Today's the day: contact our congressional delegation

For balance... (4.00 / 1)

Take a gander at Nate Silver's latest, balanced (not fawning, and not un-critical), view of the current landscape:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com...

And, for the record, many of us who actually did the hard work to put Obama in office (through the primary and beyond), do not feel betrayed.

Frustrated with the insurance industry funded Blue Dogs, and the inability of the Obama admin to work this hard enough to be successful? Sure.

But, betrayed? No sir, not betrayed.

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by: Vermonter @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 19:53:21 PM CDT

Further... (0.00 / 0)

Per The Atlantic:
http://politics.theatlantic.co...

Point being, one quote does not necessarily signal a policy shift...

And/But... Even if there is a concerted push to lower expectations on the public option, the goal of the Obama admin has never been public option or nothing.

Administration Official: "Sebelius Misspoke."

An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform. This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President. The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president's view, the most important element of the reform package.

A second official, Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, said that President Obama believed that a public option was the best way to reduce costs and promote competition among insurance companies, that he had not backed away from that belief, and that he still wanted to see a public option in the final bill.

"Nothing has changed.," she said. "The President has always said that what is essential that health insurance reform lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes that the public option is the best way to achieve these goals."

Appearing on Face the Nation, press secretary Robert Gibbs said that fostering competition and choice were non-negotiable, but the specific mechanism designed to do so was up for discussion. That's been interpreted as a signal that the White House is getting behind the idea of adding publicly owned health cooperatives to the menu of choices that consumers without insurance will recieve. Still, this isn't exactly a walk-back -- the White House, Gibbs included, have mused favorably about the co-ops before.

On Saturday, Mr. Obama defended the public plan before an audience in Colorado Springs. At the same time, he said that the government option was not the single critical element of reform, pointing instead to the provisions preventing insurance companies from discriminating against people, requiring them to offer plans to everyone, and capping premium increases.

"The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it. One aspect of it," Obama said.

This has been a refrain the White House has used for weeks, but not until Saturday did Mr. Obama voice it so explicitly.
The perception that the White House had backed away from the public plan has roiled many prominent Democrats, who took to their blogs, and to Twitter, to protest.

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by: Vermonter @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 20:57:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Perhaps, but... (4.00 / 2)

...my admittedly limited Hill connections do seem to concur that the PO is endangered.

So now is still very much the time for phone calls and emails.

undercaffeinated

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by: odum @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 21:08:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Reason to be worried (4.00 / 2)

If Obama is referring to the public option as a "sliver", it's all but abandoned. How hard would you fight for a sliver of anything?

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by: Jack McCullough @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 21:28:59 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Speaking for myself, good luck y'all... (4.00 / 1)

But public option is not going to happen.

AP reports the Obama Administration's ready to drop public option.

Huffington Post also reported Obama's sweet deal to big Pharma. They're working against us, not with us. Money talks and bullshit walks. Obama's shoes have shit all over them.  

Bill Maher said it best today.

Democrats have this bad habit of letting the Republicans scare them into acting more "regular guy" than they really are, and then they look inauthentic. Like Hillary drinking shooters. Like Dukakis in the tank. So I'm putting you on notice, Barack Obama: you're from Chicago, the day I see you in a duck blind, I'm taking my hope elsewhere.

Maher really makes Jon Stewart look like Mr. Rogers.

Maher continues:

So that's why I'm so worried when I see my president playing golf, because golf is a slippery slope. First comes the golf attire, then the golf stories and pretty soon you're telling black jokes. What's worse is that you know Obama doesn't really wanna be golfing, he's just doing it because he thinks it will relax the white people. "How could I be a socialist, I'm putting!" Well, I've got news for you, Mr. President, the people who think you want to kill their Great Aunt Millie aren't going to be swayed by a photo-op on the golf course. They see those photos, they're not thinking you're just like Tiger Woods, they're thinking, "Here comes the Angel of Death, and he's got a nine iron."

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by: Christian Avard @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 22:40:06 PM CDT

A little short of change (0.00 / 0)

Last November voters showed strong support for health care reform .We have to now hit the streets,phones to show our support? It is passion,skill or will in the Congress and perhaps the White House that is failing this effort.The oppositions game plan was spelled out from the first .Stall it and kill it.Wingnut shock troops in the front line and (money)lobbyists in the second wave .Look at the ratio of lobbyists to congressmen .Check the web of lobbyists that are lawmakers former colleagues,in-laws and brothers  out to dull and blunt this legislation .Our elected leaders know what we voted for and are failing to support it .  

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by: BP @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 05:43:41 AM CDT

Evil never sleeps, nor can we (0.00 / 0)

We have to now hit the streets,phones to show our support?

Of course you do.  It's not like the other side went away after the election.  Remember, these are the idealogical and organizational descendants of the 1964 Goldwater campaign - quite willing to slog it out for the last 45 years.  It took them 4 years to elect Nixon, 16 to bring us Reagan, 30 years to bring us Newt...and 36 to bring us Cheney/W.  They aren't going to go away because they got beat once.

We have been consistently outmaneuvered this time on health care reform, just as in 1993 and the sixties and even the thirties.

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by: CarbonCopy @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 16:27:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I write ,I call (0.00 / 0)

 but at some point leaders must lead as they say they will .
Obama and congressional democrats bipartisaned and blue dogged their own way into failure on this.
Money rules .My guess is it was more the powerful lobby money that cause feet and brains to turn to clay on this as much as the red shriekers.

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by: BP @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 06:08:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Chalk up one... (0.00 / 0)

...for the Gingrich 'Teabagger' campaign.  Watching the Left (where?) not take the Teabagger Libertarians seriously reminds me of the movie HIGH NOON.  The Miller gang--a few bullies--can scare the shit out of a whole town.  Where (except for maybe here, at Bernie's events) was the vocal Left to challenge these assholes?  Is Obama Gary Cooper?  Or worse, is he POLITENESSMAN?

It's gonna get worse>

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by: PeteySweety @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 10:24:56 AM CDT