Bill Maher was on Countdown last night talking health care with Keith Olbmerann. The summary, Maher is no fan of Obama’s actions to date:

OLBERMANN: An excellent point to start with. The overall picture here, health care again, Republican opposition again. Democrats at risk of caving again. Is that the natural follow?
MAHER: Yes. As you were just saying—or maybe it was Howard Dean who was just saying. I don‘t know why they need to get the Republicans on board. It‘s probably more the Democrats who are the problem. When I heard the president get that round of applause before the AMA, that‘s when I knew we were in trouble.
The AMA is a lobbying group. It‘s out for money like every lobbying group. People think of it as your friendly doctors. It‘s really not. It‘s a lobbying group. And when he said, I‘m not out to install government-run health care plans—why not? Maybe our health care situation in this country would be as good as, you know, Costa Rica‘s or Morocco‘s.
OLBERMANN: Yes, he was speaking to the second most powerful union in America, behind the Baseball Players Association. But when he spoke out for the public option today, while he did that and seemed to take a little bite, a little nibble out of the AMA, do you really think he may, particularly the president—may be willing to take an unnecessary compromise on this just for some premise of bipartisanship or other reasons? What do you think?
MAHER: I don‘t know if it‘s bipartisanship I‘m so concerned with, as caving in to corporations and lobbyists. I mean, the track record so far is not good. You know, we did an editorial on our show Friday night that was pretty hard-hitting about Obama not putting it on the line and standing up to the energy companies, the health care industry, the banks.
And previously when I had criticized Obama in front of my—you‘ve been on our show—very liberal southern California audience, they were booing me. My crowd in my studio booing me, which is fine.
But on Friday night, I was expecting the boos and they weren‘t booing anymore. They were cheering. I think they‘re getting to the point where they‘re realizing, yes, we still like Obama. He‘s our guy. We‘re glad he‘s president, but where is the beef? And it‘s easy to make speeches. What‘s hard to do is stand up against corporations. Corporations and their incredible strength are what have ruined this country so far. And this president we thought might be the one to stand up to them. I‘m losing hope. I still have audacity, but my hope is fading.
OLBERMANN: When you consider this, I mean, it‘s 20 years of, well, Democrats will eventually get some sort of health care plan, nearly 20 years. Generation haves grown up in this country hearing only, well, the Democrats will get this done. Well, not now because something else has gone wrong. It would seem there‘s very little being required of the Democrats right now, and this would be the time to act even if it is essentially by the fiat of the people who won the elections.
MAHER: Exactly. That‘s one of the points I was making on our show Friday is, if not now, when? First of all, historically, presidents have to do it, have to make their hay in the first year or two. If he doesn‘t act boldly, I think he‘s probably going to lose the mid-term elections and then have less Democratic support than he even has now.
The Republican party is at its weakest point. If he can‘t shove progressive legislation down their throats now, I don‘t know when it‘s going to happen. I was saying that what he needs to do is get a little George Bush in him personality-wise. Bush, as we all know, had horrible ideas about pretty much everything. But he was pretty good about when he wanted to get something to be done, he got it done.
Nobody was looking to go to war in Iraq, which was a horrible idea. Yet, he pushed that through. And I think Obama needs a little of that, a little of, I‘m going to get this done; I don‘t care who is with me; I don‘t care who I‘m going to upset; I don‘t care what kind of popularity I‘m going to lose over this. But I‘m going to push this through and I‘m going to do it now. I‘m going to do it in full measure.
I really haven‘t seen that from this president on the issues that matter the most, which are I think how to deal with the banks and Wall Street, energy legislation and health care.
OLBERMANN: The last president thought 2004 was a mandate. It looks like this president is not sure that 2008 was a mandate.
MAHER: Right. I mean if Bush could go to war in Iraq when nobody was thinking about it, how come this president can‘t get through something like health care reform in a way that the people really want, when people are actually for it? Again, this speech to the AMA, nice speech, but he did leave out an important part, that the AMA has been the major stumbling block to all the health care reform we‘ve tried in this century. They were the ones who stopped universal health care going into Social Security under Roosevelt. They fought tooth and nail against Medicare in the ‘60s.
Remember, they hired Ronald Reagan to record an album talking about the horrible specter of socialized medicine, which makes it sound like Stalin himself is going to put on the rubber glove and give you a prostate exam.
They fought Clinton‘s plan. They‘re not your friendly doctors. They‘re a union, like you say, and a powerful one. They‘re not your friends.
OLBERMANN: At the current cost of prostate exams, a lot of people wouldn‘t mind Stalin stopping by. Bill Maher, the host of “Realtime” on HBO. Always a pleasure, sir. Thanks once again.
MAHER: Thanks, Keith.