CREATING CONFUSION TO END THE CONFUSION - AT 10:37 A.M. ET:  The president on Wednesday will address a joint session of Congress on health care.  The ostensible purpose of the speech is to make clear what his health plan consists of, and to argue for it.  He's off to a roaring start:

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's bottom line on a government health insurance option blurred Sunday as White House officials stressed support but stopped of short of calling it a must-have part of an overhaul.

As President Barack Obama prepares for a Wednesday night speech to Congress in a risky bid to salvage his top domestic priority, no other issue is so highly charged. Obama's liberal supporters consider the proposal for a public plan to compete with private insurers do-or-die.

Republicans say it's unacceptable. It's doubtful the public plan can pass the Senate.

White House political adviser David Axelrod said Obama is "not walking away" from a public plan. But asked if the president would veto a bill that came to him without the option, Axelrod declined to answer.

The president "believes it should be in the plan, and he expects to be in the plan, and that's our position," Axelrod told The Associated Press.

Asked if that means a public plan has to be in the bill for Obama to sign it, Axelrod responded: "I'm not going to deal in hypotheticals. ... He believes it's important."

COMMENT:  Well, that sure clarifies things.  It's very sad, because both thoughtful liberals and thoughtful conservatives realize that the health-care system needs substantial improvement.  We pay more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world, and don't get the return.  But the administration, weighed down by liberal ideologues in the House, has botched the chance.  It refuses, for example, to push for tort reform, which could save vast amounts each year.

We'll look forward to the president's speech, and will treat it fairly.  But I'm not expecting brilliance, based on the record thus far.

September 7, 2009