let's assume that Obama plays chess

And not checkers.

We are already seeing that the insurance companies are finding loopholes and excuses to continue to raise rates and deny coverage. They must be smirking at their successful manipulation of the final bill, which delivers to them 32 million new customers, some of whom will be subsidized by taxpayers. Sweet.

However, just suppose that public outrage hits a tipping point, as abuses and outrages continue to hit the news. Who gets the blame?

Congress, certainly, but perhaps the Insurance corporations will be finally recognized (hello? media? yeah, right) as the source of Our Misery. In which case, Obama gets to say "we made a great first step, but now it's time to recognize that Big Insurance has no real interest in supplying actual Health Care, so let's have a true Public Option...".

So, in my grandiose fantasy, Obama has been merely following a "give them enough rope" strategy. Could it possibly be so?