Okay, Here's What I Want To Happen

since the administration may, indeed, be backing off the public option.

Given the fact that you can't get 60 Senate votes for the public option in the health reform plan even if Kennedy and Byrd show up, and given that dumping the thing into reconciliation this early on would cause all sorts of havoc, maybe, just maybe, this is what is known fondly in the 'sphere as an Obama head fake, alway two steps ahead of the opposition.
The openness to the co-op plan is a head fake, too. It can't be proven to meet the requirements Obama has set down for the plan.
The public option will be restored to a final bill and will pass the Senate as a reconciliation measure with everyone on our side pointing at the R's and saying, "You made us do this. You refused to consider anything at all in the end." And the American people, who still support the public option, and America itself will be better off. Not as well off as if we had Medicare for all, but better off.
In the end — you did not hear it here first — I think we may be heading toward a reconciliation solution, with maybe some Executive Orders or other legislation thrown in to somehow avoid the restrictions on reconciliation, which I can't remember but I heard some Republican senator lay it all out a few weeks ago.
'Do I need to say Kabuki again?