THE DEM DILEMMA - AT 7:54 A.M. ET:  There is a civil war brewing in the Democratic Party, and there is no Lincoln around to preserve the union.  Jake Tapper of ABC News has the story:

The president's liberal allies on health care reform have a message for the president: Don't think you can drop the public option without a fight.

"If the president thinks we're gonna get the votes without the public option, he's got another think coming," Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, told ABC News. "That won't pass the House."

Over the weekend, the President seemed to change his tone on whether a final health care reform bill had to include a public option -- something that just two months ago, he indicated was a deal-breaker.

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange...including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest," President Obama said on June 23.

But over the weekend, Obama seemed to downplay the importance of the inclusion of the plan in health care reform legislation.

COMMENT:  Yesterday the White House backtracked a bit on the president's compromising comments.  The whole health-care debate is a mess, and the fault must be placed with the president, and his breathtaking lack of leadership.  It seems to me that every major concern raised about Mr. Obama during the campaign last year has turned out to be valid - from his softness in foreign policy to his lack of executive experience.  There is a growing feeling that he isn't doing the job, and that maybe he doesn't have "the right stuff" with which to do it.

August 18, 2009