"Health" "care" "reform" has jumped the shark.
No matter what John Podesta now says, any hope of meaningful health care reform is, in my opinion, dead.
As some have pointed out, Joe Lieberman (I-Aetna) might have thrown fuel onto the funeral pyre, but the fact that we are looking at a Senatorial health care shit sandwich is not entirely of his making.
Howard Dean was my guy in 2004 and I have followed his views closely throughout all of this. He is right: this bill must be killed. It really does not matter whether it is the most significant modification to health care policy or practice in this country in however many freaking years. It is a corporatist bill, a massive insurance industry giveaway, and it is not -- in my humble opinion -- going to serve as any kind of starting point to more powerful, progressive, and meaningful legislation to come.
Because if this is what the final product looks like, Obama will sign it, smile, and check "health care reform" off of his checklist. You know he will.