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February 23, 2010: The White House officially takes the Public Option off the table
August 16, 2009: HHS Secretary Sebelius tells America that when it comes to Health Care Reform the Public Option a public option is "not the essential element".
Wrote a diary right after hearing this] on one of the Sunday Morning Blather Shows. D Kos' Software won't let me link it. "Attributes" or something. Whatever. You can go to my page and scroll back to Aug 16 if you really want to. I doubt you would want to.
Was hoping that I was wrong, but said I (and many others) was trying to be "Paul Revere" about this turn of events.
1379 Comments. Here were some of the highlights:
Let's not get all aroused here. The Prez knows how to negotiate and get his way in the end. We saw this guy do the impossible and win a historic nomination. How quickly we forget.
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Obama is constantly on the stump for a Public Option, constantly explaining it. Do you think he's doing all that simply so he could say "oops, no public option?"
[The Diarist] is, just like the news source, failing to understand where this tree of a statement fits in the forest of Obama's statements on the matter.
Heh, heh. We can't let that one go: "Do you think he's doing all that simply so he could say 'oops, no public option?'"
Uh, well.
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Come October 15, Senators like Conrad and Baucus will have found themselves unable to get any other reaction, forcing the de facto admission that only a public option will achieve the required results.
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Hmmm ... we shall see ...
... but IF he does that, I will be profoundly disappointed.
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President Obama said he was FOR the public option.
Yea of little faith. :-)
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Chicken little diaries, based on poorly written AP articles, aren't that far removed from what the deathers do.
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The headlines everywhere say that the Public Option is toast. If that wasn't true, then Obama and the Dems would shoot down those stories. It seems that Obama has once again let me down, but I've gotten used to it. Those still clinging to "the Obama they voted for" are in for a rude awakening.
That said, I will wait for the "official" disappointment to come. This will be a defining moment for the progressive community here.
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Now I'll freely admit that I was dead wrong on one thing: I thought that President Obama was going to substitute the Craptacular Conrad Co-Ops for the Public Option, but, in the end, those aren't there either.
Thing is, I still want this shadow of health care reform to pass. I've grown cynical to the point that I suppose I believe 1/100th of a loaf is better than none.
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UPDATE: According to Stroszek's comment below (h/t, by the way) I'm wrong (just above) but was right back in August, that those Craptacular Co-Ops are in the (Senate?, Obama's?) Bill. Damn.
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