Regarding the Public Option, it's worth watching this Frontline episode to understand how...

[sabrina 1]

3. Well, that is a question many people have been asking.

Is he just a weak negotiator or was this what he wanted all along?

Nancy Pelosi did confirm that the Democrats had voted against their own interests, when in 2010 she went to the WH to demand that the President stop conflating the Dem Party with the Repub Party every time he gave a speech. Why did he feel the need, after rightfully attacking the Republican Party, to always include 'and my Party does it too'?? She twice asked that he stop doing that and reminded the WH how Democrats had gone along with votes they KNEW their constituents were against, making that election season difficult enough for them.

I got the impression she was talking about the Bail Outs and the HC Bill. And she was right.

I don't know why the President felt the need to appease Republicans. He had the public on his side, the WH and both houses of Congress. Sure it would have been a fight. But my opinion is that he is too nice a guy to take on the nastiness of the Republican Party and ends up compromising with them, not to mention who he surrounded himself with. But he doesn't fear the Dems as much and so the bullies win. Then he finds out each time, that no matter how he appeases them, and he has said this, it is never enough.

But I'm just guessing and it doesn't really matter. Congress never should have gone along with votes they knew, as Pelosi said, were against the wishes of their Constituents. No matter how he pressured them.