I was disgusted with NBC News tonight when they showcased again all the negativity over health care reform and erosion in the Democrats’ and Barack Obama’s approval ratings. One graphic bulleted 1.Government takeover, 2. illegal immigrants will all be covered and, 3.included mandatory abortion funding — all lies.

But, then it was followed up with a woman exclaiming that if her grandmother gets cancer, under the Obama proposals she’ll just be tossed aside because her care would cost too much to keep her alive. With media people like this to carry the water for the Party of No Republicans, who needs any more enemies?

However, if the above article Rewarding Good Behavior is a trend then things should start to turn around and hopefully support will get stronger. Maybe even NBC will recognize that the angry AR-15 assault weapons-carrying mob doesn’t control the entire message.

Just wanted to let you know that I’m watching that page pretty closely. I also wanted to take a quick moment to shill for ActBlue–we’re supported by your tips, so if you think the ability to do what you’re doing is important, see if you can find an extra 5% so we can keep providing the space for stuff like this to happen.

-Adrian, Deputy Communications Director, ActBlue

Was on a town-hall-by-telephone with Rep. Nadler last night. The teleconference format made it easy to keep things neat and tidy, and the questions were all divided between “my insurance sucks, is the public option dead,” and people desperate for help with particular InsCo-created health crises.

I didn’t get to ask him if he thought the Reps who’d signed the pledge would stand firm (too many questions ahead of me), but I absolutely agree we’ve got to reward these guys in every way possible, esp. since it’s so easy to cave, and accept InsCo dollars, and HARD to hold a principled line when you need campaign cash desperately, as they all do.

In his closing remarks Rep. Nadler promised to continue to fight for reform, AND for the public option, and urged everyone to keep up the fight against demagoguery.

The health care battle, by the way, is an exact template for how it’s going to go from here on in, on every single issue progressives care about. I’m afraid it’s a mistake to count on good faith from Obama, and I’m afraid we’re going to have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of ground we gain.

Thanks, Jane, you’re an inspiration.

Abandon bi-partisanship with the Republicans now. If Snowe can be brought over into our camp in the Senate then focus on her and her alone, but otherwise these two-tailed efforts to bring around conservative Democrats AND Republicans in one go are dividing our attention.

Focusing on the conservaDems in the Senate is necessary and needs to continue (and continue with rigor) but the simultaneous attention on the Republicans is just wasted effort. The conservadems, led by Baucus, need to be forced to negotiate exclusively with us and not any longer with their Republican colleagues.

We all have differences, but the only differences that now matter are within the party. I don’t see any other way to move this forward than for us demand that our side drop the pretense of bipartisanship as an explicit condition of further progress. I feel strongly that we need to work harder to pass this within the party, and the party alone, or acknowledge that this effort will, in all likelihood, fail altogether.

I rewarded the Progressives good behavior.