Dan Clifton was on Fast Money last night talking about his favorite sectors if Obama manages to pass some major healthcare reform. He reiterated a lot of good ideas that we have already addressed on the site: generic drug companies are golden, the fate of healthcare insurance a little less certain, and big pharma is going to take a hit.

The big issue that we keep seeing with this topic is exactly when to get active with these sectors. Michael Tomasky addressed the political background for this on his blog. There is an issue with getting enough Dems behind the bill – which we noted when the draft was introduced. But most important is the way this scenario parallels the healthcare initiative taken during the Clinton administration.

…if nothing passes, Republicans and conservatives will be able to claim that they won again. Obama will have been just as weak and beatable on this issue as the Clintons. After their defeat in 1994, the Clintons vastly reduced the ambition of their agenda. Obama would probably be forced to do the same.

Tomasky also predicts that the bill will come to a vote somewhere between September and November. With all of the unknown variables playing into this one, there is just too much ambiguity to know when to get involved.