One reason voters aren’t swayed by the president’s rhetoric is that it keeps shifting. A Capitol Hill staffer points out that this is what the president said last Wednesday on whether we could keep our insurance under ObamaCare:

Here are the details that every American needs to know about this plan.  First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.  (Applause.)  Let me repeat this:  Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.

That was itself a change from his previous “guarantee” that we could keep existing coverage. Then on Saturday he seemed to veer back to a more ironclad promise:

Now, I’ve also said that one of the options in the insurance exchange, one of the options — most of the folks who are going to be offering insurance through the exchange are going to be private insurers — Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, all these. Well, I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Applause.) Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. Let me be clear: It would only be an option. Nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance would be affected by it. But what it would do is, it would provide more choice and more competition. (Applause.) It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable, to treat their customers better.

But really, how can it be that we won’t be affected by a public option? First, according to its own terms, ObamaCare seeks a public option because it will do something. The administration thinks it will improve competition. Conservatives and outside analysts, however, think it will result in a massive dumping of consumers out of private plans. But unless Obama is going to the mat for something with no impact on consumers, it is going to have an impact. The only debate is how extreme.

One wonders why the president and his spinners are trying to play it so cute, especially when he’s trying to convince people he’s the most credible voice on health-care reform. Maybe the president’s speechwriters are sloppy or maybe they don’t understand that his words have real meaning to those carefully following the debate. But if they want us to believe what the president says, he should stop saying different things to different audiences.