It was a stirring speech well delivered. As for the substance on the key issue, the public option, it was better than many here had hoped.
But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange.
No, he didn't demand a public option. He mentioned Co-ops and triggers, but said that he would not accept something that didn't fix the problem.
But I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.
Let's take him at his word, and redouble our efforts to insure that the public option is not bargained away. Co-ops and triggers don't get Americans affordable insurance. The only thing that will compel insurance companies to compete is competition, and the only way to insure competition is a viable public option.
Last night there was great relief that Obama had spoken strongly in favor of the public option. The immediate post speech analysis was that he had left wiggle room, but had clearly made the case for a public insurance option within an insurance exchange.
This morning almost every MSM outlet has targeted the public option for the cutting room floor.
CBS
In his analysis immediately following the speech, CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer said that part of the speech was aimed at those liberals in the president's own party. (Video at left)
"It seems to me what the president was really saying tonight, he was saying to the liberals in his own party -- 'look, we're not going to get this public, government-run insurance program that you're insisting on, but there are a lot of things that we can get done, very significant things.' He is saying 'don't miss the forest for the trees here.'"
"Now is that going to work? I don't know," Schieffer added. "That's the case he laid out tonight, and kind of throwing a bone to them, he said 'look if it turns out basically that private insurance companies are not providing insurance to all of the people that need it then we can talk about this so-called public plan.'"
New York Times
He is right that all Americans will benefit if the insurance companies have more competition, but he stopped short of declaring a public plan a necessity. It may not be, but it is too soon to abandon the idea. He should trade it away only in return for significant political support — and should demand a trigger to resurrect it should private plans fail to provide affordable policies.
AP
It was vintage Obama, the political realist who knows it's not worth going to the mat for something when the votes aren't going to be there. It was Obama the conciliator, using soaring rhetoric to try to get warring sides to come together around common sense. And it was Obama the ever-willing negotiator, unfazed by abandoning many specifics on the road to a larger goal
...
Groups on the left have been demanding in increasingly desperate-sounding terms that a public option be in any final bill. Otherwise, liberal lawmakers say, they'll vote no on a reform package.
Really?
Hardly. The demands are about influencing Obama and their leadership. But the threats are largely empty — and everyone knows it. Most liberal lawmakers are unlikely to deny a Democratic president his top priority, or their party a potent re-election tool.
...
Obama first endorsed the public option idea during the presidential campaign, after it was embraced by Democratic rival John Edwards and then the other powerhouse in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And Obama kept talking about it since because there was little reason for him not to.
He continued to think the idea has great merit. And it made the liberal base of his party happy to hear him repeatedly lend it public support.
You see, according to the MSM the public option is a ham sandwich that Obama was feeding to us last night. He kept it in the only because the wild eyed progressives had been making such a stink about it, and he needs us to come along with him now as we head into the end game, fully intending to chop us off at the knees before the final bill is passed. The public option is just a bargaining tool.
We must rise to this challenge. The public option is still on the table because we have fought for it. Progressive legislators have pledged to vote against any bill that does not contain a public option. This blog, Firedoglake and others have kept up the pressure. We need to redouble these efforts, because you can be certain that the opposition will be throwing everything they have into killing the public option.
Last night Obama did not say that he intended to bargain away the public option, no matter what you hear on TV. He said that it has been, and still is, a cornerstone of health care reform. We need to take him at his word and demand that it be retained in the bill. We need to shoot down any talk of Co-ops and trigggers for the bogus charades that they are, and we need to keep the pressure way way up.
It has to be very very clear to Obama that the coalition of those who refuse to vote for a bill without a public option can and will kill any bill that does not contain a robust viable public option for health insurance.
Do not be placated now. Do not be complacent. We did not win anything last night, but we are still very much in the game. We need to use this moment to build momentum. Stay strong, fight on!