The mystique of "free-market guy" Obama

No matter what the facts are, some liberal activists and leaders persist in seeing President Obama as a principled progressive reformer who lives and breathes the campaign rhetoric about "change you can believe in." When he compromises, it's not Obama's fault -- it's the opposition. Retreat is never a sell-out but a shrewd tactic, part of some secret long-range strategy for triumphant reform. He's been in the White House eight months. It's time for activists take a harder look at Obama. And a more assertive posture toward him. Because if Obama believes it's okay to pass health care "reform" that subsidizes insurance firms without a robust public option and he dispatches still more troops to Afghanistan, it could demobilize progressive activists while emboldening the Teabag & Beck crowd to bring the GOP back from the dead in low-turnout congressional elections next year. That would be a rerun of the 1994 right wing triumph brought on by President Clinton's weakness (e.g. health care reform) and corporatism (e.g. the business-friendly NAFTA).