What has the President done, and more importantly, what is he currently doing, to get Harry Reid the last 2 or 3 (or 1) votes he needs to put the public option, sans trigger, in the Senate bill?
Traditionally, presidents call members of Congress, invite them to the White House, make them offers they can't refuse, etc. when the president supports specific proposals, and wants those proposals enacted into law. Especially when the proposals are his campaign promises in what is the most important piece of legislation of his presidency.
What presidents don't do is issue general statements of support, and then say "good luck with that." That's what you do when you don't really care whether the proposal survives or not.
The general statements of support which keep coming from the White House are non-responsive to the rumors. The rumors in fact are that the White House is issuing statements supporting the public option while undercutting at worst, and not helping at best, Senator Reid in his efforts to get the public option included in the bill with no trigger. Simply issuing another statement is exactly the concern expressed in the rumors.
There is no indication that the President has actually done anything to lobby individual members of Congress to support including the public option in the Senate bill. And that is the problem, and the question the White House needs to answer.
And finally, for those who say that the President is secretly lobbying for the public option, but we just don't know it, remember what the White House slipped to Marc Ambinder in August (the White House regularly goes to Ambinder when they need a reporter to get their message out):
Privately, White House aides have communicated to the House leadership that the onus on changing minds about the public plan is on Congress, not on the president.The White House doesn't think it's its job to help sell the president's own campaign promises. More on that in a later post.
