I haven't read every story or blog post, but the progressive conventional wisdom seems to be that Obama has "sold out" to Big Pharma.
Not.
What he did is get Big Pharma on side with health insurance reform -- I think this is a significant achievement. Added to this, he has AARP on side, and the American Medical Association on side.
And yet somehow Obama's health care priority is supposed to be failing?
Meanwhile, the most hated corporations in America, the health insurance companies, are joining forces with the least liked political party in America, the Republicans, to make up ridiculous stories about killing grandma. And somehow this unholy alliance is going to tank Obama's popularity?
Only in the Bizarro world of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich -- and the increasingly snarky world of the headline writers at Huffington Post -- would any of this be interpreted as bad news for Obama.
I have been very worried about whether this reform attempt will make it, and I do feel that Obama underestimated how difficult it was going to be. But with the pharmaceutical companies getting on-side, I am heartened -- the pharmaceutical advertising will be powerful support for Obama, and for the Democratic congresspeople who need all the help they can get to counteract negative publicity from the town halls.
I do now believe that Obama is methodically getting his ducks in a row and organizing positive support for health care reform. In the end, this will make a difference in getting congresspeople and senators to support the final version of the bill.