Excellent turnout in downtown Raleigh for the pro-health care reform rally put together by President Obama's Organizing for America bunch -- easily 1,000. (Update: DNC says 1,500, which I wouldn't dispute; I've copied their press release below the fold. Amazing how the local media just about ignored this event -- for the "why" on that, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne is worth reading.) Interesting that they weren't all that cranked up by OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird the first time he spoke, nor by Congressman David Price, though they liked both. It wasn't until Rhonda Robinson, as she was winding up, declared "I'm for the public option, there's no other way," that people really started to get into it. Dustin Bayard, the Raleigh ACORN leader, stoked the crowd when he handed Price a stack of petitions with a pro-public option message. Then Dana Cope, the SEANC leader (state employees association), ripped into Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC and its CEO Bob Greczyn's $4 million a year take-home ("and they are a nonprofit," Cope sneered), demanding: "We need a public option, and we don't want to compromise."
Cope got a huge response, prompting him to get even madder. "They are afraid," Cope snarled at Blue Cross, "they might go out of business if they have to compete with a public option? I say, pack 'em up, boys!"
The crowd roared its approval. "Let's keep the fight alive," Cope shouted, his voice at its breaking point, "and don't let those bloodsuckers take it away from us this time!"
Now the crowd was chanting, "Public option! Public option! as Bird came back for a wrap-up. "I thought no one out there was supporting health insurance reform," Bird tried gamely, referring to the idiot coverage of the health care debate on the cable news nets. But the crowd wasn't into the "insurance reform" meme. "Public option! Public option!" Almost everyone there was yelling it out.
Bird, jazzed that the crowd was jazzed -- and stepping up to the challenge of matching Cope's energy -- then went over President Obama's principles going into his scheduled address to Congress next Wednesday night, primetime, for all the marbles. First, "cutting costs," Bird said. Second, for those with insurance, "preserving and protecting choice." And third, for the 45 million Americans without insurance, "We are going to give you an option, including a public option!"
They were the magic words that the crowd needed to hear. As Bird wrapped it up -- no more insurance b-s about pre-existing conditions, or dropping your coverage because you're sick, and no more whopping co-pays and deductibles with your so-called insurance, 1,000 voices let loose with the trademark Obama blast: "Yes, We Can!" they chanted. And then, "Yes, We Will."
No doubt the President's team is polling all the issues of health care reform like crazy. But about one question, they should be in no doubt: The people who are most devoted to Obama, and to health care reform as a cause, want a public option as part of reform -- and think that if it isn't, if the President gives it up, it won't be reform at all.
