Obama's failings.

• Author: Rothchild, Matthews
• Position: Comment - United States President Barack Obama - Essay

Across the progressive community, there is a widespread feeling of disappointment and disenchantment with President Obama--even a sense of betrayal. The high hopes that he created on the campaign trail have given way to the cold realization that he may not be as progressive as he seemed--or as many had wished. When the moment called for extraordinary boldness, he balked. When the moment called for a head-on ideological confrontation, he blinked. When the moment called for mass mobilization, he preferred to chase after the phantom of bipartisanship.

On issue after issue, Obama has come up short. He is a man who seems incapable of putting his foot down.

On health care, rather than advocating Medicare for all, or even Medicare for all who want it, he offered up a flimsy public option that was difficult to comprehend. And then he failed to go to bat for it, never insisting that he'd veto a bill that didn't have the public option in it. Shamefully, he also made an agreement with the drug companies, under the table, to give up the power to bargain for bulk discounts.

On the economy, he submitted a plan of government stimulus that was necessary but woefully insufficient. His $800 billion package was only about half as big as it should have been.

On the bank bailout, the Obama Administration continued to lavish hundreds of billions of dollars on the very companies that precipitated the crash. In exchange, it demanded next to nothing, except a salary cap. While satisfying at a populist level, this cap did nothing to help people in need. At a time when the banks were crawling on their hands and knees for bailout funds, when the government had maximum leverage, Obama declined to use it. He could have insisted that any bank taking bailout funds would have to put a freeze on foreclosures. He could have forced them to write down the principal on their inflated mortgages. He could have forced them to immediately lower the rates and fees on their credit cards. But he didn't do any of these things.

On civil liberties, he has not reversed course from the last eight years, as he vowed he would. He has not revisited the Military Commissions Act, which allows the President to deny the writ of habeas corpus to anyone in this country. He has not revisited the Patriot Act, which still allows the police to enter your home when you're not there. He has not revisited the NSA spying law, which greatly expands the ability of that agency to monitor us here at home.

On...