That’s the reassurance we get in a Politico piece ironically titled

Obama tries to soothe liberals

For all the lip service they get,

lawmakers came away from a conference call with President Obama this afternoon believing that the public option for health care is still very much in play. But CNN is reporting that the White House is also preparing its own “contingency” bill as a backup plan if Congress veers too far left

So, our “progressive” president is there to make sure that…Congress doesn’t go “commie” on us?

You know, by drafting a bill that undercuts too many profits for insurers/pharma?

While Obama meets with Snowe, House liberals are being kept out of the loop, leading to this comical conclusion

“Hmm, this doesn’t bode well for liberal hopes on health care”

Well, duh….

Of course, the “Lord, save us from the left” plan is the Daschle inspired

The White House, in negotiations with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), is leaning much more heavily toward a “trigger” for the public option instead of mandating creation of the government insurance.

In other words, the government would only intervene ti slap the wrist of insurers when they go too far. Kinda like the Security Commission did with Enron, AIG and the like. A system proven to work!

Somewhere in Bobotland, they are still telling stories of how Obama was the more progressive candidate…I think the multidimensional chess theory is dropped now. it’s more “evil Rahm” these days.

On edit, h/t The Confluence, The Black Agenda report puts the responsibility where it stands

The only obstacle to passage of the president’s health care — or health insurance legislation is the White House itself.

It’s not Republicans, it’s not blocking blue dogs, or die-hard progressives who form the biggest political obstacle to enacting universal health care this year. It’s Democrats, following the lead of the chief Democrat in the White House. In less than a year, the Democrats have gone from the party of Change to the party of Excuses.


and

the Obama bill is a taxpayer-funded bailout for those same vampire insurance companies.

A characterisation so good, I’ll be using it again.

And the bailout to the vampires shall pass, because the new low expectation the White House is putting out is “passing something” It’s how they’ll compare themselves to Clinton

White House officials are warning fellow Democrats that the party lost Congress in 1994 not by trying to do too much on Clinton-style health care but by failing to get any reforms done at all – drawing a parallel to the dangers of inaction this year.

“The lesson of 1994 is not that tackling health reform is politically perilous. It’s that failing to act could be devastating,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House deputy communications director.

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