Fight Amongst Yourselves

The Obama White House's waffling on the existence of a private option has, incredibly, managed to make yet another part of the health care debate go badly for the Democrats.

Sometimes, of course, clarity is not one's friend in political debate -- but here, the lack of clarity is making troubles worse for "reform"'s proponents. That's because the prospect of eliminating the public option enrages liberals, while the prospect of keeping it alarms moderates.

So rather than simply being able to come to terms with the substance of the bill and then defend (or tout) it to the American public, precious time and energy on the Democrat side is being used to fight over the existence of one particular provision that may or may not be about to be dropped.

Amazing, no?