Subject: Re: ObamaCare Saves Lives...
I recall thinking at the time that Obama was wasting energy trying to negotiate with the Republicans.

It wasn't a waste of time. Up until Pelosi screwed the pooch on the public option, Snowe and Collins were at least as plausible a 60th vote as Lieberman or Nelson. So it would have been political malpractice not to negotiate with them to see if you could get their vote. And one of their process conditions was that the administration had to talk with any other Republicans that wanted to participate.

Ultimately, that wasn't the path that got them to 60. They had to drop the public option altogether and open up the goodie bag to Ben Nelson (and to a lesser extent Mary Landrieu). But they didn't know that until late into the fall.