Quoting Doug:
"You gotta wonder if Obama has so poisoned the idea of any public intervention with this abomination that nothing good will come of this. Nice win for the Reps and inscos."
That's probably EXACTLY the point of all this..I really don't think that deep down, Obama really wanted the kind of health care reform that most progressives and Leftists (and much of the lay public) supports; his speeches in the campaign musing about "single payer" were simply catch phrases needed to outflank Hillary Clinton politically and throw some raw meat at the progressives to vote him in.
I am now convinced that Obama is a Reagan/Freidman Democrat deep down who only masquerades as a "liberal" because bashing Bush (correctly) for his gross incompetence was the easiest means to get elected in 2008. But in almost every political policy instinct, he has operated well to the right of even Bill Clinton (save for some social issues like abortion and GLBT rights...and even there he's been nothing short of timid at that, too).
It's almost as if his basic instincts is not to redevelop the Democrats as a progressive alternative, but to move the party even more rightward towards Blue Dog/DLC/Harold Ford territory, while using the nuttiness of the Teabagger/Birther/Palinized "right-wing populist" GOP as a foil to keep liberals in check and under his (and the corporate Clintonite) thumb.
In any rate, this will ultimately turn out to be an unmitigated disaster for the Dems and Obama...not to mention the final nail in the straw for lefties and progressives who were under the false impression that he would govern differently. Not to mention. setting true health care back for another 30 or so years, unless a genuine independent Left grassroots movement starts cranking up soon...like, today.
Anthony