US News

‘Left’-behind foes launch air raid on Bam

WASHINGTON — Already slipping in the polls, President Obama was broadsided yesterday by the left over health care.

“President Obama should frankly feel ashamed that he promised Americans a public option, got people to believe real change was possible, and then never truly fought for it,” said Adam Green, of the liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

The group is airing a new television commercial in DC and in Wisconsin in hopes of pressuring Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) — an ardent supporter of creating a new government-run health-insurance program — to vote no on the current bill.

The ad features a clip of Obama earlier this year saying that any health bill he signs “must include” a government-run public option.

But that provision was stripped from the current Senate bill in an effort to garner the 60 votes needed for a filibuster-proof majority.

Obama said yesterday it’s OK that the public option was dropped.

The commercial also features a clip from the 2008 presidential campaign in which Obama ridicules the idea of mandating that people buy health insurance and penalizing those who don’t — a key feature of the Senate bill.