Will it make any difference to Snowe and Collins?
Maine voters support the public option, something we already knew from Research 2000 polling done for Daily Kos last month:
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 10/26-28. Likely voters. (9/14-16 results)
Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans?
Favor Oppose Not Sure
All 61 (58) 28 (29) 11 (13)
Dem 85 (81) 12 (16) 3 (3)
Rep 19 (18) 61 (58) 20 (24)
Ind 71 (67) 18 (20) 11 (13)
Those are the kind of Dem numbers you expect to see on the issue, but the Independents in Maine continue to very strongly support the public option. And overall support is extremely strong. Will Olympia Snowe care? Not bloody likely.
Snowe is actually arguing against the opt-out plan for the public option because it would leave some citizens without health care competition. But she's not telling you that the Snowe trigger is designed to actually never trigger, so that would leave the insurance industry completely without competition. Given that she's unwilling to be exactly honest about why she opposes the opt out, it doesn't seem to likely that she's going to do an about face and actually start representing her constituents. And Collins is going to do whatever Snowe does, so it looks like the people of Maine are just going to be out of luck on this one.