President Obama chose caving to an obstructionist, prevaricating GOP in pursuit of a mythical "bipartisanship" rather than fighting for the general welfare and the common good.

He also showed his administration to be more DINO than true Democratic, more Wussacrat than real Democrat, corporatist not really populist. 

Art Levine comments on Obama's futile bipartisanship at In These Times: "Now that President Obama is finally embracing reconciliation and seeking at long last to fire up his base in support of health reform, it's worth asking whether Obama's quest for bipartisanship cost us too much in lost jobs and meaningful health legislation."

(Although Glenn Greenwald argues that both Obama and the Wussacrats in Congress have scammed us about really wanting to pass effective health care reform.) 

Levine continues:  "And where was all this fiery anti-insurance industry rhetoric from Obama last year when the right-wing dominated messaging? Long after it became clear that the president wasn't going to get any Republican support for his proposals outside of a stray vote or two—whether for his $786 billion economic stimulus bill or for healthcare reform—he and Democrats continued to water down the bills in the search for an elusive 60 votes."

Levine quotes from centrist George Packer's piece in the New Yorker, regarding the meager Recovery Act aka stimulus bill, watered down in the name of bipartisanship, yet not one Republican in the House voted for it.

He writes: "As Packer explains it, the political and policy weaknesses in the recovery package which, experts said at the time, should have been more expansive and focused more on job creation, set the template for problems with other reforms, including health care:

" '....the key to Obama's first year is the Recovery Act. It set the pattern for everything that followed: intelligent but cautious policymaking; legislative compromises that watered down the bill's impact without enlisting more than a tiny number of Republicans; an immediate campaign by opposition politicians and media to declare the program a failure; a weak, uncoordinated Administration effort to explain and champion the stimulus package; gradual public disillusionment. ' "

"In Packer's piece, he looks at the impact in south-central Virginia, with unemployment in some sections as high as 20%, and the reactions of workers and a first-term Democratic Congressman, all saying that Obama had an opportunity he didn't seize:

" 'Dean Price, the owner of a truck stop outside Martinsville, Virginia, which produces biodiesel fuel, told me: 'The American people were thinking radical change--not the status quo. Just the way Obama blamed Bush after 9/11, saying, 'You told America to go shopping,'  people are going to point the finger at him and say, 'You had an opportunity and you wasted it.' "