Did you know that 69,054,299 more people voted for Barack Obama than voted for Olympia Snowe?

And did you know that, like the majority of Americans who voted for Barack Obama and support the public option, the majority of Mainers also do?

If you read Daily Kos regularly, you did know that already. From Research 2000 polling done for Daily Kos last month:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 9/14-16. Likely voters. MoE 4%. Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans? Favor Oppose Not Sure

All 58 29 13

Dem 81 16 3

Rep 18 58 24

Ind 67 20 13

Look at those Independent numbers--67 percent in favor! Hell, even 42 percent of Republicans like it or aren't sure that it's such a bad idea.

Lest anyone think that poll was an outlier, here's another that backs up those findings.

A new poll of Maine voters [pdf] from the Pan Atlantic SMS Group, which regularly surveys the state, offers a glimpse at the home state pressure on Olympia Snowe -- and Susan Collins -- to break with her party and back health care legislation, and suggests that they would be rewarded at home for backing a public option. The survey finds that 58% of Mainers approve of how President Obama is doing his job, and that a plurality of 46% back his plans for health care. A twenty-point majority favor a public option, asked like this: "Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan – something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get – that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

Politico's Ben Smith is actually sort of burying the lede there, because the actual story isn't the 46% backing his plan for health reform. It's the twenty-point majority of Mainers--57.4 to 37.2--who approve a government option that's the story.

Their Senators are going to be disappointing them. Snowe's record on it is clear--she's going to try to trigger it to death, and Collins spent the morning shooting down the rumor that she was open to reform at all.

So why is President Snowe going to be at the table on reform for the country when she's not even representing her own state?