"on health care, Obama is consistently running to the right of his rivals."

[Clio the Leo]

Let me say this up front. I could care less if the Obama campaign sold t-shirts that said, "Obama thinks the Public Option Rocks!" .... at no point during the campaign (at least the end obviously) did I miss the fact that one of the members of the Democratic caucus was CAMPAIGNING for the GOP candidate. So I understood that anything candidate Obama proposed regarding legislative issues had to be taken with a grain of salt. If one of the guys you need to vote FOR your legislation is out stumping with the OTHER GUY, then you've got a difficult road ahead of you. This OP is not an attempt to argue the matter one way or the other.

That being said, I decided to remind myself what he'd "promised" regarding the public option by using the old Google (it's supereasy, you should try it some time) and found this nugget I thought you all would get a kick out of. (lol, it's got something in it for everyone!)

December 24, 2007, 11:57 am

Oy, Kos
Markos writes:

Every presidential candidate whose health plan rewards the health insurance companies by giving them more business via mandates

Stop right there!

The Edwards and Clinton proposals actually include a public option — that is, people can buy into a Medicare-type plan administered by the government. They are not forced to go to private insurance companies. In fact, the public option was what originally made people like myself and Ezra Klein enthusiastic about the Edwards plan.

The Obama plan includes a public option for everyone as well — but thereby hangs a tale. You see, when it was first announced, it didn’t: the public option was there only for selected groups — others would have to go with private insurance companies. It was only after several days of hectoring from progressive health care wonks that the Obama people said, in effect, “OK, we’ll make it available to everyone.” I was told that they really hadn’t thought about that — which is amazing, considering how important the public option is. (the Edwards campaign has been clear in stating that it might eventually lead to a single-payer system.)

This was one of the episodes that led health wonks I talk to to conclude that Obama may just not be that committed to universal care.

This gets once again at what I keep trying to tell people: on health care, Obama is consistently running to the right of his rivals.

And it’s deeply disappointing to have influential bloggers buying into the bizarre notion that trying to make a health care plan truly universal is somehow a gift to the insurance companies.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/oy-kos/?pagemode=print

[Armstead]

1. If any of the serious candidates had run on universal care via social insurance....

they'd have gotten my vote.

And I think they might have won if they were otherwise appealing and took the time to actually explain what it meant to voters. It is in their self-interest.

On health care, the only candidate who really made sense on healthcare was Kucinich. His explanations were absolutely spot on AND gave the pragmatic dollars and cents advantages. But he never got a fair hearing on it, and as a personality he was out of his league in presidential politics.