I never thought of President Obama as a progressive in the first place and that's not why I voted for him. A true progressive (Dennis Kucinich) could never win the presidency in this country. I voted for him because I believed he would be better than McCain, still do.
   It's the U.S. Senate that has made a dog's lunch out of healthcare reform. This absurd need for a 60% majority to get anything accomplished has turned it into a disfunctional legislative body. That's why Nelson was able to get special dispensation for his state on Medicaid payments and Lieberman was able to get the public option and a 55+ buyin for Medicare stripped from the bill. A single payer system or Medicare for all was never even on the table. True progress never wins out in this country. Now some progressives say that Obama should have been more forceful, and public, with the Senate in lobbying for a robust public option and maybe so. But even if he had, Lieberman et al. may have never fallen in line, causing Obama to look weak and ineffectual. He's too shrewd a politician to take that risk. He's like a poker player holding his hand close to his vest. He's trying maneuver in the minefield of that is 21st century partisan politics. And like I said, he never was a progressive in the first place, just a damn sight better than the alternative.