There's a lot of angst going around here today, but regardless of the outcome of this particular debacle, one lesson should be utterly, painfully clear to everyone who is interested in progressive principles and policies; Obama needs a clear cut defeat FROM the Left.
No, I'm not talking about a primary challenge - IMHO, that's delusional. But this far into his presidency, there are a few things that are glaringly obvious about the way that Obama operates, not the least of which is that, regardless of his motivation (about which we can all hyperventilate as much as we wish, as I do myself on occasion), more than just about anything else 1) he insists on trying to "accomplish" something (i.e., almost anything), and 2) he wants "bi-partisanship" to accomplish "it," whatever it is.