Co-Opted Out?

Andrew Sullivan's got an interesting take on the opt-out public option about to make a splash in the Senate.

The genius of the opt-out is that it coopts the states' rights argument (just as ending the prohibition on marijuana does); it has the potential to make "liberalism' popular again; it has easily demonized opponents - the health insurance industry; and it forces Republicans not to rail against socialism in the abstract but to oppose actual benefits for the working poor in reality.

It's not my favorite plan, but I think he's right. On top of that, I have a hard time imagining that businesses or corporations would balk at setting up a new shop in a state that's opted out of the public option, when they could set up in a state that has it, relieving them of the sole burden of providing health insurance. What politician will want to be responsible for that?

This opt-out thing is looking smarter and smarter. So far, anyway.