A Second Look | Politico Eats Crow

via Democrats plan hundreds of reform rallies – Chris Frates – POLITICO.com.

Faced with a souring public mood on health care reform, Democrats and their supporters are launching a national grassroots push Wednesday to show lawmakers that the majority of Americans still support overhauling the system.

Reform supporters are planning to hold more than 500 events between Wednesday and when lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 8, ranging from neighborhood organized phone banks to professionally staffed rallies with hundreds of people.

It isn’t over until it’s over.

That’s what I hate about Politico and other self-appointed super-specialist pundits who think they have all the answers. They were all absolutely sure that the Republicans had won the August debate and the word wars. They denied the reports of the fake grassroots Astroturf town hall protests funded and coordinated by PAC groups working for big Pharma and big insurance.

Supporters have their work cut out for them. Many lawmakers were thunderstruck over the August recess by the anger and outrage expressed by their constituents in town hall meetings across the country. And in poll after poll, support for reform has eroded throughout the month.

Well, the progressives are fighting back now, to the surprise of Politico and their self-anointed joy-stick pen jockeys who will bend in any which direction with any wind. And who exactly was “thunderstruck”? Not any of my representatives. And if you don’t believe that these protesters are bought and paid for, let Rachel clue you in on exactly who is behind this charade.

But they, the Politico pundits are stuck, see, they have to report that the Dems are fighting back and they have to back up a little from the gall-darned sureness of the astroturfers and the birthers and deathers winning the day.

“We want members of Congress to get back to work and pass reform that means something. We need affordable care. We need real insurance regulation. And we need a strong public health insurance option,” said HCAN spokeswoman Jacki Schechner. “It’s doable and we expect it to get done now.”

I wonder how it felt having bet on the wrong side and having to print that the public option, which they swore was dead and gone by the intensity of the uproar, is back and back strong.