Reply #22: I disagree. That would have been a disaster.

[HamdenRice]

First, it would have scared people who have private insurance and want to keep it. You would have lost that part of the electorate.

Second, using bargaining chips often backfires. The idea of starting with single payer and then backing off to public option would have allowed the right wing media to characterize the abandonment of single payer as a defeat, and the entire reform effort would have gone the way of Clinton's.

I fail to see how an initial defeat would have led to victory.