The Public Option Is Back? This Is News?

Well the idea on the left was to spread the word that it was dead so that people would mobilize. Also on the right they hoped we'd just give up and take whatever they offered instead...which of course meant business as usual..

I actually thought ti was never dead. The reports that came out a couple weeks ago that it was gone came from one chamber of congress (I don't recall which one) and legislators were still talking about it. I actually didn't bother reading anything on it at the time and just sort of yawned, knowing it wasn't over yet.

Thank you, Kathy. Once again, you're more grown-up about these things, unlike others recently.

This is not big news. I've also said that the public option was not dead. (Nor has the House adjourned and left for the year!)

Reid is on a fishing expedition. To me it's not so much sounding out fellows in the Senate -- the Dems don't do "open covenants, openly arrived at" [chuckle] -- that's for their idealistic farther-left fans and for their words, not their deeds. They know fully well from private, discreet (i.e., secret) discussions how they feel about the public option. The public overall only feels slightly more than halfway in favor of it, though, and rushing to do too much is threatening their future, so the muttering about it now is probably sounding out the public ("floating a trial balloon") and learning if it's okay for the Senators to proceed with it (more than give anyone in the House political cover). It could also be a signal to the House go proceed with pushing it harder in the House first, pass legislation there definitely, to give the Senate Dems more of a boost prior to conference (negotiations), but that is more speculative and begins to run itself into excessive-clucking territory at this time.

"Well the idea on the left was to spread the word that it was dead so that people would mobilize."

??? Word choice? Nobody I heard on far-left radio and in text ever said it was dead, just resented that it was threatened or didn't have enough support (notably, by Obama, whom "progressives" were starting to criticize about this), and in the past few days the talk has been about reviving or boosting the support for and insistence on the public option, as well as (noteworthy), pounding on "coward" or "sellout" (with the emphasis on "coward") Harry Reid to start pushing the Senate Dems for legislation, and support the public option.