Health Care Battle Stymies Obama Campaign Machine

Now that he’s in office, President Obama is having a lot of trouble mobilizing the grassroots network that helped put him there, the Los Angeles Times reports. With Republican health care opponents operating like a well-oiled, talk-show-fueled machine, Organizing for America (aka Obama for America) is stuttering—in part because its left-leaning members aren’t enthusiastic about Obama’s centrist health care goals.

During the campaign, “Obama's sexy, he was hot, and everybody wanted a piece of that,” said one organizer. “Now, people are going to have to work for something that is not quite as slick or sexy.” But some activists say they’re scaling down. “Grass-roots efforts are won at the doors, with neighbors talking to neighbors,” said a DNC spokesman, “not in front of news cameras with folks screaming.” (More Organizing for America stories.)