No one is asking Obama to be perfect. We're asking him to simply try to keep his promises.

The Obama administration is engaging in a bit of legislative bait-and-switch with supporters who are increasingly frustrated at the President's lack of commitment to his own campaign promises. Here is the latest administration spin from Obama adviser David Axelrod, via CNN:

On criticism of the Obama administration from liberals and progressives

AXELROD: My admonition would be, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. We've achieved more in these two years in terms of advancing a -- a solid progressive agenda for this country that will help working families and make this a better and more balanced economy than anyone has done, you know, in our generation.

That isn't the problem at all. And if Axelrod actually believes it is, then the President's advisers are seriously misreading the mood of his own supporters, let alone the country.

No one thinks Obama is God, perfect, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. We do, however, expect him to at least try to accomplish the goals he set out for himself during the campaign. People are not upset with President Obama because he didn't accomplish everything. They are upset that he often doesn't seem to try to get the most out of a deal. He settles for less at the outset, when the political dynamic would have permitted him to get far more than what he settled for.

Yes, now the President isn't doing very well in the polls, and the Democrats in Congress are running scared. But it wasn't always this way. A good year-plus ago, when we were first talking about a stimulus and health care reform, the President was at 70% in the polls, the Dems in Congerss were riding high, and the Republicans were on the verge of committing mass suicide. There was no excuse, then, for settling for a weaker stimulus than was needed (the results of which, nearly 10% unemployment, are dogging us all today). And there was no need to shove the public option overboard from the outset (the President made clear that he wasn't going to demand its inclusion). So while it's convenient to argue that "now" the President has no choice but to compromise, he had a choice a year ago, and he compromised at the git-go anyway. It's who he is as a person, and it's the reason so many are so frustrated. (And one could argue that a good part of the reason the Democrats are in such trouble today is because of the President's penchant for capitulation.)

This isn't about people's unacceptably high expectations. We simply expected him to try to do what he promised.