Gee, thanks Obama. Nice to have you on the side now.

One of my major complaints of Obama's Presidency was how he decided to handle the ACA negotiations. Obama had this perception of Congress as this place for passionate debate and compromise. That it wasn't really the President's job to interfere or lead the discussions.

So when it came time for the public option debate, Obama was nowhere to be found but offering tepid endorsements and "working the backrooms." Working the backroom wasn't good enough. It didn't offer actual threat of electoral consequences for the people stalling the bill and didn't utilize the bully pulpit. Guys like Lieberman and Nelson, and the Senate finance committee ended up hijacking the bill and holding out for concessions. Republicans expertly stringed Democrats along acting like they were willing participants just to stall out the process. And Obama just sat on his hands and demanded a bill.

So one of my key complaints is how Obama decided to fight publicly for the passage of a bill instead of publicly fight the battles for what was in the bill.