Betrayal

Now comes the starkest case yet of how President Obama's pathetic obsession with bipartisanship is the chief obstacle to achieving real change in Washington.

Senate Democratic leaders think they have the necessary votes to pass health-care reform with a public option if it includes an "opt-out" for states (this means that red states could reject the public option and remain a captive market for the insurance companies, as the price for the rest of us getting the public option as an alternative).

Obama is actively opposing their efforts in favor of the insurance companies' own preferred plan, a fake "reform" with no public option, just the so-called "trigger" (a promise that something real may get done years from now if the insurance companies don't clean up their act).

It would mean kicking the can down the road, the waste of the best chance we've ever had to truly reform the system. But the lone Republican whose support might be won over, Olympia Snowe, is against the public option. So real reform would have to pass with only Democratic votes -- and that wouldn't be bipartisan.

It's true that some Democrats are reluctant to vote for a public option, especially if not a single Republican is on board. But that's precisely the kind of situation where bold support and advocacy from a popular President could make the difference.

Well, the only bold support and leadership we're seeing right now is from Reid and Pelosi. If real reform gets passed, the credit will belong to them. Obama is AWOL or worse in the final battle for his own signature issue.

We could have had a President committed to real change. We could have had Hillary.

Update: Reid's bill is done: see here for more.