I read them, but I was also hearing, in my memory, the things he invariably said after every instance when I heard him say anything positive about the public option, which was that while it would be nice, it wasn't critical.

However, having said all of that, I have to retract what I said about Obama not campaigning on the public option. Apparently he did campaign on it in a few specific contexts, like in Iowa and in front of groups like Family Planning. I just heard some excerpts on Olbermann. Looks like Obama stuck his foot in his mouth in a very big way when he said he didn't campaign on the public option.