Politico:
“The White House needs to step up here and needs to indicate what they want on the public option and whether it is important for them to get to 60 or not, and they need to implore both moderates and liberals in the caucus to get agreement on this, or they could see this bill fall on the Senate floor,” said a Senate Democratic aide.
“The White House has got to be more forthright and more forceful with members,” the person added.
Still, Brown and other public-option supporters say that the president’s strategy has turned out to be effective thus far, even if by accident.
“It’s worked so far,” said Brown. “I knew we would have a public option, even back in August when we thought it was dead and buried.”
It's worked so far. Hmm. Let me give you an analogy:
Your child has cancer. The doctor tells you that your child's condition is deadly if untreated, but the good news is that he has a 90% chance of survival if he gets radiation and chemotherapy now. You decide to forgo the treatment, and instead you sit at home and pray. The doctor takes you to court, and the court forces your child to get the chemo and radiation. In the end, the treatment works, your child's cancer goes in to remission.
When your friends criticize you for not supporting the doctor, for refusing to treat your child's cancer, you respond: Hey, my child is in remission, so obviously my "crazy" course of action has worked so far.
Moral of the story. You don't get credit for sitting on your butt, or worse, choosing a really bad option, and forcing someone else to come to the rescue and do your job for you. At some point, the Superman Option will fail.
