We live in an era in which the power of the new hypermedia is so intense and politics so rabid that it’s almost impossible for Congress to do anything more difficult than tax cuts or highway construction. Yet, here’s this huge, complicated, controversial reform  bigger than any domestic program in decades.

If it passes, the short-term political consequences are unknowable. But in 10 years, people will look back in amazement that we once lived in a time when Americans couldn’t get health care coverage if they were sick, when insurance companies could cut off your benefits for being sick, and when run-of-the-mill serious illnesses routinely destroyed families’ financial security.

And if it passes, Barack Obama will have validated his presidency.

He came into office on the wave of hope so enormous there was no way he was not going to disappoint. He broke promises  we still remember that one about holding health care negotiations on C-Span. He sure failed to deliver on that more respectful, bipartisan spirit in Washington. He seemed, day to day, so much less Obama-like than the guy who made people faint at campaign rallies.

But the core qualities that got him elected were his coolness under pressure and the sense that he would never stop fighting for change. No matter what you think of it, this health care bill is one heck of a change. And no matter what you think of the White House strategy, Obama has been incredibly tenacious in pushing for it.

All year, his party has been begging him to drop health care and do something about jobs  or more specifically, give the impression of doing something about jobs. The government has only so much power to stimulate the economy. And even at the height of his postelection power, Obama could only get a medium-size stimulus bill through the Senate.

What many Democrats really wanted was just a change of conversation  away from the complicated, frustrating subject of health care to rewarding fights for proposals that would embarrass the Republicans even if they didn’t pass, and small, symbolic programs that would be the 2010 equivalent of supporting public school uniforms. Plus lots of photo-ops at construction sites.