After the House vote, Obama asked senators to "take the baton" and continue the race to bring health care reform to Americans. A winning race for Obama, though, is far from assured.

Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-La.) was the only member of his party to cross party lines and vote in support of the bill on Saturday night. The other 176 Republicans in the House voted against the health care bill.

Less than 24 hours after the House bill passed, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared it "dead on arrival."

He's probably right, but it will likely be Senate Democrats that doom the bill.

The House bill included a controversial "public option" provision that would compel the government to offer health care insurance that would compete with those offered by private insurers.

The public option is supported by most Democrats, especially the liberal wing, but conservative Democrats and Republicans oppose the government getting into the insurance business.

The five to seven moderate Democrats in the Senate will hold sway and decide whether they can get to the magic number of 60 votes.

When this issue will be settled is anyone's guess. The Senate has yet to schedule a floor debate, and some Democratic Senate leaders said last week that they may not be able to finish the health care debate this year.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he planned to keep the public option in the Senate version, but that Dems might have to remove it to win support.

So while Obama can claim a small win in his victory in the House, the big prize of bringing health care reform to Americans is closer but still out of reach.