THE PUBLIC OPTION, TOM SAWYER and FENCES

A funny thing happened on the way to health care. The public decided they want a public option. (LINK) Now an administration, at first more interested in bringing in the Republicans on reform legislation -- more to cover their arses than any real attempt at bipartisanship -- and a president who as recently as Sunday had his front men saying that the president wouldn't insist upon a public option (Has their evah been a president more interested in hedging his bets aka CAUTIOUS?) now finds himself in an unusual position: The public is leading health care reform legislation, not the president, who appears to be a man less a leader than a follower and certainly an appeaser.

So now what?

Apparently, upon reading the polls, the president telephoned Max Baucus and said, "Sen. Baucus, O my goodness! I know you worked like a Blue-dog to come up with a plan that didn't include a public option, but wow, check this out...the people want the public option. So, back to the table, and quick, before the public changes its mind.

OK, these words are my imagination, not the president's.

So, this morning with or without that conversation having taken place, Max Baucus is back "looking at" modified versions of a public option, more caution. (LINK)

What a convoluted mess this health care reform legislative process has been. I'm in an imagining mode today; I wonder just how strong a reform package we might have had and might still have if this president gets off the fence with his Tom Sawyer white washing ways and starts actually standing strong for something.

Has there has never been a president who so underestimates the intelligence of the American people?

I will leave you to your own answers.

Halli Casser-Jayne is the author of A YEAR IN MY PAJAMAS WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, The Politics of Strange Bedfellows. You can follow her thoughts @ http:www.thecjpoliticalreport.com

c. Halli Casser-Jayne 2009