WASHINGTON — Barack Obama now has a political triumph for the ages to burnish an already historic legacy, as the first president to fulfill the Democratic dream of health care for nearly every American. Yet such is the rancor whipped up by the ferocious battle over the health reform bill sent to the president’s desk by Congress on Sunday, the impact on Obama’s political prospects and those of his Democratic allies is unclear. Obama claimed a unique place in US history when his 2008 election win gave the United States its first black president. Now, his victory on health reform, confirmed after a landmark House of Representatives vote on the most extensive social legislation in decades, has crowned a century-long, and oft-thwarted Democratic political crusade. Supporters will make a case that Obama is the most significant reforming Democratic president since at least Lyndon Johnson, who pushed through health care for the poor and seniors and civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Sunday’s victory boosted a presidency launched with stratospheric expectations, but which had recently looked beleaguered, and allows Obama to argue he has delivered the change he promised. ‘This is what change looks like,’ […]