Big Mistakes of Obama's First Year

President says he won't quit trying 'just because it's hard'

(AP) - President Obama says his health care overhaul has "run into a bit of a buzz saw" and acknowledges the process is looking ugly. Nonetheless he says he'll keep working to finish sweeping legislation. In comments prepared for a town hall meeting in Ohio today, Obama said, "I am not going to walk away just because it's hard." More»

Supermajority is gone, sure, but so is entire Democratic strategy

(NEWSER) - “While the sun will still come out on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill” now that Republican Scott Brown has won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, Ron Elving writes on NPR , “the political globe will have a new tilt.” Here, six things that have changed:

• The supermajority: That's history.
• Obama's agenda: Everything was predicated on stretching that supermajority to the "max." Goodbye tough climate change bill, financial regulation, immigration reform.

(NEWSER) - One of Barack Obama's top advisers during the campaign tells Politico he's "losing patience" with the White House and wants more "bold" leadership from the president on a host of issues including health care and gay rights. “I’m not going to just sit by the curb and let these folks get away with a lack of performance for the American people,” says Steve Hildebrand, the campaign's deputy manager who helped engineer key wins in Iowa and South Carolina. More»

Left feared disaster then—but they won in November

(NEWSER) - Angry opponents are spewing spittle at the Obama administration over health care and climate change, but progressives should chill out: After all, this has happened before, Ed Kilgore writes in the New Republic. Last August, liberals withered in despair when John McCain tied President Obama at the polls. Just like today, "The diagnosis of the problem was typically that Obama was too passive, and wasn’t articulating a clear enough message." More»

But president, Congress need help cementing it

(NEWSER) - Political winds have shifted in America, says Bill Clinton: The country has “entered a new era of progressive politics which, if we do it right, could last 30 or 40 years,” the former president told liberal Internet activists at a convention in Pittsburgh. But first, he told Netroots Nation, “the president needs your help, and the cause needs your help” with health care reform and climate change legislation, Politico reports. More»