I've gone from cheerleading for health care reform ... to angry frustration with the Right's domination of the message war ... to deep disillusion at President Obama's lack of public conviction for the Public Option ... to blaming the Left for its own splintered impotence.

I must seem quint-polar by now.

The fact is, I feel all of the above ways at once because there's truth in all of those feelings and all of those observations. So how to make sense of them in one coherent plan of action? That is the question. And here's my answer:


What Obama Must Do:

1. The president must slacken the sails of the Far Right and the Tea Party movement. He can do that by announcing a policy of no new bailouts and tough new regulation of the financial and banking sectors. Opposition to health care reform is partly a carry-over of conservative resentment stemming from TARP, the bailouts and kid glove treatment of Wall Street. If Obama gets tough on the greed sector, it will simultaneously encourage the Left and help disarm the Right.

2. The president must be clear that he wants the Public Option in the final bill. It would cost him exactly ZERO. There's no chance that a single Senate Republican will sign onto the Public Option or any health care bill at all. The House won't pass a bill without one. So just get behind it and go. It's a game changer that shakes up GOP opponents and puts the pressure squarely on the Blue Dogs, where it belongs.

3. Take the fight to the enemy. That's the Blue Dogs, remember? We've already written off the Republicans. So twist arms, make deals to support pork projects, whatever. Go into full campaign mode in the Blue Dogs' own back yards and don't stop until Congress votes on the final bill. Get the entire White House on the same page and turn everyone who can be spared -- from Sebelius to the surgeon general -- out on the campaign trail. Leave the vice-president at home.


What Activist Groups Must Do:

1. Convene a conference call and make nice. Agree to a common agenda. Streamline decision-making from the 20-person steering committees common in most organizations to a single executive in each group empowered to commit resources for purposes of this fight. Forge one unified plan of action that encompasses a) the short-range goal of passing reform with a Public Option now and b) the mid-range goal of supporting Single Payer after the mid-terms. Step on it. This should have happened last year.

2. Create a single umbrella group that speaks for all, coordinates volunteers for all and drives a single message for all.

3. Open a new web site that is a single point of entry for the common agenda and for all groups.


What We Must Do:

1. Understand what it is you're fighting for and be realistic. Forget a March on Washington. It either won't happen or won't amount to much. Read the bills or at least detailed summaries of them. Post the links to these below if you know them. If Single-Payer is your bottom line, you may be overlooking what you have to gain from a government-run Public Option. Come to grips with this: Single-Payer has no chance this year, and passage of a Public Option now will further your cause when Single-Payer's time arrives.

2. If you haven't faxed, phoned or written your Congressional delegation, do it now. Write an op-ed for the local paper. Query the editor first for length and style requirements. They might print it. Odds are even better they'll print a letter to the editor, usually no more than 250 words. Don't be acidic or paint a utopia. Lay out the facts calmly and compellingly.

3. Take a day off from writing blog posts. Contact every activist group you can find and demand they get on board with the points above. Tell them you won't donate money or time until they unite the clans. Start with H-CAN, Healthcare Now! and their lists of affiliates. Continue making that demand with your state organizations, like Missouri Single Payer, etc., down to the local level.

4. Organize an event in your home. Do this now. Organize a march to someplace symbolic, like a local congressional office or the sidewalk in front of a drug maker or insurance company. Time your biggest events to occur several days ahead of important landmarks in the legislative process, such as committee votes or floor debates.

I know this plan sounds crazy, but that's what I like about it.