"Obama apparently doesn't think he campaigned on a pubic option, just because he mentioned it during his campaign and included it in his health care plan. Why would that be?
Well, a couple of days ago my eyebrows raised when I saw this CNN poll on health care. It indicates that Obama's popularity has risen since the public option was removed from the plan. More interesting is the fact that support for the Senate/White House plan rose too, even though the public option had been more popular than the Senate/White House bill by a wide margin. The Obama White House managed to successfully triangulate against the public option by saying it was too "liberal," and presenting their corporate-friendly plan that gives Aetna and PhRMA everything they want as "centrist" by comparison. Because that's the left/right puke funnel that the media must feed everything through. So even though taking out the public option goes against public opinion, because "liberals" will be upset, it must be a good "sensible" thing to do. Having Joe Lieberman act as front man was the perfect delivery mechanism for achieving that goal. Obama is triangulating against you today. They want all those diaries of outrage by "liberals," so that right wingers will look on and think "good for him like Joe Lieberman, he really knows how to stick it to liberals." It's the move of a deeply cynical politician who believes in nothing but shameless manipulation for political convenience. Meanwhile, the media will completely overlook the fact that this bill is nothing but a corporate giveaway written by sleazy greedy whores willing to hold the nation's sick hostage in order to pull off the biggest Shock Doctrine scam in world history. When I saw that CNN poll, I realized immediately that this media dynamic must change. Dramatically. Because if it doesn't, Obama and all his fellow corporatists will use it to easily deflect any challenge to their continuing grand ambitions for a Bailout Nation. So let's change it." http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/23/why-is-obama-ditching-the-public-option-and-you/ By: Jane Hamsher Wednesday December 23, 2009 5:46 am
