It should be clear that no Democratic President can both depend on the Democratic Party to support him and at the same time get anything big done in government. Clinton proved that. Clinton was an outsider who came to Washington as President and did not understand what it took to shake up the provincial city that dominates American national politics and political media.

Somehow Obama does understand that, possibly because he has always been a social outsider even as he took advantage of the best schools to get what he wanted. Obama took down the Democratic insiders to gain the nomination. Now he is expanding the methods he used to reach the White House in his efforts to use the White House.

That's been one of the powers of the conservative movement, too. The conservatives have always been outsiders, and reached power by building their own power institutions instead of relying on those that already exist within the political system. Even when in power they still see themselves as outsiders and scrap like it.

I don't know if Obama can break the institutional logjam that has prevented a rational health care system from being created since WW II, but if anyone can, it is him. Without him succeeding, then only something as drastic as a lost war on American territory or a deep Depression will be sufficient to destroy the institutional roadblocks being represented right now by the so-called "centrist" Democrats. The total destruction of WW II followed by the Marshall Plan creating Democratic institutions created national health care systems in the rest of the world after WW II.

This action by OFA is a major step in the right direction.

Of course, OFA is a tool, one of many I hope. And it's necessary to get anything big done. That's probably why Clinton wound up tinkering around the edges of everything. He didn't know how to end-run the existing status quo system. Unfortunately, if this does work there is no guarantee that Obama will always have to judgment necessary to use the tools for the right purposes. But to get a universal national health care system, I'll support him all the way. The current wasteful and exploitative non-system is simply too expensive for the nation to continue, especially since is fails a sixth of the population completely and that percentage is rapidly growing. The status quo is failure; It must be overcome.

Shorter Ofa: Message to Conservative Dems: Suck. On. This.

This is groundbreaking, isn't it? The intraparty electoral tactics of DFA, MoveOn, and DailyKos are now part of the national Democratic Party strategy to get things done.

It's about time.

Rhe Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Move On, DFA etc have done a fabulous job of keeping us informed and we are all in their debt. Now, we need them more than ever, this is our one chance to get affordable health care for Americans, so with pressure from all of us and these websites perhaps we can somehow get those Blue Dog democrats to do the right thing. Please keep up the good work.

It's so dang frustrating that by far the best Democrat who had any shot at winning the White House — Barack Obama — is a uivering milquetoast who's afraid to raise his own voice.

It's so dang frustrating that [...] Barack Obama is a quivering milquetoast who's afraid to raise his own voice. --Helen Highwater, @14:54

Nonsense. You must be a Repub to *prefer* a loud, all sound and fury, authoritarian, approach to what Obama's dishing out.

My father "raised his voice" (and his fist, too) every time he felt things weren't going his way. My Mother, patiently and without ever yelling, explained and explained, until I saw sense. And guess what? My Mother's lessons "took"; once I understood why her way was better than mine, I obeyed and didn't even feel I was obeying. With my father? I did what he asked me to only as long as he was watching, and lied the rest of the time.

It's not that Obama's a "milquetoast"; it's that he's not a bully, much less a screeching one (thank goodness; the nutwings would really have fun comparing him to Hitler). And he extends to us the courtesy of treating us like sentient, adult, beings, not like a flock of sheep. He maybe overrating some of us but, but for others, this treatment is much more effective.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I don't see this as neccessarily a hostile action towards the representatives from these districts. Couldn't this help make significant health care reform a political net gain for them? Or is it that they're so financially obligated to the insurance companies opposing this bill that they don't want reform no matter what?

Yes, lean on them. If that doesn't work, step on them. If THAT doesn't work, STOMP on them.

Maybe we should just cut to the chase and publisize who is paying them to oppose reform. Surely no one believes their oposition is based on principle.