"It's heartening to see Obama go all in"

[impik]

Benen:


....But stepping back, it's worth pausing to appreciate the increasingly hands-on role the president and his team are playing in this process. For much of January and February, it was very common to hear Democrats on the Hill (and elsewhere) ask incredulously, "Where's Obama?" The relevant players knew what had to be done, but they wanted to see the president take charge -- making the case, setting the schedule, giving vacillating members the hard sell, and dragging health care reform closer and closer to the finish line. They wanted to follow, and expected Obama to lead.

Let it be noted that the president is doing just that. Jonathan Cohn noted last night, "At any point in the last few months but particularly in the wake of the Massachusetts election, it would have been easy to back away from comprehensive reform -- to cut a deal, be done with it, and move on. Instead, Obama on Wednesday committed himself more fully to comprehensive reform than he has at any time since this effort started."

And today he's pushing himself even further into the fray, summoning waffling lawmakers to the White House so Obama can make his pitch directly. I have no idea if the president's efforts will pay dividends -- for the country's sake, I can only hope they do -- but it's heartening to see him go all in...



http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[zipplewrath]

1. All this effort for this?

He's putting so much effort and political capital and time into trying to get 15 year old GOP health care reform ideas passed. It boggles the mind.

[denimgirly]

2. Obama is not a Fighter for Progressive ideas, he loves Compromises....

It is now clear to me that his message of change and his strong personality during the election were just a mirage. I was hoping more for a progressive, strong leader as FDR was but i now see, based on his consitency, that he is one who wants political victories but by way of giving away as much as he can -- to the lowest denominator.

This is not to say this makes him bad...it just that we all came in with high hopes for strong change and we see now it is not at his core.

People claim he is more a corporate democrat but to me i see it as him being a person who wants to be liked by all. And since corporations run washington it is only natural for Obama to want to make them happy to so he will do things like not want to regulate them and such.

To Obama leadership is about finding common ground -- each side gives something. Sadly, one side refuses to give on anything and so for Obama that means the other side will have to give up more or he thinks he wont win...which then for many seem like he is leaning right.

So, at his core i think Obama is more a leftist BUT beacuse of the environment and his character and desires to be liked he instictively desires to move "Center-Right".

The country is aching for progressive ideas and he doesn't see it...unfortunately. This explains what happened in Massachusettes.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. ...that, and the fact that Grayson is leading in a Republican stronghold

says so much. The lie that this country is "center-right" is what has made Blanche Lincoln behave the way she does. Instead of moving to the left where her constituents support a public option, she is misreading the polls as wanting her to become more right. This is where Democrats continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. In their zeal to run away from charges of liberalism, they don't understand that they are alienating a large portion of their base, and compromising with people who ultimately want to see them fail anyways. I don't understand it and never will.

No matter what Lincoln or Reid or any of the other Blue Dogs do, they will still lose. So why not go out doing the right thing by the people?

[katandmoon]

3. It's very easy to read that as satire.

[GeorgeGist]

5. more lipstick

[AlinPA]

6. It's heartening, but it's too late now. There will not be enough Democratic votes to pass HCR

for a long time. He tried. Too bad a majority in Congress did not make it go. He should have learned that Lieberman, Lincoln, Nelson and the other part-time Democrats in the Senate and Stupak and his followers can't be trusted.