"The split in the blogosphere in a nutshell encapsulated right here."

Booman Tribune, from the comments on "Team Obama's PR Revamp":

Booman:

He had morons yelling at him for negotiating with Senator Snowe at a time when we didn't even have 60 votes. He had to face the fact that Ben Nelson feels like he can't vote with the Democrats unless 5 Republicans do so first. He had do worry about Lieberman's backstabbing ways, and Conrad's giant ego, and Lincoln and Landrieu's spinelessness, and Bayh's constant sniping.

And he had to keep every last one of them on board to have any chance, and none of them were signaling a willingness to vote for public option in the Senate bill. So, Obama tried to keep it alive by making sure it passed the House and to keep the Senate moving by not insisting on it.

Reality isn't that hard to discern if you're not chained to a fake literalism.

MNPundit:

The negotiations with Snowe only backfired. It wasted time the GOP used to trash the bill, and the longer bills go on in general the more the public gets angry. Talking to Snowe seriously was a fool's game, she wasn't going to vote for the bill no matter what.

You say Ben Nelson needs 5 republicans for cover. Yet he voted for the bill in the senate with 0 for cover. And now he's even saying he'll abandon his hostage situation. Lieberman would have backstabbed single payer, then he could have kicked liberals in the teeth as he so wanted (and this is the only reason he opposed the thing) and then gotten his pound of flesh while they moaned and nashed their teeth about losing single payer. Indeed, the way to massage Conrad's ego is to start with single-payer and then say "You, Kent, you with your North Dakota hair, have convinced me to to go to a public option!"

To Lincoln and Landrieu the same thing applies. And so far Evan Bayh has been nothing but noise, but you could bring him along in the same way. Or if you have to, go from single payer to medicare buy-in then to public option.

These guys signaled opposition to the PO because that's what was being discussed in the bill. They would have done the same had something better been in there and gotten cover when they took it out. Their opposition is based on self-aggrandizement and pulling stuff right, not on any substantive concessions.

So there you go. The split in the blogosphere in a nutshell encapsulated right here.