves in roughly equal parts around the Democratic Partys exhibiting humility in accepting that Obamacare [is] in some respects on the verge of collapse; the Republicans climbing down from a position wherein Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broaches with his caucus the notion of bipartisanship only in a manner that sounds threatening; and the adoption of a sort of Realpolitik that permits all parties to see that current health-care law requires improvement but also that polls suggest the American people are not in the mood for tax cuts to the comfortable and [health insurance] coverage limits on the distressed.

She name checks Democrats Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly amd Heidi Heitkamp and Republicans Shelley Moore Capito, Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham as having shown hopeful recent signs of willingness to reach across the aisle. Noonan also takes heart from President Trumps palpable desire for a legislative accomplishment, no matter what the legislation itself prescribes.

Of Trump, Noonan writes:

Read the complete Peggy Noonan column at WSJ.com.

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Polling prescribes bipartisan compromise to move health care forward, argues Peggy Noonan - MarketWatch