At today’s White House press briefing, Robert Gibbs was asked if the President’s support for the latest healthcare reform compromise, a gumbo of increased Medicare availability, access to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and a trigger for the public option, constituted a “second-best” to the robust public option that the President has favored all along. His response was not what you would expect from an administration whose party holds both houses of Congress.

What the Fox? On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann noted the shocking development that Brit Hume corrected Bill O’Reilly’s contention that “the folks” don’t want a public health insurance option, noting that polling suggests it’s “kind of popular.” Hume’s correction needs correcting. The public option isn’t “kind of popular,” it’s overwhelmingly popular (even with “folks” like Bill O’Reilly).

At yesterday’s White House Press Briefing, the subject du jour was the Obama administration’s supposed shift on the public health insurance option. This was to be “that question,” the one that gets beaten to within an inch of its life at every briefing. And while Robert Gibbs repeatedly explained to everyone that the media’s eagerness to report the death of the “public option”, he might have revealed something new.