The NYT commentator "Socrates - Downtown Verona" responded to Paul Krugman's 20 Jan 2013 article "Obama's Big Deal" (http://www.nytimes.com/...) with an adroitness that is memorable and that stands on its own merits.
It is my intention to reproduce Socrates' comment here, so that it may be seen by others and not forgotten (after the fold):
Obama had to essentially be a superhero in order to accomplish anything with Congress for one ugly reason - every major power broker in Congress is on the campaign finance take, their personal judgement replaced by their campaign finance judgement, and every potential good public policy replaced with imitation cheese due to campaign bribery.
A public healthcare option was rejected because Senators Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus demanded more protection for a handful of their insurance company campaign contributors; that's why ObamaCare is really the Health Insurance Cartel Protection Act.
True banking and Wall St. reform did not occur because the very rich sociopaths in that industry are heavy campaign contributors. Senator Chuck Schumer is always very careful to never let the elimination of the carried interest exemption proceed forward on the Senate Finance Subcomittee because he says he's 'representing his constituents', i.e.protecting defenseless hedge millionaires with tax welfare.
True gun reform can't pass the House because the campaign finance terrorists known as the NRA and a handful of gun factory owners behind them count much more to Congress than the reasonable thoughts of 310 million Americans.
There is only one real issue left in America and it's institutionalized campaign bribery and it single-handedly destroys all good public policy.
The only big deal Obama can deliver now to save America is a mandate requiring the public option for all campaign financing.
My hats off to Socrates. Some day I hope to have one tenth of his eloquence.