Blanche Lincoln should take a good look at this poll:
The political repercussions for Congressional Democrats of not passing a health care bill could be severe. Our newest national survey finds that Democrats lead 46-38 on the generic Congressional ballot. But asked how they would vote if no health care bill is passed respondents split 40-40 between saying they would vote Democratic or Republican in next year’s election.
In some sense the Democrats may be in a damned if you don’t or damned if you do position on health care. Asked how they would vote for Congress next year if a health care bill with a public option is passed respondents said they would go Democratic by a 46-41 margin, still more narrow than before any hypotheticals about health care outcomes were introduced into the questions.
And this includes the fact that Democrats largely haven't made a case for the public option. It's mostly defensive posturing ("you can keep what you have," etc...). If they would just sell the thing on its merits, 2010 wouldn't look as scary.