GG, what follows is a letter I wrote today, to be posted on as many progressive blogs as possible. I wanted to note, at the outset, that I watched Chris Matthews' ugly show yesterday, where he led with the Politico's "Republican Resurgence" story. Shame on Chris Matthews! Here's the letter:

A Letter to the “Crazy Leftist Blogger’s World”

I don’t know what we do at this point. Let me give you my historical take on the election of Barack Obama and where he has taken us, so far:

Barack Obama, whether or not he is progressive, used progressive language and ideas to get elected. Make no mistake, his call for “REAL” change, including talking to our enemies, fundamental health care reform, tax reform (repealing the Bush tax cuts on those making more than $250,000 a year), campaign finance reform, and transparency in governance was a call to progressive ideals of governance.

He continued to call for progressive change after he was elected, and presented Congress with progressive-leaning bills for stimulus and fundamental health care reform. Unfortunately, at the same time, he also backtracked on his campaign promises for transparency, and began using the same arguments as the Bush Administration in the court cases filed by the ACLU and other organizations designed to produce transparency.

Obama made a crucial mistake when he introduced health care reform: he should have initiated campaign finance reform, FIRST! Look at all the millions upon millions of dollars being thrown at “DLC” and other conservative Democrats by the health insurance industry! If they had voted to institute public financing of all federal campaigns, FIRST, then the Blue Dogs and others wouldn’t have to worry about funding their campaigns with dirty dollars from the health insurance industry.

His second, major mistake was not adopting single-payer as his preferred approach for solving the health care crisis. Single Payer, or “Medicare for All,” is a far simpler scheme to “sell” to the American public. Moreover, only Single Payer has a real chance of permanently reducing the long-term increase in health care costs. Instead, his current plan is vague, non-specific and unintelligible to the average American. Yes, he would have incurred the anger of the insurance industry, but, what difference would it have made? Despite his moderate approach of offering the insurance industry a seat at the table, and the opportunity to continue to be a player in the health care delivery system, they are nonetheless successfully reducing the current bill, courtesy of the “Blue Dog” Democrats, to a watered-down, useless series of “coops” and other gimmicks that won’t affect the insurance industry’s bottom line.

So, what do we do now? We certainly don’t allow a bill without a strong Public Option to become law. I will fight actively against ANY compromise that doesn’t include a full, robust Public Option as a central part of the bill. I hope that all of you agree, and will actively campaign AGAINST any health care reform that doesn’t include a full and robust Public Option.

Ultimately, we need a single payer system, like most of the rest of the industrialized world, in order to remain competitive in the world markets. A full, robust Public Option will eventually get us there, although it may take a number of years.

Why is it that polls show Obama’s health care plan “losing support?” No polling company has asked the question, “If Obama’s plan was simply “Medicare for All,” would you support it? I strongly suspect that such a poll would elicit a heavily favorable response, given Medicare’s 40+ year success.

Finally, we are in serious danger of completely losing our democracy. Why does the MSM continue to focus on Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the other far-right-wing crazies who dominate the news cycle, and have been dominating the news cycle since January 20th? I know that most people, to the extent that they even continue to watch a news program or two, get their news less and less from the MSM. Nevertheless, the MSM has an outsized influence on polling data (see above) and people’s perceptions of how Obama is doing. The Republican Party has moved so far to the right, ala Limbaugh and others, that if it were to regain power, we would literally have a fascist state at our doorstep. Yet, there was some talking head, yesterday, on Chris Matthews’s show on MSNBC, talking about a 40 seat upswing for the Republicans next year!!!

As progressives, we can no longer sit silently by and watch the continued domination of the airwaves and media by the crazies. We must stand up, be vocal, and take back our country!!!

GG, your post today was one of your best, ever!!!! I am going to copy it, verbatim, and put it in an e-mail to Obama.