Style or Substance?

Jennifer Rubin over at Contentions disagrees with NYT house-conservative Ross Douthat, who claims that Obama's health care fiasco is primarily a case of a poorly-managed process. She's right, of course: it's the substance of the Democratic proposal that people hate. Here's a nice summing up of the beltwayitis that afflicts far too many pundits:

Pundits are often enamored with analysis that ignores the substance and focuses on Washington-insiderness and tactical decisions, which only they have the time and expertise to translate for nonprofessionals (i.e., real people). This is especially true with regard to health care. But in this case, they certainly miss the central issue: Americans don’t want government-run health care.

Update: Richard McEnroe with reason #236 why government control of health care is a bad idea.