"In this case, blame the party, not the president."

As liberal bloggers hurl themselves lemming like off cliffs with their lilliputian laments over "Obama's Betrayal," it would behoove them to consider our President has to deal with a Democrat In Name Only like the inexcrable Ben Nelson, hypocrite NE, and Joe Lieber-douche, Senator from some cockamamie place that believes in Dorothy's Oz and Joe's honesty.

[Obama is a president, not a king. On taxes, for example, his position has been steady and clear all along: extend the broad tax cuts but kill the cuts aimed solely at the rich.

So why hasn't it happened? Because ofopposition from within his own party. A tax bill could have been passed by reconciliation in the Senate, but for some reason it wasn't. It could have been passed in the House, but a combination of Blue Dogs and fainthearted centrists afraid of attack ads blocked it. And as much as we all like to pine for the days of LBJ and the "treatment," those days are long gone. It's genuinely not clear what kind of leverage Obama has over recalcitrant members of Congress. Not a lot, in any case.]

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/12/barack-obama-president-not-king