If Progressives hadn't caused an outcry on the public option, it wouldn't even be considered /nt

even though it was never on the table.

but making the MSM quit acting like it's only a far left issue. It's a difficult balance to make.

It is nothing more than a re-direct to get your attention off the real bill.

K&R

now, for single payer universal health care for everyone.

handling of all of this. Seems things are going just as they should have been from the beginning. First everything is on the table, then as expected the Repubs become obstructionists and liars, then progressives wake up and realize that they must get busy and organized. Seems to me those of us that want a progressive bill were being entirely to laid back about it.

My worry is that progressives will walk away thinking, "We have a majority in Congress, and a Pres; but still we had to get off our butts to get this thing done," and will perhaps push most of the cause for anxiety or a failed bill in their laps. Instead I think that we should be walking away. . . okay not walking away, but making daily plans on how we are going to stay organized for other hot topics like the employee/union bill, prosecuting Bush admin, and more.

For example, everyone is talking online mostly about the need to prosecute Bush era atrocities, but why are we not making as much public noise about that as these moron birthers have about things like Obama's BC and healthcare for all? Those morons can make it seems as though they speak for a ton of Americans, we need to be showing we speak for a ton more.

Obama has said from the start, he couldn't get things done without our participation, he said it was only the beginning of hard work and hard fought campaigns, though these campaigns are for legislation as opposed to a person. I guess no one was listening, they seem to be listening now and are seemingly shocked that he meant what he said.

We compromised on single payer. Now the fear is that congress will piss away the compromise due to their lack of willingness to take a chance on what is right and risk their wallets. For me it's about congress and not the administration.

we haven't been as effective at getting the support for single payer into the news like the repubs have been. We need to get campaigning and keep campaigning, not just for single payer (which isn't off the table till the bill is signed, more about this below), but then equally for education reform, workplace reforms, and so on.

Secondly, single payer is only off the table if you let it be. The bills are not done yet, we still have time to be as aggressive as or more so than the birthers/teabaggers have been in demanding single payer, or as they seem to do it, denoouncing anything except single payer. You and people like you who have already accepted the loss of single payer are what's hurting single payer advancement. The entire August recess should have been full of reports about progressives getting their voices heard, instead it has been all about Obama's poll numbers and how the astroturfers are bringing his agenda down. So I guess, in a way, I'm agreeing with you afterall, "we" did compromise about single payer, but we still have time, if we can get things done that bring the same level of attention to ourselves and all the other supporters of single payer.

We should be at those townhalls asking rude and poignant questions like, "Now that you are fully informed that these screaming and hostile constituents have been organized, bussed in, and paid for by the insurance industry who has fed them nothing but inflammatory lies, why do you keep giving the credit as though they know what they are talking about?". We are just too damned nice and we try too hard to stay on topic.

Sorry, my words may just be inadequate to really describe what I'm trying to convey. We need to be as outrageous and aggressive in our support as they are, and we aren't. Please don't misread this as meaning we should be stupid or hostile as they are, just need to be more media savvy to cause events that REQUIRE MSM to report on us as well as, or better yet instead, of them.

I meant the "we" as in our representatives. I'm just so frustrated. It seems as if they can't or won't hear us and also that too many people are keeping quiet because they either can't be bothered or don't know where to start. I've written and called my congress people, I'm not sure what else to do.

Also want to add: It always ends up as "Obama is awesome" or "Obama sucks" on these ( and other) boards and the real issues, solutions, discussions get lost in the rabid flamebaiting of both extremes.

it had the best chance of passage long before "progressives" got hold of it.

In retrospect, what we didn't do was stop screaming for single payer when it was obviously doomed and get fully behind the public option.

Helping to clarify just what the public option is would have been a good idea, too.

We didn't cause it to be considered, we didn't cause it to be abandoned, but we sure didn't help it along.

and knows more about what's going on in Congress than any of us do. MIght have something to do with him actually being IN Congress.

Anyway, long before any leftwing blogs were spewing about it, he was saying it had the best chance of passage.

Now that everyone's picked up on it, it's chances aren't so good.

I can't explain it. Can you?

The only quibble I have with what you wrote is that I think it was considered - it was considered as a bargaining chip always meant to be given away. Without progressive outcry, even its crippled remains would be gone by now.