Don't Just Watch The Obama-Rahm Kabuki. Call Congress.

Yesterday, health care watchers tried to read the tea leaves after White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel expressed willingness to compromise on a public plan option [1] via a "trigger" that would indefinitely delay its creation, followed by a presidential statement hastily issued from Russia [2] proclaiming "one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals."

House Dems adamant about including a public plan option appeared reassured [3] yesterday after Obama's statement, while TNR's Jonathan Cohn cautioned: [4] "...it's not as if the White House push actually contradicts what Emanuel said to the Journal. [The] fact that Obama supports a public plan and hasn't bargained it away yet doesn't mean that, at the end of the day, he wouldn't embrace a compromise on it. Obama has said as much himself, by making clear he wouldn't draw a "line in the sand" on the public plan.

Both assessments are true.

The President clearly wants to keep public plan option alive, otherwise there's no point for him to keep talking about it. Rahm's comments ran the risk of being a momentum killer, and Obama did not want that. So he talked about public plan option some more.

But Obama's legislative strategy -- minimizing opposition by keeping disparate interests at the table -- requires the avoidance of alienating veto threats. So he hasn't, and likely will not, make public plan option a non-negotiable item.

In other words, Obama is signaling to the grassroots: "I'll put the ball on the field. But it's up to you to get it over the goal line."

The grassroots has already made an impact, bringing around reluctant Democratic senators Arlen Specter [5] and Kay Hagan [6] to support a public plan option.

How can you do your part? Today, Health Care for America Now! is organizing a national call Congress day [7]. Just click this link and follow to steps [7] to be connected to your representatives at no charge.

Pushing Congress works. It's called democracy. Let's get to it.