Le sigh.

I miss the single-minded messaging of the Bush White House.

(Flashback ripple)

Fleischer: "Must kill! Must maim! Must destroy!"
Cheney: "Kill! Maim! Destroy!"
Bush: "Tell you what, let's call on, uh, Stretch over there. Stretch! Go. Howzat now? Look, it's real simple. We are going to kill and maim, and then we are going to, well, maybe before we will do some destroying, but we are definitely doing those three things. Killing and destroying, and the maiming. There's no question in my mind it's the right strat- the right path."

(End flashback ripple)

Um.

Okay.

Maybe I don't.

Le Sigh indeed.

Man, i don't get that at all. If Obama knows (like everyone else) that the GOP won't support any reform - then why do the keep talking with these three clowns? Especially with Grassley making a fool of the president.

We'll see who the fool is when the public option gets included. My money's Grassley as the fool.

He's not seeking bipartisanship any more. Now he can say he's tried it, and Republicans weren't willing to deal.

Obama & Dems:

LEAD.

Don't try to follow someone who is lost or has no desire to find the right path.

LEAD.

You've seen what the repubs bring to the table: NAZIs and DEATH PANELS. I/O/W -- NOTHING.

The GOP don't seek bipartisanship so why should the dems? The Bush years were all about ramming what they wanted down other's throats. No dissent, no discussion.

Can't make this stuff up:

The United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span.

GOP/Blue Dogs are being asses why? To preserve THAT? Ho boy...

What is going on makes perfectly good sense. Progressives in favor of a public option may not fully love it, but Obama is playing political chicken with the Republicans.

Either come up with a bipartisan solution in the Senate that has a co-op that Republicans will publicly voice support for and will find the votes in the house and the senate to pass or face a purely Democratic bill that includes a full public option and goes through reconcilliation.

Are the Republicans willing to commit public policy malpractice to follow a political strategy that may blow up on them anyway? Based on the statements by Grassley, Kyl et. al. it looks like they are a batch of lemmings ready to go over the cliff.

September 15th is the date to watch.

Could we just figure out how much the insurance industry makes in profit each year and use that figure as a starting point as to how much we could save by going to single-payer. If the saving don't look huge enough the figure we could use would be Ins. Industry profit plus the millions they spend on lobbying, advertising and political contributions(not to mention executive compensation) that the single payer system would eliminate.

I know, I know, objective evidence and reasoned facts have no place in politcal debate when repubs are involved.

Its about darn time they wised up. Gibbs your about 3 months behind everyone else in the country.

Stop messing around create the best bill you can with a strong public option send it to the house, ram it through the senate, and call the blue dogs bluff.

7 blue dogs wouldn't dare filibuster a bill supported by a democratic president and the entire democrat party.

Worse if its a good health care bill?

It would be political suicide.

And say they do kill it, they will have to explain how they killed the best health reform bill since medicare.

The progressives and Obama hold all the Aces in this game time to play them