WHILE IT WASN'T HIS INTENT...:

Angry Liberals Edge Toward a Mutiny (NAFTALI BENDAVID and PETER WALLSTEN, 12/18/09, WSJ)

Liberals face somewhat of a paradox. Some want the Senate to pass a bill, and then seek changes during the process of merging the House and Senate versions. And they don't want to kill the overhaul outright and ruin their best chance in a generation to pass such a bill. At the same time, they are angry at the shape it is taking.

"I am not there yet in terms of seeing this bill at this moment as a bill that I can support," Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another independent, said Wednesday.

The wavering spells danger for Mr. Obama and the Democrats if it foretells disenchantment by the base heading into the 2010 campaign. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week showed voters intending to back Democrats are less interested than Republican voters in next year's elections, an "intensity gap" expected to benefit GOP candidates.

Key parts of the Democratic base are more negative about the party than they were at the start of the year. Just 23% of blue-collar workers expressed positive feelings about Democrats, a 30-point drop from February. Voters aged 18-34 and Hispanics are also less enthusiastic about the party.

Republicans said the real issue is public opposition. "Americans oppose the Democrat plan because they know the final product is a colossal legislative mistake," said Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

...Mr. Obama has laid the groundwork for a triangulation strategy that'd make Dick Morris weep with envy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 18, 2009 1:21 PM