From David Sirota, an interesting poll of the voters of Wisconsin:

Who do you think would do a better job reforming the health care system, Wisconsin and the other states, or the federal government?

Wisconsin & Other States: 68%
Federal Government: 22%
Both Equally: 2%
Neither: 3%
Don't Know: 4%
Refused: <1%

Sirota draws from this hope for progressive reform at the state level that would work to push the envelope at the national state over time. Even though I disagree with his specific agenda, I agree with his conclusion about the importance of state politics:

The organization has had to fight an uphill battle not just against conservatives and the health care industry, but also against a conventional wisdom among progressive donors, Beltway elites, and even some blogospheric voices who are so enamored with the Washington game that they cannot see what the Right long ago figured out: namely, that states are often where the real action is, because Washington is rigged to prevent change. Clearly, the public is way ahead of the Washington-centric conventional wisdom - likely because the public lives out here in the real world, far away from the D.C. echo chamber that tells everyone in D.C. that what they are doing is more important than what anyone else is doing.