We hear the plaintive cry all the time, "Why are the Democrats in Congress and Obama in the White House such wimps when it comes to dealing with the Republicans?" We are certainly hearing variations of this with the current budget negotiations between the Dems and the GOP house.
Well, there's a very good explanation for this and Ezra Klein supplies it courtesy of this image from a new NBC/WSJ poll (pdf).
In other words, the Democratic leaders are doing what the Democratic voters (and Independents as well) want them to do.
My point? If you want to complain that the Dems aren't fighting harder then maybe you should be going after the voters first. You have to convince them that voting for people who will fight more is a good thing. Until then, all the complaining about "wimpy" Dems is just blowing hot air.
(Aside: I actually don't think the Dems are being all that wimpy. Which is why I put "wimp" in quotes.)