It is looking more and more likely that the public option is dead. But I have a question. How removed from reality are these right wing wackos when they do not think that the insurance industry is making obscene profits? Case in point, George Will in this video.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2815

The public option will only be dropped if we the people do nothing. We need to make our Congresscritters more afraid of us than they are of the lobbyists and the punditry.

A failure to be bold would be a catastrophic miscalculation. I can't see Barack making that blunder.

Here is why:

His presidency is being vigorous eroded from the right by racists who will only continue to oppose anything and everything he proposes. If Barack said "breathe" these people would turn blue.

So about 30% of our population is now essentially ungovernable. Hate is all they have to contribute going forward. He won't ever win these people over. They are committed to being disagreeably disagreeable in the worst way.

Given all that...

To lose his base now is to bet his presidency on the brain power and ardor of the soft middle. Unless he plans to frequently appear on American Idol, the low-attention voter can't fuel his presidency. So to let erosion set in on his left would be fatal in a Jimmy Carter sort of way.

But far worse:

If Barack caves on the public option he will be trying to chase cap-and-trade down the right-wing rabbit hole too.

So the stakes are simply ginormous. Barack realizes all this. He isn't arrogant and he isn't a dummy. He must be bold and he will be bold.

I bet my finest pipe tobacco on it...

The public option will remain alive as long as we continue to kick, scream, march and rally. Strength is in numbers, and we have the numbers.

i wouldn't bet a cheap cigar at this point...

certainly he is signaling capitulation...

but he knows what that will do...erode the base and embolden the enemy

i think right now the brain trust that is rahm axelbama are furiously trying steer this mess into failure on their terms.

he comes out strongly demanding PO..... lets blue dog senate defeat it..blames defeat on blue dogs. health care reform collapses, but barry never much cared about it in the first place. he just thought it was his historical moment and rushed in with out a strategy.

never fail to understand that these guys have grandiose visions of themselves.

problem is...as so often stated...had he exhibited LEADERSHIP from the get go we would have real reform.

question is : do we abandon him or fight for the other issues of concern?

The thing that strikes me is that he would have been better off politically if he had never broached the subject in the first place, rather than broaching it and then abandoning it. Once he introduced the topic, he needed to be the driver, not the passenger. Now he just looks wishy-washy. I can't see how his advisors didn't foresee the outcome. From now on his supporters are going to shy away from getting on board with anything else he brings up. He would look better, lose less support if he just toughed it out by giving it the best try he can. And I do mean his best--not some half-assed try. He could have done it, too, which is the sad thing about this. What a train wreck.

Maybe a trigger is the best compromise after all. The conservatives think it is a backdoor into a single-payer system, and the liberals think it is a sell-out to the insurance companies.

Sounds pretty good to me. A two-way conspiracy theory with so much victimhood on both sides.

I don't know why people cannot figure out the dynamics have not changed on the public plan since day one.

The president wants Congress to pass a bill with a public option.

But the president is not going to stand in the way of any universal healthcare reform if Congress cannot pass a bill with a public plan.

Passing nothing is the only non-option.

All the tea-leaf reading and hand wringing is ridiculous.

No substantial reform will pass. I'd make book on it.