Weekly Pulse: Public Option on Life Support

The prospects for a public option are looking bleak because conservative Democrats in the Senate have the president over a barrel. First, the Senate bill will be written by the conservative, insurance-friendly Senate Finance Committee. Second, any reform bill will need 60 Senate votes to defeat a Republican filibuster–so the Blue Dogs can kill reform if they don’t get their way. So the White House is managing expectations by insisting that a public option is nice, but not necessary. Read more of this week’s Pulse from The Media Consortium’s Lindsay Beyerstein…