Because that's the kind of big-hearted generous kind of guy I am. That Obama thing? Just a passing fancy (yes, and I'm kind and tactful, too). Here, via Avedon*, whose arguments are always well-evidenced, is Ezra Klein on Obama's health care plan. Painful reading:

If Tyler Cowen were Ezra Klein, he would be deeply skeptical of Barack Obama. He'd think Obama can give a beautiful, inspiring, speech, but has demonstrated, at various times, a lack of interest, sophistication, and gut commitment to reform. He'd remember the roll-out of Obama's health policy, know who Obama's health policy advisers are, and have concluded that, of the three major Democrats still vying for the nomination, Obama is the least likely to risk his presidency on universal health care reform, and the most likely to spend that capital on other priorities. He'd know that the politics of mandate-less plans don't work out, as they force reformers to bargain away regulation of insurers preemptively, and he'd be fully aware that there's no way you'll pass the bitter pill of a mandate on its own, after the fact. You need the sweetener of universal health care reform. Mindful of the amount of lying and pandering that goes on during campaigns, he'd take the absence of the mandate in Obama's plan as the best information available on Obama's intentions, or lack thereof, on universal health reform, and he'd spend a lot of time attacking on the issue in order to push Obama's people into more concrete commitments, and serious thinking, about reform.

But Tyler Cowen is not Ezra Klein. Tyler Cowen is a libertarian economist with a wildly different set of assumptions about human behavior, the policy process, and political change. I am Ezra Klein. And this is what I think.

Yeah, I take that bad case of subjunctivitis as a sign that Ezra still hasn't made a complete break, emotionally. But pretty devastating.

The key sentence:

"The politics of mandate-less plans force reformers to bargain away regulation of insurers pre-emptively." See, Obama's all about sitting people down "at the table," but what Ezra's saying is that Edwards is right: The insurance companies are going to "eat all the food." Why? Because that's how Obama planned the meal!

NOTE * Somebody whose well-versed in PhotoShop really needs to do the artwork for the headline: "I dreamed Obama gave me a pony in my Maidenform bra." Whether it's the dreamer, the pony, or Obama wearing the bra is left as an exercise for the artist.

NOTE Ezra's dense post also contains some counters to single payer, which I almost believe, except that on reflection they seem more like Ptolemaic epicylces in the face of single payer in e.g. Canada or France.