So I've read all these comments and I want to use them to underscore my own point. Insurance companies complain about "unfair competition" from a public health plan. I've yet to see anything on this page, either in Cos's origional post or in any of the comments about why that complaint is wrong, you all seem to agree that the public option isn't fair.

Trouble is, none of you are saying that explicitly. You're all silently moving on to the next stage of the argument about how it's OK that it isn't fair. There's a LOT of power in the words, "you're right about that." It could even pull the debate out of the quagmire a little bit. Lets not squander it.