YES, WE CAN?!

Brooks is as right about this as he was about going to war in Iraq.
The Democrats’ problem here is that they *under*estimated their mandate, as well as the viciousness of discredited Republicans. W had no problem calling any Democrats who stood up to his radical right-wing nominees out for playing “partisan politics”- after he *lost the popular vote*.
Then neocons like David Brooks helped create a climate in which to be antiwar was to be a traitor. (And unlike the way some revisionists tell it, all the evidence -or lack thereof- was there from the beginning, and you didn’t have to read the New Yorker- you could watch Comedy Central).
The Republicans dug us a huge economic hole, and have offered no solutions of their own, but now health care will cost too much? Please.
As for the motivations of “Blue Dog” Democrats, this website is often helpful:
http://www.opensecrets.org/

Obama did have a huge mandate, and he should have come out swinging harder than he did. The neocons don’t have the credibility, but they do have the dirty fighters. The President’s mistake was to think they might play fair when so much is at stake: they haven’t, and they won’t.