As Rick Brookhiser points out, Dick Morris thinks Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman’s critique of Obamacare “may prove to be a pivotal turning point in the congressional debate over the increasingly unpopular proposal.” In case you missed it, here’s part of what Lieberman had to say last weekend on CNN:

LIEBERMAN: … I give the president tremendous credit for taking on the health care problem. And it really is a problem that we’ve got to deal with. But he took it on at a very difficult time that was not of his making.
In other words, we’re in a recession. People are very worried about their jobs, about the economic future. They’ve watched us add to the debt of this country. We’re projected to run a $1.8 trillion deficit this year, September 30th, more than $1 trillion next year. You mentioned the 10-year numbers. People are nervous, I think the protests coming out at the public meetings around the country this month are as much to do with that larger environment as they are with questions about health care reform. So I’d like — I think great changes in our country often have come in steps. The civil rights movement occurred — changes occurred in steps. Let’s focus now on how to reduce costs. That’s been a central theme of the president.
Let’s talk about how to change the way health care is delivered. Let’s talk about protecting people from not getting insurance because of preexisting illness. Let’s take off the caps on the amount of insurance coverage you can get over the years. Let’s pay for preventive services for health from the first dollar. Here’s the tough one. We morally, every one of us, would like to cover every American with health insurance. But that’s where you spend most of the $1 trillion plus, a little less that is estimated, the estimate said this health care plan will cost.
And I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy’s out of recession. There’s no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost health delivery reform and insurance market reforms.

What was Lieberman thinking? Surely he knew the Left would fume. The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait writes:

if health care reform fails, liberals need to understand who to blame and how to fix it. They need to start knocking off Democrats like Conrad and Joe Lieberman, who seem to be trying to kill health care reform, even if this temporarily costs the Democrats some seats.

To get some insight into Lieberman’s calculus, NRO spoke with a senior Senate staffer.

“The key factor all along for Senator Lieberman has been cost,” says the aide. “He thinks that any reforms should be bipartisan, affordable, and feature a market incentive sans a large bureaucracy. Remember that he is also an original sponsor of the Wyden-Bennett bill, which he still sees a model for a reform package. For Lieberman, Wyden-Bennett remains key. If something is going to get done in the Senate, it will get done along the lines of Wyden-Bennett. Lieberman is very skeptical that the reconciliation route will yield anything. Within the Democratic caucus, there is some real reluctance to do that. Other senators may not be vocal right now, but some liberal Democrats are having some real anxiety.” The aide adds that “town-hall meetings are not the problem. The problem is broad public skepticism. Members of Congress know what the numbers are.”

As summer fades into fall, look for Senator Lieberman to “play a very large role and be at the core of a compromise,” says the aide. “The smart thing for the president to do would be to hit the restart button. President Obama has to transform the debate right now. The American people won’t be upset if he hits the reset button — it’s the smart move, politically and legislatively.”

The aide notes that Lieberman is ready to help usher a compromise bill through the Senate. “The center of bipartisan coalitions is where the power lies,” he says. “If Ron Wyden is not aboard, that’s very significant. There are others who feel the same and quietly agree. This is what’s on people’s minds.”