Joseph at 538 'Comments'
After 8 years of Bush the stars finally align for the Democrats, yet after less than 8 months, Democrats start running around like chicken little screaming that the sky is falling. It's no wonder Republicans call Democrats weak. We prove them correct with our panic. We also create our own self-fulfilling prophecy of doom if we give up on the public option because we "don't have the votes". Why not instead get off our asses and work like hell to get those votes?
And while you're getting the votes, we need to be telling everyone with all the confidence in the world that the Democrats are going to pass a public option and make the Republicans look like a bunch of losers and naysayers who are more interested in protecting insurance company profits than fixing the real problems of the country. The one thing Democrats could learn from the Republicans is that people prefer confidence, even cockiness, to expertise or facts.
The fight isn't now in August; it will be in September. Have pro robust public-option partisans been organizing and getting ready for it? Nobody with any sense thought that this would be easy. It's still possible for the pro-reform forces to win on this, but it's going to require some spine. The question is whether pro-reform people can muster the forces for a fight. There is never a question about that regarding the forces of the right. This is gut-check time.
What does it say about us if we can't even get this very middle-of-the-road proposed reform done?
P.S. Maddow on Meet the Press regarding the consequences of backing away from the public option:
But ultimately, if the president decides that he's going to go with a reform effort that doesn't include a public option, what he will have done is spent a ton of political capital, riled up an incredibly angry right wing base who's been told that this is a plot to kill grandma, grandma, and he will have achieved something that doesn't change health care very much and that doesn't save us very much money and won't do very much for the American people. It's not a very good thing to spend a lot of political capital on.
If Obama just caves without a fight for the public option, he will join a long list of weak, feckless mediocrities whose only real value is that they are not Republicans. Better he fight and lose than just cave because he has more to lose by looking like just another Democrat pansy.