People may be angry at the White House's low profile and lack of energy on health care reform, but on the campaign trail Obama often mentioned an anectdote about FDR, who once said that a progressive idea sounded great but that if people wanted it to happen, that they would have to "make me do it." Here's a precient post (January 2009) at Democratic Underground on the subject.
Time will tell if Obama will be a successful President, but all I know is that the situation has forced the House and the Senate (Harry Reid!!?! Gulp.) leadership to step forward on the matter, and it has forced the progressive community to write letters, stand up to teabaggers, and make phone calls.
The oft reported death of the public option was enough to bring me out of my post-election exhaustion and go to rallies and make phone calls. I'm a full-time grad student too. In my anger, I stopped payments on my Democracy Bond with a two-word comment: PUBLIC OPTION!!
I think there's a natural sense of complacency that once a progressive is elected to office, the system can run on autopilot. I had that same complacency during the Clinton years and just look how that turned out (banking deregulation, don't ask don't tell, corporate giveaways).
As shown by recent events, I think that no matter who's in office we need to stay engaged and active. The work required in the healthcare debate is not the exception, but the rule, because entrenched, well-funded interests are always going to be lined up on the opposing side.
Obama didn't make promises that he would take care of everything or that it would be easy. He said it would be a hard slog. Nothing is a given and we'll have to earn everything we get.
UPDATE:
Someting I hadn't thought of is that the White House's cautiousness/trepidation over Reid's plan might have been based on the fact that Reid had already miscalculated the vote on the Medicare rate adjustment for doctors last week. Alien Abductee's diary gave me that insight.