Ezra Klein

via Sully:

States wouldn't be able to opt out till 2014...The controversy around the public option is an expression of the controversy around Barack Obama's presidency in general, and health-care reform in particular. Once those issues are essentially settled, the underlying policy isn't going to hold people's attention.

What I've been saying for a year now. Once the political grandstanding is over and the Obama is Hitler! signs are put away and the "oh, NOW we're drawing the line!!!!" outraged indignation has moved on to whichever new "the sky is falling!" mantra the politicians can work people into a frenzy about, healthcare reform will have settled in with most people barely noticing it, and the ones that do will think gee, it sure is handy to have health coverage, ain't it? Certainly by 2014 we'll already have started wondering was it really true that back in the dark ages there was no universal health coverage like every other fancy-pants nation on the planet?