AMA May Be Forced to Withdraw It's ObamaCare Endorsement

In a surprising development -and a hideous shock for the White House- the American Medical Association's much-hyped endorsement of ObamaCare may have to be withdrawn due to a significant number of it's members now in open rebellion against it.

This deals a double-blow to Obama, as he was trumpeting the AMA's support proudly this week -even making a surprise appearance in the WH press room to announce the endorsement. He also found it highly useful in attempting to legitimize the AARP's dubious backing of the legislation and lend moral support... as they've inexplicably endorsed it against the wishes of most of their members, too.

This today at Politico:

The American Medical Association’s decision to endorse the House reform bill before its members had a chance to weigh in has dissenting factions threatening a “showdown” this weekend.

Opponents of the group’s endorsement are planning to introduce multiple resolutions to rescind or amend the AMA’s nod, according to an official whose doctor group opposes today’s endorsement.

“All is not happy in Denmark. There is a split within the ranks of the physician community,” the official said. “Clearly, the AMA does not represent the views of all physicians.”

In fact, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons announced their opposition to the House bill today. ...

Some AMA members are upset that the association plowed forward with an endorsement ahead of their meeting this weekend in Houston. Also grumbling about the AMA’s endorsement are state medical associations in Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, the official said.

Former AMA president Stormy Johnson is preparing a resolution to rescind the endorsement, sources said. And the surgeons are introducing a resolution that would call on the AMA to actively oppose any legislation that includes a public option or a temporary doc fix or that doesn’t include medical malpractice reform.

h/t Say Anything

Reid Can't Muster, Lieberman to Fillibuster

For those still harboring any doubt as to the Dear Leader's true intentions re. eventual nationalization of the American HC insurance industry, just take a look at the astounding intransigence coming from Obama/Reid/Pelosi in insisting on some form of "public option" in ObamaCare... regardless of political cost to themselves or fellow Democrats.

They appear simply unwilling or unable to let this unpopular provision go... even though Rasmussen shows that just 23% "strongly favor" the House version of the plan... with 40% "strongly opposed."

And while the Dems cannot politically afford to fail -and not pass a HC reform bill- they're burning every speck of capital they have by insisting on a public option.... making this self-defeating obstinance all the more bewildering. It's hard to believe they'd push it this far as a token gesture to their liberal base... they could have had a reasonable bill passed by now.

The only logical explanation then is that it's a product of these disingenuous statists' need to get a federal foot-in-the-door and grant difficult-to-rescind entitlements. Whether it then takes 5, 10, or 15 years to drive the existing insurance industry out of town, that's irrelevent- we're on the path to socialized medicine, and that's all they ever really cared about.

They like to tell you that it will somehow save us money, but of course that's just a used-car-salesman's line. The truth is that without a public option, there is no step towards a national health care system in the bill- and that's why it's a much higher priority to them than something that would actually save billions of dollars and make sense- like, say, tort reform.

Trouble is, America's lost her appetite for big-spending entitlement programs and sweepingChavez-esque nationalizations... and the expensive power-n-tax-grab that is ObamaCare is in big trouble on Capitol Hill...

Dingy Harry just doesn't have the votes from the now-spooked Blue Dog Dems- and now independent Joe Lieberman is threatening to fillibuster any HC reform bill that contains such a "public option":

"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said.

“To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt-

I don’t think we need it now."

Asked about Lieberman's principled stand, WH spokesman Robert Gibbs said " I think Democrats and Republicans alike will be held accountable by their constituents who want to see health care reform enacted this year." LOL, great- so how does that thinking fit-in with your cramming an unpopular -and entirely unnecessary- P.O. provision down the country's throat, then, Gibsy?

Left Coast Rebel weighs-in on the shrill reaction from the Left -here-

And Stop the ACLU also asks what the end-game could possibly be -here-

In a related story, Barney Frank was caught bloviating about the statist Left's true intentions -here-

►Real Clear Politics
►Atlanta Journal-Constitution
►h/t Drudge Report
►Politico

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Desperate Obama in Retreat on Public Option

Well, now you know why Obama sent-out feelers through Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last month, when she stated that a Federally-administered alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul. While Team Obama denied it at the time, as it had his liberal base seeing red, it now seems apparent that it was Plan B all-along... and he lied to them just like he does to the Right:

Today Yahoo! reports that:

As Obama prepares for a Wednesday night speech to Congress in a risky bid to salvage his top domestic priority, political adviser David Axelrod said a public plan is not the core issue in the health care debate. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs danced around a question about whether Obama would veto a bill without the public option.

