Presidential nominee Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic Convention was punctuated by Fleetwood Mac’s forward-looking “Don’t Stop”:

“Don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow. Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here.”

Now the Clintons are the old guard, and their tune has certainly changed. They want voters to look back and cross that bridge from the 21st century back to when they were in the White House. But with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy looking weaker than a gas-tax holiday, it’s time for the family to exit gracefully to another baby boomer song.

How about: “It’s Too Late” (Carole King)? “It’s Over” (Boz Scaggs)? “New Kid in Town” (The Eagles)? Or, they could crank up that Fleetwood Mac oldie one more time:

“Yesterday’s gone; yesterday’s gone.”

Rx for profits. The evolution of the health care issue reminds me of the eventual acceptance of a paid Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Arizona. It won’t be the morality of the issue that carries the day; it will be dollars and cents.

In Arizona, the MLK holiday was rescinded in 1987 by then-Gov. Evan Mecham, who claimed that his predecessor had illegally installed it. The issue then moved to the Legislature, which put two items on the ballot in 1990. One that would substitute MLK Day for Columbus Day was crushed. One that would add MLK Day without other changes barely lost.

After the twin defeats, the National Football League moved the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix to Pasadena, Calif., and economic boycotts caused several conventions to be canceled. The combined economic hit was about $340 million. That got the attention of the business community, which worked closely with minority leaders to make sure a 1992 ballot measure passed. It did, and the boycotts were lifted, and Phoenix played host to the 1996 Super Bowl.

The connection to health care is that business leaders are increasingly recognizing the pain inflicted by the rising costs of the employer-based system. Because of that, they’re more apt to rally around a solution now than they were in 1993, which was the last serious attempt at reform. A recent report from the New American Foundation should accelerate business interest. It shows that U.S. manufacturers pay more than twice as much on health care for workers as their foreign competitors. The differences are smaller – yet significant – for other types of businesses. On average, health care made up 1.2 percent of payroll costs in 1960. Today, it is 9.9 percent, the report found.

Once the message sinks in that our health care system puts us at a competitive disadvantage, I think you’ll see the business leaders eagerly spreading a new one: “We shall overcome.”