Stupak (my congressman) will cave. He’s a progressive/socialist on everything except abortion & he’ll gleefully take a payoff.
Unless Stupak is Bad Cop.
I do think that Obama would rather have the proposal actually fail to pass than have it die.
Usually, you don’t want to bring a bill up for a vote and have it lose, but I don’t think Obama cares. He knows his presidency will be a failure and all he wants is something. In this case, health care.
On the other hand, I get the feeling from the progressive caucus that they are tired of Obama’s nonsense and won’t go down with him. Plus, this bill is so bad (even to them) that they would rather blame the Republicans (and those wascally pro-lifers) and use the issue as a fundraising tool.