All you have to do is read this article.  Or search for the phrase "public option" in the weekly address of this past weekend.

Maybe we can join with the Republicans and chant "just words" and write long posts claiming Obama is selling us out. Then, tomorrow, when the administration says that they still strongly support a public option, we can all pat ourselves on the back and say "See, they listened! Keep the pressure up, guys!"

...does Cole take into account how many "tomorrows" have already gone by without such a statement from the Obama administration, and just how few "tomorrows" there are left for such a statement to have any impact at all?

I do not get the anger against people fighting for what they believe in.

It's a steadfast belief that you're mucking up the secret plan, which no one knows about, seems detached from the legislative process, and is accepted on faith despite evidence to the contrary (most all statements: anonymous, leaked, or otherwise, from the WH). It's almost a conspiracy theory at this point that Obama is pushing for a public option.

There's a kid in the rain after soccer practice. It starts thundering and lightning out. The kid says their parent is coming to get them, but it's been an hour since soccer practice ended. So you offer the kid a ride home or at least give the kid bus fare. You're messing up that kid's parent's plan. And some dude on the street thinks you ought to not do that, because when the parent finally shows up WON'T YOU FEEL STUPID!?!

Three responses are acceptable.

1. Do a 180 and decide that Obama's policy is the right one and you were wrong.

2. Blame it on someone else. Obama had no power to positively affect the outcome.

3. Accept that Obama is blameless. It is really you who failed. You did not work hard enough to make sure good policy was adopted.
   

Obama mouths some platitudes to appease the icky liberals, and reminds them that if they really, really, REALLY want something, they have to make him do it.  After nine months, someone needs to remind him that FDR did not say, "Uh...you can't make me."

Furious whipping ensues, wherein all the best progressives mount campaigns to put the pressure on.

Just at the point when noises start to be made about actually doing what the blogs and political action groups and independently-acting citizens have been clamoring for, anonymous sources smell trouble and begin leaking little tidbits that strike fear into the progressives' hearts: maybe Obama isn't so into the public option, maybe he hearts Olympia Snow so, so much that he might have to break up with the progressives.  Maybe Harry Reid won't even put the public option in the combined Senate bill.

Anger erupts in the blogosphere.  Meanwhile, e-mails are sent and snail-mail solicitations land in mail boxes, and phone calls are made that ask people to give money so Obama can fight the mean insurance companies to pass health care reform.

Is anything actually being accomplished here?  Or are we all just dancing as fast as we can to a tune being played by the Obama Philarmonic Orchestra?

I think The Administration now believe they made a terrible mistake getting into bed with Wall St. a year ago. A growing number of respected economists are saying we may have reached a point of no return; meaning it's too late now to avoid disaster straight ahead.  

Wall St, with it's insane, immoral grip of avarice has killed the golden goose (the middle class) that has served us so well this past 100 years. The shakeout, or day of reckoning, has just begun. We still don't know what the crap in their portfolios is worth, or where the end-line is regarding derivatives. A year after bailing their sorry a$$es out, they still have the incredible hubris to fight tooth and nail against any return to a sane regulatory/oversight role for Government.

They have a lot to hide.