the consistent effort by conservative, corporate dems to try and tarnish progressive

[Armstead]

62. I haven't got time to go into the intricacies of that all over again but...

from the beginning i would not have let things get to that point in the first place.

Since you asked what I personally would have done if I were Obama and the Democratic leadership, there are many things that could have been done differently, starting from the beginning.

If it were me, for example, I would not have tried to push through an all encompassing systemic reform at a time when the nation was struggling to survive a devastating economic crash.

If a complete overhaul was not possible, I would have taken a step-by-step approach moving towards the concept of a public coverage system, and building public support for it.

I would have started by pushing for something straightforward, like an option for anyone to have the option to buy into Medicare, with the payments as a percentage of income.

It would be hard to object to that, since it didn't force people to change their coverage, but it would give them an affordable alternative. (And the same principle as private insurance would have made it fiscally feasible, by having young healthy people paying into the system to help offset the costs of older ones.)

It would have also addressed issues like pre-existing conditions. if your insurer dumps you, you'd have someplace to go for coverage.

I would have worked hard to sell that to the public, explain its benefits and reassure them that they still have the option of keeping their existing privater coverage if they want. And I would have cracked a lot of Democratic heads in Congress to line up for that.

If it were promoted right, and was still defeated, at least it would have laid the groundwork for another try. And also shown the GOP as being against the people, and projected the Democrats as the party that fights for people.

That' s just one possible strategy.