The Molly Ivins story.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

When Barack Obama gave his "this is it" speech on health care reform on March 3, he took a gratuitous slap at advocates of a single-payer system. He said: "On one end of the spectrum, there are some who have suggested scrapping our system of private insurance and replacing it with government-run health care. Though many other countries have such a system, in America it would be neither practical nor realistic."

He didn't defend that debatable assertion. Instead, he exploited single-payer folks as a foil--as if to say, "I'm not an extremist like they are."

He juxtaposed them with Republicans who want to "loosen regulations on the insurances companies." And he did so in order to try to claim the middle ground, on the false and facile assumption that the middle ground is always the best ground.

Here's how he put it: "I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America."

By damning "government bureaucrats," Obama played right into the hands of the anti-government crowd and made any durable expansion of health care coverage all the more difficult. He also cast aspersions on every single federal employee in the Medicare and Medicaid and VA and Indian health programs.

Single-payer advocates like you and me were props for him all along.

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F or two decades, Molly Ivins was a favorite of Progressive readers. I loved her, too, for her toughness, her...