Obama Could Have Secured It The Washington Post's Greg Sargent scratches his head. "It's unclear why [White House Press Secretary Robert] Gibbs is deciding in advance that there isn't enough support to pass this idea. Momentum has been gathering for days. It's also very likely that it would continue to gain steam if Obama racks up a victory at the summit and Dems press forward with plans to pass reform themselves via reconciliation. But Gibbs's statement seems likely, willfully or not, to slow that momentum in advance."
Obama Only Pretended To Support It In The New York Times, Glenn Greenwald suspects the worst. "It now seems obvious that White House's claim of support for the public option was a pretense used to placate the progressive base," he writes. "But it seems clear that the filibuster is a convenient excuse Democrats use to justify their inaction (we'd like to pass it but can't because, sadly, we just don't have 60 votes). As the health care debacle demonstrates, even with that obstacle removed, the White House still refuse to push for progressive provisions."
