All the junkies on this post suffer from the same delusional thinking. There is no correlation between what is said on the campaign trail and what happens once in power. Having said that Obama has aggravated everybody to a new level because his appeasement of the right is either a calculated move or a reflection of his non-confrontational nature. Either way, everybody's head is spinning and the WH has lost control of the process. That is the most aggravating part of this because there is a lack of leadership at a time when it is most needed and the result is a vaccuum of real information. In this void, we have misinformation and disinformation. The galling part of this is that all the decisionmakers in the WH were around in 1994 when the same thing happened.

Obama is really exposed on healthcare reform. He is saying one thing and believing and hoping something else will happen. I think Lind is right on point with his analysis. Obama really wants a single payer system and hopes to drive private insurers out of the market using the rules of the marketplace as his cover, despite what he says in public. He is hoping that private companies will immediately dump their private group plans and tell employees to fend for themselves. "Oh, by the way, here is a $3,000 voucher to help with the costs". Where do you think millions of people will go first? Right to the public option insurer, which is exactly what the Left wants.

But how should Lanny Davis earn his 7 figure income so he can be a "player" in Beltway politics if he isn't representing somebody? Are you suggesting the government pay a fixed salary to all the lobbyists, journalists and other "players" to keep a level playing field. I am confused as to the practical alternatives. As usual, you are great at "whining" about things but pretty light on what can and should be done about it.

Obama needs to cut back on the public appearances, town halls and press conferences and get down to the business of being president. I would never have launched a project this ambitious and complex unless I had a clear idea of where I was going and where things could go wrong. If, for example, this thing passes and it causes long lines to form in doctors offices or at the pharmacy, Obama is forever "toast". That would be the equivalent of a "Katrina" on a never-ending basis. If, for example, private companies dump their employees from group plans and say "get your own insurance from the gov't or wherever you like and here's a $3,000 voucher to pay for it" what happens then? I have no f****** idea what happens then. Does Obama know?

I can't believe Obama fell into the same trap as Hillary did in 1993 using the same failed strategy. Heads should be rolling in the Obama White House. All he had to do is incrementally improve healthcare in ways that people can easily understand and identify with and he would be president for life. He should have done the following:

1. He should have improved ACCESS to medical care by reforming rules regarding pre-existing conditions that permanently exclude millions of people who would otherwise pay into the system. Any system, that is. In the long-run everybody will have pre-existing conditions, so in the long-run nobody is truly insurable under private underwriting standards.

2. In my mind there are 4 classes of people, aside from Medicare: (1) group policies where everybody pays and nobody asks questions about pre-existing conditions (2) people with pre-existing conditions who would gladly pay but nobody wants their money (3) poor people who are unable to pay and have no insurance and (4) young people who think medical insurance is boring and take unnecessary chances.

3. All Obama had to do this year was to get (or require) young people to pay into the system so the older people with pre-existing conditions could afford insurance. This would have the immediate effect of getting more cash into the system to achieve broader results.

The "public option" legitimately scares people because the presence of a public option will undermine the willingness of private companies to even offer group medical insurance to their employees which means people with pre-existing conditions can sleep at night. Private commpanies will simply discontinue their group plans and tell employees to get their own policies from the govt. or the private sector. People with pre-existing conditions will only be able to get their policies from the govt and nobody knows what that really means. Therefore, there is panic in the streets because and the source is Obama not understanding what he is doing.

Obama did not lauch his healthcare plan effectively and all the wierdos jumped into the vaccuum created by Obama himself. I thought he was better than this? I guess not. He needs to be careful or he could be a one-termer.