It's another step...I won't say I've breathed a sigh of relief yet, but I am breathing. That's a good thing, huh, Missy?

And worth mentioning, also, is this: We have gained significant ground. Consolidate those gains and go forward. That's how progress is done, not by demanding "all or nothing" - which far more often ends up with us getting nothing.

Do we learn nothing from experience?

Impatience and real progress do not coexist well.

Well I gotta render unto Missy the Dayly TITLE of the Day Award for this here TPMCafe Site, given to all of her from all of me.

hahahahhaaa

You and Stilli can sure surprise me sometimes. ahahahaha

Harry didn't grow them, he just borrowed them from Nancy.

My mantra:
We will get significant HCR.
We will get a decent public option.
Lobbyists will burn in hell.

Say it with me now....

:o)

The all or nothing approach is tempting when you believe you have the right answers.

The problem is that answers have been peeled away from context in today's diet of media treacle. There are always two sides, so even the smartest answers fail to achieve momentum thanks to the friction of mock dialectic.

So Obama's approach appears to work on the legislative level. He gave a set of benchmarks to Congress and demanded the best way to achieve them. Given the constraints of a recession, two wars, and a waning empire, we are getting a comparitively good shake.

The secret is this; the public wants reform. One side offered approaches to reform, and the other side huffed and puffed. Deep down, most of the public believes we would have gotten an even better deal if both sides would have put their best foot forward. Now it appears that the Dems give a shit, and the Reps don't.

All it took was a lot of pressure from the masses.

(BTW, doesn't it look like the anon-sourced stories about the White House appear a bit inflated now?)

I don't think people are giving enough credit to the insurance industry, whose clumsy attempt to derail healthcare reform on the eve of the Finance Committee vote so alienated the public that the forces of reform gained new momentum. Obama seized the moment to use the industry as a foil to promote the reform agenda. He did that publicly, while wisely exercising restraint in his specific remarks on the public option. He made clear he favored it without issuing any public demands that might have hardened the positions of some senators jealous of their own prerogatives. It appears that a great deal of backstage negotiation is beginning to bear fruit. Let's hope so.

I am happy at least that the public option 'is' in the senate bill and I am grateful for that.

Okay that was my pause Missy.

Because I read hear about the need for patience and not taking an all or nothing approach or wasn't the info about the president exaggerated and I have to take umbrage with these views.

The public pressure has been important in this fight. Demanding our money's worth in return for accepting a new 'Mandate' from our government is absolutely necessary. If we don't push hard we will get nothing... That's what I've learned from this experience so far.

I feel that part of the reason things shifted is that Congress 'DOES' have to get the American people to 'buy in' to this new reform.

So, if it's all the same to all of you... I woke up this morning and wrote to Harry and my senators about how weak this senate version of a public option is as it will only cover 10 million Americans 'if' their states don't 'opt-out'.

This group of Americans may create a semi high-rish pool and will likely provide very little competition or bring down costs.

Yes, today brought a small victory, a sign of hope but now I am back to the battle hoping to gain more ground.