The Answer is No

No, Mr. President: We won't shut up, we won't sit down and we won't stop demanding the genuine health care reform that you're afraid to demand.

We're gonna keep screaming bloody murder at you and your Wall Street poodle Rahm until you do the right thing, not only because it's what we want, but because it's the only thing that will save the nation, and incidentally your presidency.

It's for your own good.

President Obama (Tuesday night) pleaded with Democrats to remain unified in the final health care stretch, detailing for his loyal supporters in New York the good things in "the bill you least like."

"There are going to be some disagreements and details to work out ... but I want to say to you Democrats, let's make sure that we keep our eye on the prize," Obama said during a Webcast for the thousands of Organizing for America volunteers who were gathered for call parties across the country.

"Sometimes Democrats can be their own worst enemies, Democrats are an opinionated bunch ... y'all are thinking for yourselves," he said. "I like that in you, but it's time for us to make sure that we finish the job here. We are this close and we've got to be unified."

Obama said "the bill you least like in Congress right now, of the five that are out there," would give 29 million uninsured Americans health care, would ban preexisting conditions and would create an exchange that would encourage competition among ensurers.

His comments were live in front of an audience in a New York ballroom, and streamed out to the parties (where volunteers were proud they made more than 234,000 calls to Congress today). The refrain about "the bill you least like" sounded a bit like presidential foreshadowing since senators are meeting privately to merge the more conservative Senate Finance Committee bill with the more liberal Health, Education, Labor and Pensions version.

(Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is standing firm.)

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Scarecrow at Firedoglake makes an excellent case that the real obstacle to a strong public option is not repugs, not Democrats, not the Senate's fake 60 vote barrier and certainly not the majority of Americans who want government health insurance. No, indeed; the real obstacle to a strong public option is President Obama himself.

Help public option advocates bulldoze past that obstacle. Click here to send a message to your members of Congress to demand a strong public option and measures to make health insurance affordable for everyone.

And let the White House know that no, we will NOT settle for less.