Yesterday's New York Times:

For Mr. Obama, giving up on the public plan would have risks and rewards. The reward is that he could punch a hole in Republican arguments that he wants a “government takeover” of health care and possibly win some Republican votes.

Really? What indications are there that this would actually happen? Which Republicans have said that if the public plan is dropped, they'll sign on? What in the GOP's recent behavior towards Democratic Presidents -- say, over the past 40 years or so -- suggests they will abandon their “government takeover” arguments, much less sign on to health care reform that does not include a public plan but is still significant?

The Times, of course, doesn't address any of those questions. Several paragraphs later, it even acknowledges that “whether a co-operative would actually bring Republicans on board with Mr. Obama is unclear.” The closest the article comes to providing any reason to think that might happen is a quote by Republican Senator Richard Shelby saying “we ought to look at” the idea of replacing the public plan with a co-op model.

For that matter, the article provides exactly zero evidence, no matter how weak, that dropping the public option would even win over conservative Democrats.

The notion that dropping the public plan will win the support of Republicans, and get them to drop their arguments about a “government takeover” is based on the assumption that conservatives are debating and negotiating in good faith. That's an assumption the media has little if any reason to make, and significant reasons to be skeptical of. But it regularly underlies media coverage of public policy debates despite the frequency with which it is shown to be baseless. This Times article is just an example -- and not even a particularly egregious one at that.