Obama has lost his way on healthcare

[CHIMO]

President Obama may be on the edge of threading the finest of needles and accomplishing the next-to-impossible: uniting the "tea party" right and the progressive left against him in the debate over US healthcare reform.

Hippocrates famously admonished physicians "to do no harm," and if history is any guide, Obama could very likely have his way with progressive legislators on the issue so long as he stays true to that mantra including the abandonment of the "public option" in a final bill.

Here's the thing. Old canards like "bleeding heart" have not been applied to liberals arbitrarily. There is a genuine, deeply felt concern for the non-privileged among many on the left, and an unwillingness to write off vulnerable citizens who may benefit from the bill's less-controversial reforms as acceptable losses in a war for policy purity. It's why, despite the bluster and chest-thumping, the moment the Obama administration started sending its signals that it would likely abandon the public option through the agency of Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and convener of the now-crumbling, bipartisan "gang of six" which was putting together its own reform proposals, the liberal jig was up. As I wrote previously, the perfect-as-enemy-of-the-good argument will always resonate with enough progressives to break any leftist obstructionist bloc.

Which means it may well be up to the US Congress – likely in the person of Speaker Pelosi (as Senate Majority Leader Reid seems as confounded as the administration) – to save the Obama administration (and by extension the Democratic party) from itself. A challenge she will find uniquely bedevilling to rise to.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/07/healthcare-barack-obama

[Deja Q]

1. I'd rather listen to what he has to say tomorrow, before having any official opinion.

All I know is, if he has deviated from his stance in 2003, there might be valid reasons. Or maybe not. Or maybe he hasn't changed between then and now on this issue and everybody is peeing their proverbial pants over nothing.

Time will tell.

[still_one]

2. Oh no, I think we should ASSuME.

I think it is good that people let their representatives and the administration know how important a public option is, but lets wait and see what actually happens as you said

[sharesunited]

3. One thing is sure. He SEEMS wavering and lacking passion and focus.

It will be exceedingly difficult to spring to life without it looking like he's an actor auditioning for a part.

[truedelphi]

4. Ya think?

I mean, while he might have thought that he looked all "concillatory" out there this summer addressing the right wing kooks at the Town Hall Meetings, he often looked anything but inspiring.

For if you see a young college student addressing Obama and they are saying that the public option would be most unfair as it would not allow for the health insurers to compete with the public option, and then where a stronger politican like LBJ might answer, "Maybe it wouold be good if the insurers fell by the way side."

Instead Obama answers by saying that the public option is not that integral a part of his program.

All I can say, is that I pretty convinced we are screwn. (And I dohope that i am proven wrong, but I can't trust Obama any more.)