Well, Harry Reid sure caught everyone "off guard" didn't he, with his announcement that the Health Care bill would have a "public option." Ah, but there was one caveat. That was that the so called public option would contain an "opt out" clause for states.

Oh geez, isn't that sweet. Let's get a little federalism in there to suck in a few "moderate" republicans. But the press was focused on the fact that they themselves had pronounced the so called "public option" dead on arrival and now it was alive. How could the press have been so wrong? HA HA HA!

You can attribute the "public option" shift on public polls. These polls were consistently showing that a majority of the public wanted the "public option." Nevermind what the "public option" actually means. And Reid showed us that we can't be sure of that by offering a definition that the media hadn't even been discussing much - the "states can opt out" version.

I'm not sure if the "states can opt out version" is going to be able to sustain itself through the process. Reid is just bending over backwards to appease the republicans, who don't give a damn about Reid. But it's going to be interesting to see. The bottom line is that governmental action have to obviously benefit the middle and working class. If they do, then Obama and the Dems will likely stay in power. If not, then all bets are off.