We’ll have to beat Obama’s “fall-back” position, too.

Ezra Klein doesn’t believe it, but the Wall Street Journal says President Obama has a “fall-back” plan for health care “reform,” just in case his health care “summit” doesn’t pan out:

President Barack Obama will use a bipartisan summit Thursday to push for sweeping health-care legislation, but if that fails to generate enough support the White House has prepared the outlines of a more modest plan.

His leading alternate approach would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the comprehensive bill would cover, according to two people familiar with the planning.

If it didn’t require me to assume political competency on the Obama administration’s part, I’d think maybe this was their plan all along. Start with something G.I.Normous, then pull back to something smaller. Smaller, but something.

A step in the socialist direction.

It makes political sense: you get half a victory, and you retain your enemies, who now look to be mindless partisans since they probably voted against even your scaled-back version.

Yes, your own allies will be angry to some extent. But, come on, who else are they going to support? When you’re the guy who still wants to give them the socialist utopia, and you’ll do it just as soon as you can get those damnable Republicans out of your way!

We will, of course, have to beat that plan, too, exactly for the reason that it is one more small step toward socialism. We’ve had more than enough of those already, thanks.

One more thing: as I said before, Ezra Klein doesn’t believe it:

There’s no Plan B at this point in the game, and most everyone knows it.

Which means: Ezra has less confidence in Obama’s political savvy than I do. Ironic.

Via Memeorandum.