I’m tired of the rollercoaster none of us should be on. The daily reports and counter reports are infuriating and cruel. Obama publically says he wants a PO, but it does appear in private he is finally pushing Senators- for the trigger. Who would have thought that Reid would take the gamble for the PO? Not me. Aides to Reid say its risky but they gotta try. The problem: if we are 2 votes away from the public option and Obama is encouraging a trigger then the PO may die pretty quick without his help asap.

Progressive goals are rarely achieved because they require fights against the establishment. Think about every progressive thing we have done as a nation. Women’s right to vote. Civil rights. To continue the fight, this time to begin at least to give an option for govt healthcare, I’m calling every Dem in Congress for the ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION. And today I gave to PCCC to help run an ad telling the President that his base merely wants him to honor promises made on reform. I hope ya’ll keep fighting no matter what the establishment says.

Link to PCCC donation page to help run ad asking Obama to honor his promises:

http://yeswestillcan.org/p-e1

Sen Harkin confirms Obama is not pushing a robust public option like he should. He is pressing for the trigger idea. Harkin is not a happy camper like most of us…

After Obama met with Pelosi, Reid and other Democratic leaders Thursday, the White House repeated its message that Obama supports the public option but will not rule out the trigger or any other compromise.

That is not good enough, Harkin said. “I’ve not been very happy with the White House’s lukewarm support of the public option,” he said, articulating a gripe liberals have been making for months.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/64581-liberals-confident-that-public-healthcare-option-will-come-through?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=#

Excerpts from HuffPo report on WH, PO, Triggers, Snowe and angry progressives:

President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan “triggered” into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.
The administration retreat runs counter to the letter and the spirit of Obama’s presidential campaign. The man who ran on the “Audacity of Hope” has now taken a more conservative stand than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leaving progressives with a mix of confusion and outrage. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have battled conservatives in their own party in an effort to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Now tantalizingly close, they are calling for Obama to step up. …

“The leadership understands that this is a somewhat risky strategy, but we may be within striking distance. A signal from the president could be enough to put us over the top,” said one Senate Democratic leadership aide. Such pleading is exceedingly rare on Capitol Hill and comes only after Senate leaders exhausted every effort to encourage Obama to engage.
“Everybody knows we’re close enough that these guys could be rolled. They just don’t want to do it because it makes the politics harder,” said a senior Democratic source, saying that Obama is worried about the political fate of Blue Dogs and conservative Senate Democrats if the bill isn’t seen as bipartisan. “These last couple folks, they could get them if Obama leaned on them.”

“He’s been so convinced by his political people from the beginning that we can’t get a bill with a public option, he’s internalized it. Even though it’s now become obvious we can get a bill without selling out the public option, he’s still on that path,” said a top Democratic source. The White House, he said, continues to assure progressives it’ll improve the bill in conference negotiations between the Senate and House, but advocates are unconvinced.
“If we’re this close in the Senate and they’re not helping us, I have a feeling they could screw us in the conference,” said one….

Indeed, the president’s retreat on the public option leaves Reid as the champion of progressive reform — an irony that is not lost on progressives who have long derided the Majority Leader as too cautious….“Who knew that when it came down to crunch time, Harry Reid would be the one who stepped up to the plate and Barack Obama would shy away from the fight,” emailed one progressive strategist.

The intellectual father of the public option, Yale Professor Jacob Hacker, told HuffPost that the trigger proposal is a betrayal.
“The trigger is an inside-the-beltway sleight of hand that would protect private insurers from the real competition that a strong public health insurance option would create,” he said in an e-mail. “It is unworkable in the current Senate bills, unwise as public policy, and unwanted by the substantial majority of Americans who say they want a straight-up public option.”

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/24/leaderless-senate-pushes_n_332844.html