Paul Krugman: Obama Has 'Largely Accepted Conservative View Of The World'

"There's no evidence at all to support the idea that Obama took the PO off the table before the debate even began."

==========­==========­==========­==========­=====
Obama didn't take "the public option off the table before the debate even began" -- Before the debate even began, Obama made sure that there would be no public option, no single payer universal health care, no means for Americans to choose a public healthcare system, no means for containing  costs through public healthcare programs.
In hindsight, it's easy for all to see, but it was seen by many engaged in the process.
Not only did Obama campaign on "a public option", he campaigned on single payer, universal health care. 

Here's a campaign ad featuring Obama himself. 

See the part where he says he has a plan to "cover everyone'? That's 'universal coverage'. There's even a graphic in the ad that says "The Obama Plan - UNIVERSAL coverage for all Americans".
Obama ran against mandates, and criticized Hillary for them in her campaign promises. Here is Candidate Obama on mandates.

Here again -- Obama campaigned on public option. Obama provided the different congressional committees working on healthcare bills with specifics that he wanted to see in the legislation ("doesn't add to the deficit", for example), but how Congress achieved it was up to Congress, so said Obama.  

People began to notice that Obama was waffling on his pledges (a public option, no mandates) just about the time that Obama began walking back from the public debate on healthcare, saying "it was Congress's job to write the legislation" and "a public option wasn't the only means of controlling costs".  Then Obam­a disappeared from the debate, threw his "transpare­ncy"-pledg­e under the bus, and went to work undercutting all of the congressional committees working on healthcare reform legislation except one: The Senate Finance Committee.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost