Fortunately, for those of us who support reform our "leaders" do not have the courage it takes to side with the 20% minority who oppose real change. I would hope Democrats in the Senate would support Health Care Reform because our current system is unfair and unsustainable, however if their support comes from the fear of losing their next primary, well then, OK

we will have healthcare -- national, with a "public option" -- or we will have revolution... agst the mullahs of this country.

they better smarten up or head for the hills with that south carolina guv. stanford idiot...

is set to launch a massive new online data bank of thousands of health care stories

The senators who give a shit about these people's stories are already in the tank for reform. The DINO's need a shit load of very angry mail and phone calls, demanding reform and criticizing them for being on a public system that they are hypocritically denying us.

the White House's political operation is set to launch a massive new online data bank of thousands of health care stories, which will be spread around the country via Obama's extensive email list

Riffing on what oh well just said, those stories better the hell be tales of people who were denied care by, to paraphrase Newt Gingrich, an insurance agent bureacrat telling the public what type of coverage it can and cannot receive.

The plural of anecdote isn't data, but the push for public reform -- and why I believe Frank Luntz' FUD buzzwords won't work as well as they did in the '90s -- stems from the fact that the American people know their health care system sucks, in a way that Senators -- who do enjoy government-run health care -- and highly-paid members of the so-called "liberal media" just don't get.

Let they who live by the anecdotal evidence die by the anecdotal evidence. The bottom line is that when they killed health care reform in the '90s, the market was given an opportunity to develop a decent system instead, and they failed. Why let the foxes be in charge of the henhouse for another decade?

Poll results may be telling, as to why health care reform is having trouble:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues/trust_on_issues.
Republicans gained on lots of issues. Democrats are still ahead on health care reform, but I think the overall trend drags us down. One reason the public is souring, is dishonest commentary from hacks like WSJ editorialists and Krauthammer. He e.g. picks on Obama for not supporting the Iranian demonstrators, not even mentioning that too much support from Obama would hurt their cause by allowing propaganda against American influence.

Part of the blitz should include methods citizens can use to contact their senators and representatives.

Again, it's hard to know how many people support a general concept like "health care reform" anyway, when variations in versions and expectations swing results by many points. If at least "around half" the population wants reform, it's certainly worth looking into for that reason alone.

Not only Democrats but Obama in particular is having poll trouble, now even in positives and negatives (grain of salt about Rasmussen?):
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Not only Democrats but Obama in particular is having poll trouble

Take this with a grain of salt. LGBT issues, torture/FISA issues and discouraging health care debate issues are surely a factor. But that doesn't mean people want less progressive agenda.

Obama needs to understand there will be no economic recovery if people are saving for their big illness, or watching their money disappear into the black hole of the health care industry.

The 'recession' didn't happen because a few companies diddled the books. It's the inevitable result of 30 years of impoverishment for the American people. Cheap foreign labor didn't just happen- we put dictators in place and supplied them with weapons and training to kill union leaders and union members. Domestically, regions have competed for remaining manufacturers by creating tax-free incentives and building domed stadiums to 'stimulate' development.

The American middle and lower classes have been left to bear the full burden of the least efficient monopolies and cartels the world has ever seen. The monopolies and cartels are now finding they have a big bag of stones from which no more blood can be drawn.

As long as Americans are spending every available dollar on their health care, there will be no recovery.

Danp, you have a point and here's something the polls don't (?) show: how much loss of support for Obama is from progressives who think he sold out on wars, torture accountability, transparency, blowing off mountain tops, non-ideological issues like appointing donors to posts, etc? I'll bet, a lot - enough to drop down the remaining, conservative negatives to less than the progressive positives.

Starting to believe that "it is no longer dead" is more akin to the line from "Princess Bride" about being "just a little bit dead", however, without the same result. No, the Democratic Senators are not going to have fun trying to storm the castle. Too many of them are going off to the Big Pharma and Big Insurance B-Bque in the Caymans - Ah, kickin' back while counting your money - Ain't politics great?

Obama did a masterful job of playing rope-a-dope during the campaign. I sense that he may be doing something similiar with healthcare. I'm not certain it will work in this case. The entrenched industry is very powerful and too many of the Dems in congress are too weak.

I'm still not quite sure why people were confidently declaring healthcare reform completely dead before ABC even aired their show from the White House. If nothing else, people would start talking about it again because it's, you know, on national TV. I'm sure all of the Villagers were tired of hearing about it but, as we have often observed before, the Villagers don't actually reflect the opinions of the rest of the United States.

The Beltway has been consistently wrong with Obama since we declared his candidacy. Whatever was happening on the Hill, or on talk shows, before this week was just talk. This is the week that was probably circled by Obama and Axelrod from November 7th. There is a huge rally for health reform in Washington on Thursday, and the ABC thing. Obama's organization only started asking for money to support the health reform campaign last week.

But I do think the polls that showed up this past weekend about the Public Option were a huge SHOCK to many in the Beltway. I think even the WH was pleasantly surprised.

These centrist "Dems" in the Senate better follow Conrad and get on board. Or they will be steamrolled.

What the hell are you talking about? Health care ins reform has never been in jeopardy with the people...only with the senate. What is Obama striving for...100% support. Is that what it takes to get senate dems to give the people what they demand.

The only peaks and valleys here are in the hearing aids of senate dems. To them "covering the cost" means how will they replace campaign donations from private ins. health care lobbyists.