The public option is going to happen

First, the latest poll, from CBS/New York Times:

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"
Favor 65%
Oppose 26%

How will it ever find support in Congress with numbers like that? {sarcasm off}

Next, the latest CBO numbers show that the public option plan is MORE fiscally responsible than those plans without it:

In a bid to wrangle concessions from the Blue Dog Coalition on healthcare reform, House leaders Thursday released CBO estimates for liberals' preferred version of the public option that show $85 billion more in savings than for the version the Blue Dogs prefer. [...]
In total, a public plan based on Medicare rates would save $110 billion over 10 years. That is $20 billion more than earlier estimates, a spokesman for House Speaker Pelosi said.

This, as CA Lt. Gov. John Garamendi correctly points out that a mandate requiring all citizens to buy health insurance without some kind of price controls effectively throws the entire nation to the sharks. Without price controls, but with a mandate to buy, there would be no limits on what big insurance can charge.

The legislators' reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, an unprecedented mandate -- long sought by insurance companies -- that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry's product, effectively creating a captive market.
"We are about to force at least 30 million people into an insurance market where the sharks are circling," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat who served as the state's insurance commissioner for eight years. "Without effective protections, they will be eaten alive."

And with Blue Dog opposition fading, Bernie Sanders has come up with a parliamentary plan that would use all 60 votes to block a filibuster, yet let conservative Democrats in tight races vote against a final bill without affecting passage:

Senate Democrats, lead by Bernie Sanders, appear to be whipping votes to break a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform -- but, at the same time, giving conservadems the latitude to vote against the bill.

In other words, if the Senate Democrats can get secure their entire caucus and achieve 60 votes (including the interim senator Governor Patrick is due to appoint anytime now) to break the filibuster, some of the centrist Democrats can feel free to vote against final passage of the bill when only 50 votes (plus Biden) are required. No reconciliation swiss cheese, the public option would pass a floor vote, and the Blue Dogs would have political cover. It's win-win.