We've been throwing the names Altmire, Dahlkemper and Doyle around a lot lately, but over the long term the most important one in Pennsylvania on health care may be . . . Tom Corbett.

The Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate from Shaler is leading all the polls -- look at the cool collection of polls we have here! -- in the guv race, for both his party's nomination and the general election. If he wins, he could be a major player in GOP efforts to drop-kick the Democratic/Obama bill.

The Republican Governors Association is already dead-set against the bill, and Corbett has already taken an aggressive position from his AG seat, joining other GOP attorneys general in criticizing an earlier version of the package. He could have a simpatico General Assembly next year too -- Republicans control the Senate and are just 5 votes down in the House (which is one reason why national Democrats plan to pour money into state House elections this year).

UPDATE: Corbett is joining a lawsuit with GOP AG's from 10 other states, Reuters reports.

Like we've said before, it ain't over. Pro and anti ads on the next phase of implementing the bill start tomorrow, the NYT reports, and the White House is already devising legal strategies to guard their bill from attacks on a state-by-state basis.

-- Timothy McNulty

Post-Gazette photo.