He's clearly full of it. Obama's not concerned about affordable health care for all. His first concern is pushing through legislation, any legislation, in order to bolster his (now sagging) Man Of Action image. His second biggest concern is protecting big money - in this case, insurance companies and big pharma. Take a look at that visitor list pried out of the White House's sweaty hands. See any tired, poor, hungry, and downtrodden there? Didn't think so. And since when did it become John Q Public's job to ID the suits in "photo sprays"? What disingenuous garbage. What we need is a carefully reasoned, carefully considered bill which works to the benefit of the largest number of Americans. Obama is playing around with people's lives here. But it's all reduced to a game for him, with himself targeted as the only winner.

A) What is the plan?

B) Name the little people reps on that WH visitors list.

I'll be waiting.

Another voice of reason. Do you have something other than ad hominems to contribute? Better check your insurance - I hear they can lead to tonsillitis.

Anything to keep from focusing on Obama's real deficits and mounting failures.

Look - over there! It's Hillary the racist! It's that slut Sarah Palin! It's the insane birthers! It's, it's, it's anything but an honest focus on what Obama's been up to. Or down to, as the case may be.

If I hear the word "progressive" one more time, I may become a birther myself. A liberal birther.

Claiming that doing nothing to reform healthcare is the worst option is like claiming that submitting to a hack surgeon is better than biding your time and finding someone with solid credentials. Sorry, Andrew, but the headline on this one is simply insane. Obama has made a complete mess of healthcare reform because he's allowed himself to become hogtied by powerful, moneyed interests. K Street reigns and millions will continue to suffer because we have a president who won't speak simple truths in simple language, putting passion behind the words and spending political capital where it's most needed.

At bottom, the single payer option - the only sane solution - has become the name that dare not be spoken, and now the much weaker "public option" is being quietly smothered with Obama'a acquiescence. Obama, the one individual who should have led the charge for single payer, is directly responsible for this abysmal failure to enact real healthcare reform. How much more do some of you have to know about him to realize he's not remotely in the liberal camp? Obama serves Obama alone, something some of us realized way back when (and were nearly skinned alive for speaking our minds). Already the chickens are coming home to roost and they're looking pretty damned peaked.

The coming nightmare consists of the 2012 election in which the choice will almost undoubtedly be between Obama and some completely unacceptable Republican. We desperately need a viable third party, but that ain't gonna happen because the big money will never ever go there. (Thanks so much, Obama, for destroying any chance of campaign finance reform.) Gee suz, what a future we're looking at. We are so screwed. We can forget any meaningful healthcare reform - for a very long time.

Why is it that this culture almost uniformly views smokers as pond scum, trailer trash, and disgusting degenerates, and punishes them by taxing their habit to death without qualm (know who's funding SCHIP? - poverty stricken parents of the targeted children, a group which contains a multitude of inveterate smokers). If you're lucky enough to have health insurance, try to get your provider to cover smoking cessation - ha! And where's the plan to glamorize nicotine addicts on teevee?

But fat? Fat is another story, often cited as a genetic condition, beyond the control of the seriously overweight. If this is so, why are photos in old issues of magazines from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, so devoid of seriously overweight Americans, both black and white? Sorry, but the human race doesn't evolve nearly fast enough to account for the massive number of obese Americans we see today. Most every day, I head for the local Starbucks located in a Target store in a shopping mall. I sit outside and drink my coffee and see a steady stream of seriously obese people, some of them so fat they have to ride scooters through the store. We're not talking pleasingly plump or just chubby, we're talking blimp size Americans who obviously refuse to put their forks down. They are supreme candidates for diabetes, joint problems, heart disease, and more. Worst of all, their kids are fat and headed for a lifetime of grief.

So when do we start taxing Debbie Donuts and Krispie Kremes and giant soft drinks the way we tax cigarettes? Why the dramatic difference between our approach to obesity and smoking?

I agree with your sentiments about Harry Reid, but why are you - and so many other commenters - leaving Obama out of the equation? Obama is far more culpable in the breakdown of real healthcare reform than is Reid. Time, way past time, to take the gloves off when it comes to the Oval Office.