Amazingly, some liberals are now lashing out at Obama because the entire country doesn’t agree with The Huffington Post. Some now argue that the administration should just ignore the ignorant masses and ram health care through using reconciliation, the legislative maneuver that would reduce the need for moderate votes.There's a common fallacy in Brooks' piece that you often hear from Obama defenders on the left as well. That it's a radical, fringe idea to ask that Obama keep his promises. I suppose, to some degree, it is rather fringe in politics to expect that a politician not lie to you in exchange for your vote.
This would be suicidal. You can’t pass the most important domestic reform in a generation when the majority of voters think you are on the wrong path. To do so would be a sign of unmitigated arrogance....
Most Americans still admire Obama and want him to succeed. But if he doesn’t proceed in a manner consistent with the spirit of the nation and the times, voters will find a way to stop him.
The president’s challenge now is to halt the slide. That doesn’t mean giving up his goals. It means he has to align his proposals to the values of the political center: fiscal responsibility, individual choice and decentralized authority.
Events have pushed Barack Obama off to the left. Time to rebalance.
The second flawed argument is that those promises are so extreme that they can't be kept. A few problems here. First, the majority of the public supports the public option. Second, even if the public option weren't doing well in the polls, first you fight like mad for it, then you decide if you have to give it up during negotiations. Obama's approach on issue after issue is to cave at the beginning of a negotiation in order to avoid a fight at all costs.
