Well I don't think it is necessarily old news because the Obama administration continues to make statements supporting a public option, but always stating they are willing to compromise. Sebelius says here (with video link) that it just isn't the "essential element"
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/say-what-sebelius-touts-public-option
It seems Obama's position is that he will sign whatever Congress can come up with. Shit, if there were enough left leaning Dems pushing for single payer, he might even sign it. They really are just abdicating any real leadership on the details.
I suppose it doesn't matter if they throw out the public option, it probably would have sucked anyway and would have just wrongly smeared publicly funded health care. Maybe its better that its jettisoned now so we can come back to fight for single payer another day?
Bhaskar posted this link to an article by Joanne Landy on why the public option likely won't help the cause of single payer. So if you missed it, here it is again.
http://newpolitics.mayfirst.org/node/127
The whole charade it pretty pathetic and disppapointing.
Sheldon