Dear Mr. Obama...who did we elect president?

...and I call him "Mr." Obama, not "President" Obama for a very real reason which I will get to in a moment. I see in the AP that:

As Obama talked strategy with Democratic leaders at the White House, the one idea that most appeals to his party's liberal base lost ground in Congress. Prospects for a government-run plan to compete with private insurers sank as a leading moderate Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, said he could no longer support the idea.

BTW, the plan Sen. Baucus does support will fine Americans who cannot afford health insurance.

Yes, you read that right. The American dream has gone from quality health care for all, to let's put a double tax on people who are already leading loveless, undignified lives.

Do you ever get the feeling that the ghost of Dick Cheney (I know, you say, he's not dead, I say, I are you sure of that?) has a shotgun trained on Obama in the Oval Office?

The fast-moving developments put Obama in a box. As a candidate, he opposed fines to force individuals to buy health insurance, and he supported setting up a public insurance plan.

Democrats are considering a fallback: using the public plan as a last resort if after a few years the insurance industry has failed to curb costs. That approach is also being pushed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate whose support could be critical to any health legislation.

Here's where we get to why I refer to him as "Mr." Obama, sir. In his speech tomorrow, one of the things which I will be looking to him to answer is this: Just who did my country elect president last November?

Did we elect Max Baucus? We damn sure did not. Did we elect Olympia Snowe president? We did not.

We elected Barack Obama. Lately I've been wondering if he realizes that. I ask because for a couple of people who were not chosen to lead their country, people like Baucus and Snowe seem to carry a lot more weight than the person who was.

And he looks like a Steppin' Fetchit running to curry their favor:

"[Obama]'s been receptive, recognizing that there's difficulties with the public option," Snowe said.

No, there aren't problems with the public option, Mr. Obama...Senator Snowe. Not according to...oh, what is the phrase...the public:

What there are, is problems with most of the Republican lawmakers...and just too many of the Democratic ones.

Damnit.