BUT WE WERE TOLD IT WAS PERFECT – AT 7:01 P.M. ET:  Seeing the handwriting on the iPad, President Obama is starting to make concessions on Obamacare.  Darn.  I guess this means we won't live forever.  From The Hill:

President Obama backed a significant change to the healthcare reform law for the first time on Monday, supporting a plan that could delay the implementation of the mandate to buy insurance by three years.

The president is supporting a plan that would allow states to receive waivers to pursue alternatives to the healthcare reform law, a change that could let states opt out beginning in 2014 from the requirement to buy insurance — one of the most unpopular parts of the law.

Speaking to nation’s governors on Monday morning, Obama said states should be able to request waivers for implementing alternatives to the reform law starting in 2014, rather than in 2017, which is the current timeline.

"If you have a better way of doing it, help yourself,” Obama told the National Governors Association. "Go ahead, take that route."

Obama announced his support for a bill proposed by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would let states opt out of many of the law’s mandates until 2017.

COMMENT:  According to the president's political schedule, that means the states could opt out until the year Mr. Obama leaves office.  If his schedule is disrupted by the 2012 election, and he departs for further employment earlier than he expects, I'd imagine the law would be modified still further.

Mother of mercy, is this the end of Obamacare?  Well, probably not, but if the changes Obama is agreeing to get adopted, there'll be a big dent in the law, leaving the rest of it vulnerable to common sense.

February 28, 2011