Bill Kristol on attempts to compare today's health care vote with civil rights:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 originally passed in the House by 290-130. Cloture was achieved in the Senate by a vote of 71-29, and the Senate then passed its version of the legislation 73-27. The House took up the Senate bill and passed it 289-126. Substantial majorities of both parties supported the legislation at every stage.
This is what allows historic legislation to become historic -- it achieves broad support, is passed without parliamentary tricks, and becomes the broadly accepted law of the land. Tomorrow's vote -- even if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi squeezes out 216 Democrats to pass the legislation -- will not be historic. It will not "end" a century-long struggle over health care. The issue will be revisited in November 2010 and in the next Congress and in November 2012.
And I predict the great majority of what passes tomorrow -- if it does, and that's by no means a given -- will never become settled law or public policy. Instead, its passage will intensify a great debate over the size and scope of government that could well result in public policy, in health care and other areas, moving, in the coming years, in the opposite direction.