You know what denial is? Deliberately ignoring reality in order to back up a kneejerk conclusion based upon unsourced anonymous quotes and uneducated hunches. That's denial, sir.
Fact: Healthcare reform depended upon the Finance Committee's participation due to Senate jurisdiction rules. The president didn't "choose" to align with Max Baucus. Without Baucus, there wouldn't be any sort of real healthcare reform -- at least reform that included Medicare, Medicaid and so forth.
Fact: As of the weekend, Harry Reid didn't have 60 votes for cloture on the opt-out public option.
Fact: Without Ben Nelson committing to cloture, an alternative path to 60 votes was Olympia Snowe. Like it or not.
Fact: Of all Democratic leaders, President Obama has been one of the most vocal supporters of the public option.
Fact: President Obama never once promised single-payer. Ever.
Show me hard evidence that any of these things are untrue, sir, and I'll correct the record.
At every step along the way, I've been writing about the public option and healthcare reform with an eye on what I'd like to see as a result, but also within the context of political reality. I didn't think it was productive to spend my limited blogging time ripping apart the White House strategy and, instead, chose to make a case for good policy, while also targeting lawmakers for bungling it.
There are frustrating aspects of congressional procedure and politics, one which is this notion that the legislative branch, you know, legislates. And in the course of the reform process, it made more sense to point out the flaws and fumbles in the legislative process rather than endlessly speculating about what may or may not be happening within the executive branch.
The Obama administration has surely made mistakes in this thing and there are a variety of blogs that endlessly cover that angle. Fine. Have at it. When it comes to healthcare reform, it's not my priority.