Reply #41: I honestly get what you are saying, Uncle Joe.

[LiberalAndProud]

I also believe that the only reason Ben Nelson is willing to vote for cloture is because tremendous pressure was brought to bear and huge concessions made.

Ben's position has been clear from the beginning:
No federal abortion funds
No public option (he did favor a "weak" trigger at one time)

Now let's add Lieberman to the mix. Lucky for Ben, Lieberman was willing to take the hit on the Medicare buy-in.

Obama met with Ben early on in this process. It was very clear what was do-able and what wasn't from the beginning. It is no accident Ben's concerns have been fully addressed in the current legislation. And to even get him to vote for this cost some concessions to Nebraska regarding "unfunded mandates".

We can argue that Obama should have advocated for a government program from the beginning, although I think such an effort would have ended in another fruitless political brawl in our current climate. Even so, he never advocated for such a thing. He always said that health care reform would be centered around current insurance structures.

It is your contention that Obama didn't try hard enough. It is my contention that he didn't have enough allies.