Free Republic

A major threat is developing to Barack Obama's dream of universal health care...and surprisingly, it comes from the left. After acceding to all of independent Joe Lieberman's demands, including nixing the public option and the early Medicare buy-in, progressives are in an uproar. They have already lost a lot of faith in this President on other issues, most importantly the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But they thought they had a true believer in the Oval Office. If Obama is a true believer, he surely isn't fighting for his beliefs.

In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me. Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to...