Goodbye to universal health care: Obama's incompetency, Daschle's dishonesty cost Americans living in fear of losing coverage

The withdrawl of his nomination as HHS secretary by former Sen. Tom Daschle represents the ultimate betrayal of a cause many of us have fought for: universal health care.

And President Obama's failure to vet his nominee according to simple political standards marks a stunning slap to the faces of people in need across this nation who fear losing their health care after layoff or have never had such care at all.

Remember, Obama's never supported universal care in his primary campaign. Sen. Clinton did.

Now his incompetency -- and Daschle's failure to report his tax misdoings as early as last June -- represent a reprehensible end to a dream for the next four years.

Both men should apologize. Daschle was supposed to lead the health care fight in Congress. Obama was supposed to bring change to Washington. Instead, he has reinforced the same betrayal by both political parties to this nation's moral responsibility to its citizens in need.