President Obama is in Russia, but he's still holding hands in Washington. Advocates of a public option as a part of health care reform got spooked he was going to abandon them, so between press releases heralding the U.S./Russian agreement on reducing strategic weapons, the White House released an out-of-the-blue two-sentence statement reiterating Obama's pledge to seek a public option as a part of health care reform. "As I've said before," it read, "one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest."

Why does the president have to issue a statement from several time zones away reiterating something he's already said? Because his supporters worry that in...