Which is good news, since today we also learned that the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs didn't have an opinion on the extreme anti-abortion provision that was added to the House health care reform bill at the least minute.
They didn't have a position.
Unbelievable.
Then later in the day, the President "clarified":
Saying the bill cannot changed the status quo, the President said "there are strong feelings on both sides" about an amendment passed on Saturday and added to the legislation, "and what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo."King Solomon strikes again. Whatever the issue, Obama won't defend the core Democratic constituency. He'll try to please the right just as much as the left. And regardless of how much he said he wanted to change politics in DC, he was elected as a Democrat, not a half-Republican. It's not a great surprise that women's groups are now opposing the House bill. (Sam Stein at Huff Post thinks Obama's language shows that he's opposed to the House amendment. I think Obama's language is typically vague, so that he's hoping everyone reads into it whatever they want, in an effort to keep everyone happy.)
After a contentious debate, the House passed a health care bill on Saturday that includes a provision banning abortion from being covered in the public insurance option contained in the bill. The bill also prevents women receiving insurance subsidies from purchasing private plans that cover abortion. Liberals in the House Democratic caucus were opposed to these provisions but voted for the overall bill.
In an exclusive television interview in the Map Rom of the White House, Obama told ABC News' Jake Tapper that he was confident that the final legislation will ensure that "neither side feels that it's being betrayed."
