HOPE

I have no idea if there's anything to this or if it's just more cable chatter, but here's hoping it's real.

I will say it fits the pattern of his campaign... the rope-a-dope strategy of waiting until the press has gotten bored with the attacks and seems ready for a twist in the script, before launching a counter-offensive.

But the bigger point is that health care is likely to be the most important thing Obama will be judged on at the end of his term... Just passing whatever Republicans will sign on to might provide a short term boost, but ultimately it would be held against him. Sure it would likely help a lot more people get insurance and do some good, but ballooning costs could easily become a political albatross.

for the initiative to be a success it must be fiscally prudent, and that means bringing down costs, and outside of massive regulation of the health care industry (which would be incredibly inefficient anyway) a public option is the only sure way to do that.

If Obama rams this through it will certainly be controversial, at least at first. but I think this is one of those issues worth laying it on the line for. It's the right thing to do, and people are going to like it once they have it. and at the point they will be all the more impressed that Obama and the Dems had the guts to stake their reputations on it, even without any bipartisan 'cover.'


This is called having the courage of one's convictions.




NYT here