12/18: The Funeral March

December 18, 2009 9:32 AM | Permalink |

Liberal bloggers are donning their black clothing and mourning the death of the public option. Was this the public option's one great chance or can it come back in the future? If it didn't survive this year, with a Dem in the WH and Dem majorities in the House and the Senate, coming off the high of '08, then under what conditions could it survive?

What else is going on in the blogosphere?

Conservative bloggers (Erickson, Geraghty) wonder if FL Gov. Charlie Crist (R) will, for the good of the GOP, drop out of the SEN primary.
Liberals (Lewison) and conservatives (Geraghty) take a look at Pres. Obama's latest approval ratings. Lewison: "Even though Americans disapprove of President Obama's record on many domestic policy issues, they do not see the Republican Party as a viable alternative. At some point, that may change, because the GOP is also the only alternative, but for now, the country is not looking for President Obama to be more like Republicans -- they are looking for him (and the Democratic Congress) to deliver on the change they voted for in 2008."
Liberal bloggers (Dayen, Sirota) see a "huge problem" with Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-ND) allegiations that the WH politicized the FDA, a supposedly "insulated" agency, to kill his drug reimportation amendment.
Liberal bloggers (Yglesias,Lewison, Dayen) give Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) a virtual high five for telling Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) "STFU," while conservative bloggers (Malkin,Richardson, Allahpundit, Hengler, Foster) call Franken's behavior "outrageous."
Conservatives (Malkin, Kudlow) and liberals (Dayen, Sirota) alike can't understand why the Senate Banking Cmte passed Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's reconfirmation through to the floor.

HEALTH CARE: Grey Skies Are Gonna Clear Up, Put On A Happy Face

Liberal bloggers muse about the public option's cause of death and the future of health care:

Open Left's Chris Bowers, on all of the "post-mortems" being written for the public option: "Before this line of writing becomes too widespread, we all need to remember that the only reason we didn't win the public option campaign was because a few Senators lied to us. Unless someone can think of ways to have prevented them from lying, then these post-mortems will be useless."
MyDD's Jonathan Singer: "The most important point here, and the point Bill Clinton can say better than anyone else, is that if healthcare reform doesn't make it through now it may be years until it comes up again. This bill isn't perfect, but it may be the best chance at reforming the system that there will be for a long, long time."
Ezra Klein: "Would public insurance be better? It would. I'd be happier arguing for it right now. But that's not the choice before us. The people this bill will affect aren't facing divergent futures with public and private insurance. They're facing divergent futures with private insurance or no insurance."
TPM's Josh Marshall, on the centrality of the public option being "overstated": "Assuming the bill passes stripped of a Public Option and Medicare Buy-In, just what's left? My own sense is that the Public Option has been so heavily debated and politicized that most people just don't have a very clear idea what's in the rest of the bill."
Open Left's Adam Bink, in response to Pelosi's call for holiday messages to Obama: "Dear President Obama, Thanks for...no real support for the public option, hiring folks like Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina to push Congressional leaders to cave to Joe Lieberman and Blue Dogs, and caving on core Democratic initiatives of late, such as re-importation of cheaper prescription drugs."

Conservative bloggers focus on what's left in the bill:

The Corner's Rich Lowry, on liberal calls to get rid of the individual mandate without providing a public option or Medicare buy-in: "Now, finally, we can all agree on something — the individual mandate should be killed."

Power Line's Paul: "Now that the Medicare expansion has been stripped from the Democrats' health care legislation, we would do well to focus on the Medicaid expansion. ...Where will the money for the expansion come from? Not from the federal government. ...The drip-drip of the consequences of Obamacare will feel like torture to state governors and, quite possibly, to many of the politicians responsible for enacting it."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Sacrificial Lamb

Washington Post's Klein:

"My sense is that the Obama administration attempted a low-risk political strategy for itself. By eschewing any strong commitment to the public option, they made it easier to sacrifice something that they always figured they'd probably have to lose. It's telling that in all the coverage of the death of the public option, you haven't seen stories saying 'Obama administration dealt huge defeat in Senate.'

But in doing so, they betrayed a bond that the left thought it had with the young administration. And that's made this a much higher-risk strategy for the bill, and thus for the White House, too. If the Obama administration had been firmer on the public option and only let it go after grueling negotiations that ended with a concrete agreement on the bill, it's possible the administration would have had a better case to make to progressives. On the other hand, there are a lot of 'ifs' in this debate, and there are plenty of ways that could have backfired, too."

LEST WE FORGET: Refreshments From Overheard In The Office:

Peon #1: There's sperm on the President's head!
Peon #2: I'm really glad that I know you're talking about your Obama Chia Pet.

Employee #1: It's 5 O'clock somewhere!
Employee #2: It's 5 O'clock at my desk. What do you think this water in my bottle here is?