Obama declined to make public option push, said Smiley

President Barack Obama remained noncommittal towards the inclusion of a public healthcare option in final reform legislation in a Thursday meeting with Democratic leaders, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told PBS' Tavis Smiley on Sunday.

Smiley, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" said that Schumer confirmed to him in the "green room" before the show began reports that Obama was caustic about the government-run plan in the closed-door meeting. 

"This has been reported in the press, Senator Schumer confirmed it for us in the, in the makeup room a moment ago, that in that meeting with Reid at the White House, the president did not take a position in that meeting with these senators on the public option," Smiley said.

"I think we voted for this president because we believed in his character.  The question now is does he have courage, does he have conviction and does he have commitment?" he added. "The only way this thing is going to succeed is if the president leads on this issue."

Though prospects for the public option have improved, liberals have expressed dissatisfaction with Obama on the issue. The president reportedly backs a public option "trigger" in part to attract the support of centrist Republicans such as Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine). The White House has denied reports that it is trying to scale back the public option.

Smiley was one of Obama's toughest black critics during the presidential campaign. He resigned as a commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show in June 2008 because of negative audience feedback.