No Weekly Five would be complete without our continued effort to bring you the current life signs of the ever-controversial, yet critically important public option. Here is an insightful post from The Political Animal which  responds to a recent piece in the NYTs. Contrary to conventional wisdom, even though the Times piece suggests that there is strong divisions within the democratic party on health care reform, The Political Animal highlights why the prospects for an ever-still ambitious reform package (including a robust public option) are still strong.

An interesting point: despite many weeks of right wing attacks alleging that the public option constitutes a “government takeover” of our health care system, recent poll data indicates that public support of the public option is still remarkably strong (around 65 percent).

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020132.php