Democratic Party Platform of 2008, and I quote:

[Political Heretic]

Covering All Americans and Providing Real Choices of Affordable Health Insurance Options.

Families and individuals should have the option of keeping the coverage they have or choosing from a wide array of health insurance plans, including many private health insurance options and a public plan. Coverage should be made affordable for all Americans with subsidies provided through tax credits and other means.

http://www.democrats.org/a/party/platform.html

Was it a campaign "promise?" Well I guess that depends on how you define it. Believe it or not, I will magnanimously agree with some who agrue that it was never a centerpiece of Obama's campaign.

However, people who are now upset that a public option has been eliminated in the Senate Bill and feel like they are getting ripped off from what they expected based on the 2008 campaign certainly have some grounds for feeling that way since it was written right into the party platform.

[Skidmore]

1. Republican post 2008 election playbook and I quote:

"Obstruct in any way possible, including lying, screaming, and threatening, and push particularly hard on any disgruntled Democrat to stop any implementation of anything which can be identified as a change to the healthcare system. Period. Then laugh when they lose."

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. And even though it was in the platform, just a small number of Blue Dogs

and one quasi/Republican Democratic caucusser from Connecticut were able to hold their breaths, turn blue and bring the entire rest of the Democratic Party and the President to their knees.

Next time, let the Blue Dogs write the platform.

[regnaD kciN]

3. There's a big difference between "should" and "we promise there will"...

Besides, when it comes to much of the Democratic platform, it should be realized that Lieberman was no longer a Democrat by that time (as his appearance a week later at the Republican Convention should have made clear).

The biggest problem we had was the wishful thinking that caused us to claim that we had "a 60-vote majority in the Senate" when the fact is, it was really 59-41 all along. Instead, we were under this fantasy that, if we let Joe the Asshole keep his committee chair, he would at least support our side on cloture votes. Sadly, it became clear that, when it comes to Lieberscum, his verbal promise isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

[Political Heretic]

4. I accept that. But as I said,

My point is simply people who feel disappointed between what they supported in the campaign and what they are getting now have a legitimate reason to feel that way.

It may not have been a "promise" but it certain said this "should" be. And now that it isn't in the Senate Bill, I can understand people feeling like they aren't getting something very important that was part of the Democratic Party's campaign platform.

[Raineyb]

10. That's an awful lot of parsing

And I suspect that the people who still can't afford to fork over large portions of their income to these rapacious insurance companies don't give a shit about how it's parsed. They will care that they'll be forced to buy shitty insurance with deductibles so high they can't afford to actually USE it.

[Vinca]

5. Words, Shmerds. We need our checks from the health care industry.

[terrell9584]

6. Mandatory Insurance

I've noticed that mandatory insurance wasn't mentioned in that platform.

[Echo In Light]

7. Funny how that neat-o little bit was obfuscated as best as possible

[Political Heretic]

8. kick.

[Karmadillo]

9. They chose to dance with the ones who bought them.

nt

[Echo In Light]

12. The best 'democracy' $ can buy

[Political Heretic]

11. Kick, since I just had to read another thread about how a PO was not any part of the 2008 campaign.

:eyes:

[Usrename]

15. A means to an end.

To be fair, I always understood that Obama's support for a public option was due to the fact that he saw it as a method to be used for obtaining a certain outcome. I'm pretty sure that he made it abundantly clear that his focus was going to be on achieving that outcome, and that this would not be strictly tied to any particular method of achieving it. I know that this may be a small concern to those who feel that the public option is the only way of busting up the monopolistic collusion that is the current state of health care, but it does justify his assertion that the PO was never central to his campaign.

[Blasphemer]

13. K&R. They are suddenly parsing words as if public plan = / public option.. nt

[Vidar]

14. K&R.