Why Wasn't This Pointed Out Earlier? Oh Yeah.

The plot is thickening in the health care debate after a weekend where Obama administration officials, including Obama himself, gave vague signals that the public option was not the most important component in health-care reform. Today the White House is scrambling to make clear, "Hey, hey, hey, ho there folks. We haven't given up on it yet." I don't necessarily believe them, but that's the spin.

What is encouraging are signs that the administration is now vocalizing what has been apparent for quite some time now: Republicans have near zero interest in any meaningful change in health care. Hacks like Chuck Grassley were given (misguided) opportunities to help achieve the ever-allusive, yet always-heralded bipartisan legislation. Whether this lip service from the White House means anything is anyone's guess. Emptywheel's theory is that the White House is trying to cover its tracks without inflaming tensions with moderates or liberals. But does any of this even matter since possibly the only Democrats left that trust Republicans are the two that are leading the legislative action in the Senate Finance Committee: Max Baucus (Captain Ineffective) and Co-op Kent Conrad.

The mainstream media share the blame in sabotaging any honest, rational discourse (as usual). The Economist:

By pitting Barack Obama and his moderate allies in Congress against the more vocal fringes of the Republican Party, the media has moved the centre of the debate over reform far to the right. Add to this dynamic the idea that bipartisanship equals moderation and you may wonder, how can a health-care proposal be moderate if it attracts no Republican support?

But the truth is that Mr Obama has all but ceded control of reform to the likes of Max Baucus and other moderate senators. And if the media focused on that, we'd see that the debate over health care is occurring in the middle of the political spectrum, with the main focus on the "gang of six". As for bipartisanship, on this issue (and perhaps many others) it seems like a faulty measurement of moderation—how can it be accurate if the Republican's chief negotiator, the relatively moderate Chuck Grassley, says he might vote against a bill that gives him everything he wants? (Emphasis mine)

At least the words "public option" are back in the cable news lexicon. But let's not ever forget the creedence the mainstream media awarded the "death panel" meme driven by no other than everyone's favorite McCarthyite and her Facebook page. If there is a God, I hope he or she will grace us with a Palin-Romney GOP ticket in 2012 ... devolution meets top-notch hucksterism. Please let it be so.