I think his operation and wing of the party took the wrong lesson from '08, that cash is everything, that Obama won in a landslide because he raised a billion dollars. But the truth resonates with your thinking, that the base, and respect for voters in general is more important. The cash obsessives strenuously ignore that outcomes were not proportional to spending. Hillary won big states in which Obama outspent her many times over. McCain was slightly ahead until the economic meltdown. These two major points leave the Obama people unable to respond.

The Senate Finance Committee added a quasi-public option to the healthcare reform bill Thursday.
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"This proposal is about giving federal dollars to the states and putting them in the driver's seat," Cantwell said. "It is a public plan, but negotiated with the private sector."
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Under the Cantwell amendment, people with incomes between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level who do not get insurance at work would enroll in these state-based programs. The federal tax credits that would otherwise have been given to those individuals would instead be paid to states to finance the plan. Cantwell based her amendment on a program in Washington state.
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States could choose to set up their plans, which would negotiate with medical providers on payment rates rather than base them on Medicare's fees, as other public option plans would do. Cantwell and Baucus said the amendment would save money.

"We are putting someone in charge, finally, of negotiating rates," Cantwell said. link

In essence, what Washington state does is define a basic health plan--it sets the deductible, out of pocket limit, co-pays, drug cost sharing, and defines exactly what must be covered. Private insurers bid to be able to offer basically this exact same plan. A few private insurers are qualified; there are small differences in the basic health plan depending on the insurer the individual selects. Premiums are subsidized by the state to make the plans affordable.
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I see two problems with Cantwell's amendment. The first is that the basic plan is restricted to only those people making between 133%-200% of the FPL. It should be open to everyone or the whole exchange should be run this way. This would depopulate the original state-based exchanges, reducing the market power and increasing the price for individuals making above 200% of FPL. It makes some people better off, but others considerably worse off.

The other problem is that Cantwell is trying to sell her idea as a public option--and it is not a public option. It is still not a bad idea--it would be an improvement over Baucus's plan for people making below 200% of FPL (not hard to do)--but it is not a public plan. link