Obama Abandoning the Public Option?

Senator Kent Conrad stated on Fox News Sunday that the public option is all but dead in the Senate. At the same time, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated that the public option was not "the essential element" of President Obama's health care plan. Obama even seemed to downplay the hotly contested issue during a town hall meeting in Colorado, suggesting it was only a sliver of the overall package.

Perhaps all this downplay is in anticipation of removing the public option from the table. Obama in essence says, "hey, its not the big a deal - we're still doing a lot of reform even without the public option." He claims that cost reduction and public choice are more important to him than anything.

But this argument isn't going to fly with liberals, who have been planning on the public option as a gateway to universal, government-run health care. Some have said that they won't support a bill that doesn't have the public option.

And so Obama attempts to appease them too with a statement from Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, who states that Obama still considers the public option as the best way to achieve cost reduction and consumer choice.

The question is whether Obama will allow public outcry over the specter of government run health care to change his direction. Without a public option, it will be much more likely to bring Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans on board. But abandoning it will mean turning his back on the liberal whom he has done nothing but placate during his tenure. Is Obama really able to do something that is really better for America even if it alienates liberals? If so, he might show that he has the political ability to let go of ideology and work to get something done. He might also save Democrats from significant losses in the midterm elections.

On the other hand, he might do what a lot of us expect him to do, keep pushing the public option, keep denigrating those who disagree with him, and risk losses in 2010 to get something that he totally believes in.

The next few weeks mark a very significant crossroads in Obama's presidency. The funny thing is that he placed himself here - he pushed the health care reform debate and has spent the past month defending his plan. If it sinks him and the Democratic party, he has only himself to blame.