First Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius makes the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows claiming that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform. Then an administration official (who asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity) said that Secretary Sebelius "misspoke", that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that the public option is not, in the president's view, the most important element of the reform package. (source) You've got to love this administration's idea of clarity.

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Meanwhile the liberal wing of the Democratic party, lead by former party chairman Howard Dean, is claiming there can be no meaningful health care reform without the public option and Director of Health Reform Communications Linda Douglass said that President Obama still wants to see a public option in the final bill. In short, the administration tried to float a trial balloon regarding the dropping of the public option, the balloon was filled with thick green slime instead of air and the administration is now hoping it will land only on Secretary Sebelius.

In case you need some more of the Obama brand of clarity, Sunday also brought this statement from White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market." (source)

And none of this is to be confused with the absolute clarity of the president himself who said Saturday, "All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform." (source)

What could be clearer than that?