I think for this Presidency to succeed, Obama must know, I mean REALLY know himself, what he stands for, who or what he is against, and then govern accordingly.
The issue here is that during the primaries, Obama ran to the left of Hillary and positioned himself along where John Edwards was on all the major issues, including Healthcare. Now, when we had the 60 majority in Senate, Obama wanted to be bipartisan and include EVERYONE in the HCR, which meant dropping public option, and essentially making the HCR into a windfall for insurance companies (if it required all Americans to buy coverage or be penalized).
And so here we are, 4 elections later, where only an upstate NY election went our way.
So the question is, did Team Obama make the Mass. Senate race into a referendum of the Healthcare debate? If so, that tells us that Obama is unsure of himself, and he should DO NOTHING until he figures out exactly who he is, and where he stands on specific issues, what he is for, what he is against (as in taking a principlaed stance and NOT backing down come hell or high water).
As of now, what are the issues where we can say this is where he stands, and this is what he is for (or against) for sure?
Because Obama the President seems to be a totally different person than Obama the Candidate. Of course, all campaigns promises are going to be different than what any candidate can actually deliver, but aren't some things sacred? Like Public Option for all Americans?