The traditional media is all geared up to declare healthcare dead, or at the very least on life-support, and President Obama's first term doomed to failure because of this. It's an easy template for them--if they talk about the politics then they don't have to bother learning the policy and reporting on the stuff that really matters--how the various policy options would work, what it would mean to average families, or even what happens if reform isn't done.

What they're forgetting is that two out of the three most important people in making this happen--Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi--are committed to getting it done. Here's Pelosi, yesterday.

PELOSI: When take this bill to the floor, it will win. But we will move forward. This will happen. Americans, again, with preexisting medical conditions or concern about losing their jobs or changing their jobs or the health care that is available for their children and their families with a big dose of prevention and the rest can take heart and comfort in knowing that this bill will pass. KING: When we spoke a few weeks back, you were adamant that the final bill would include a public option. PELOSI: Definitely. KING: You gave an interview this week where you were asked if you could support a bill that didn’t have one in the end, and you said, I don’t think so. Is that some softening? PELOSI: No, no, no, no, the president has said he believes the public option is a way to keep the private insurance companies honest. But he said, if you can find another way to do this, show it to me. KING: So is that non-negotiable? If the Senate passed a bill that did not have a public option or that had a public option that, say, had a three- or five-year trigger, let’s see what happens, see if we can make reforms, and if we don’t, then a public option would kick in, is that non-negotiable with the speaker? PELOSI: I think the private insurance industry has had a long enough time to have a trigger. We know what happens left to their own devices. This is about having an alternative, to give much more leverage to the individual. And the president has said, if you like the insurance that you have, you like your doctor, you can keep them. Well, most people, many people feel good about all of that, but they don’t know what’s going to happen to the cost. And the cost, that’s an accessibility issue. And we know that a family of four — average family of four, their health insurance costs will increase by $1,800 a year, that would be $18,000 by 2020. It’s just not affordable. And therefore not accessible.

There's also President Obama, who will be back on the bully pulpit this week with townhall meetings in North Carolina and Virginia.

And the other thing they keep overlooking? The American public still trusts Obama on the issue, and still wants major reform. Max Baucus needs to keep all this in mind.