Failure

Obama has failed at the health insurance reform that was to be the centerpiece of his first term. That failure will infect every other effort he makes. I don't think that that failure was foreordained. He, and Congress squandered their opportunity in negotiation and infighting, and the President chose to stay out of it rather than aggressively asserting his leadership.

Two things lay at the core of the failure, I think. First he failed to fight back when the Republicans adopted a strategy of total resistance. More importantly, by buying into a stimulus package that was far too small, he left ordinary people in the economy to flounder.

What is done cannot be undone, but he still needs to run the country for three more years. It would probably be a good psychological gesture now to fire his economic team, at least those associated with the bailout. He should also withdraw his nomination of Bernanke. The country has lost faith in his economic stewardship and he can't fire himself, so he needs to fire his managers.

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