"Democrats, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, have managed to kill their own dream of dominance in 12 months.
How did it happen? ...the administration hasn't been true enough to fundamental Democratic principles, has embraced some of Bush's worst excesses on civil liberties, and has ditched popular ideas (like the public option) in favor of watered down centrist policies, thus looking weak and ineffectual... The case by progressives that Democrats are undermining themselves with faux-bipartisanship and tepid policies gets much closer to the heart of the problem...when you fail to govern based on a morally sound, well-articulated, solidly-grounded set of ideals, you look weak...People gravitate to people who exude moral authority. The vast majority of voters lack the detailed policy knowledge that would enable them to make an accurate assessment of policy differences, but they do have a visceral sense of when a candidate or an elected official believes in something and fights for it." Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/liberal-bloggers-to-obama_b_429031.html This is exactly what I have been saying all along, but not as delicately: "The House healthcare bill sucks. By the time it merges with the Senate bill it's going to be suckier. Dollars to donuts the Stupid Stupak amendment stays in the bill. I am really disgusted that Obama and the Democrats are patting themselves on the back for passing a bill that sacrifices a woman's right to choose and mandates insurance without a decent public option. Obama should have twisted arms LBJ style and swung for the fences for single payer from the start of the debate. Yeah. Right. I knew that would never happened but had he the balls to do it, I'll bet we would have had a better bill than this piece of shit." –raunchydog Message #234211