The part that Axelrod is leaving out of course is that the Public Option -which was sure to bankrupt private insurance competitors over the long run- was long Obama's #1 HC "reform" priority... because without it, the HC industry won't be nationalized in the the sort of manner that he and other Statists have long been lusting for. He's only giving it up because his administrations' poll numbers are in death-spiral mode... of that, you can be sure.

But moving ObamaCare a little-bit to the right is far from certain to ensure it's passage. As Dick Morris observed in the New York Post:

This week’s polls are a disaster for President Obama. The Rasmussen poll has his approval dropping to 45 percent, after several weeks at 49 percent. The Zogby poll has it even lower — at 42 percent.

Worse yet, he’s losing his political base:

* People under 30 — long a key element of his support — give him no better than break-even ratings, with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving of the job he’s doing, according to Zogby.

* Only 75 percent of Democrats, who formerly have supported Obama strongly, now approve of his performance in office. Zogby reports that this represents a slide of more than 10 points over the summer.

* Even among blacks, only 74 percent approve of the job he’s doing (also a drop of more than 10 points).

Independents, the key swing group in our politics, now deliver a sharply negative 37-50 verdict on Obama’s job performance.

This poll-implosion leaves Obama with few good options.

He obviously can’t get 60 votes in the Senate for his health-care proposals in their current form. No Republican will support them, and moderate Democrats aren’t likely to vote with him.

If he tries to pass it with 50 votes, using so-called reconciliation procedures, he may also fail — because he’d also lose the votes of less-moderate Democrats who’d quail at using parliamentary tricks to pass such a radical, unpopular program.

If Obama waters down his proposals to attract moderate support, he’d lose votes on the left — perhaps more than he’d gain, at this point.

It now looks like health-care reform will cripple the Obama presidency, as it did Bill Clinton’s in 1993.

At best, Obama will be months if not years recovering from this disaster.

And Krauthammer is saying that Obama's political "magic" has been consumed in the roaring flames of the ObamaCare debate, as well-

After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He's regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform -- and his own standing -- with yet another prime-time speech.

But for the first time since election night in Grant Park, he will appear in the most unfamiliar of guises -- mere mortal, a treacherous transformation to which a man of Obama's supreme self-regard may never adapt.

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Team Obama Beats a Tactical Retreat on the Public Option

In a surprising development, Obama's crew signaled today that they are prepared to dump the most unsettling -and unpopular- element of the ObamaCare plan- a "public option" designed with the apparent purpose of nationalizing the US health insurance industry through deployment of a government-run health insurance plan that they simply couldn't compete with over the long-run.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul. The White House would be open to co-ops, she said, a sign that Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the showdown.

Obama's top spokesman refused to say a public option was a make-or-break choice for the administration.

"What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Sebelius spoke on CNN's "State of the Union" and ABC's "This Week." Gibbs appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation."

This abrupt move appears to be tactical political decision, as the the raging ObamaCare debate has indeed involved into something resembling Obama's Waterloo... and this national insurance plan simply didn't have the votes in the Senate... never did... and never will. It is likely the White House decided to give up this administration priority to avoid a politically damaging defeat.

One alternative under consideration is a system of co-ops for the uninsured, a measure some GOP legislators said they were open to taking a look at... but it would be overseen by the government. But all-in-all, this is still a deeply flawed piece of legislation that a majority of Americans would rather do without.

As reported by Bloomberg:

“President Obama and his cabinet have read the tea leaves,” said Senator Richard Shelby Shelby, an Alabama Republican, on Fox News Sunday. The American people “don’t want a government- run program,” Shelby said. Shelby also said that the creation of co-ops, while “that would be government involvement” would be “a step in the right direction.”

And it goes without saying that town hall patriots and other protesters against this ludicrous Obama power-grab scared their congressmen to death... some reported to be avoiding not just town-hall meetings... but their entire district as much as possible.

And thus... the Dear Leader got spooked by both the havoc he has created in this country- as well as the political consequences of a defeat on such a major element of his liberal agenda. After all, he's a survivor, and that outwieghs principle everytime in this WH.

Read the rest of the story here

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Update: Now Obama is backpedalling away from Sebelius' statements... and Michelle Malkin sees simply more political theatre- she never believed this in the first place. Obama's long been a proponent on single-payer system, regardless of what he's told you lately. This White House is looking confused, disorganized... and desperate.