... and they began gutting and watering down the bill because ....?

Do you think tea parties and Rush Limbaugh and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell had any hand in that?

Obama has to take his share of the responsibility for this, but I think that his original strategy was to let congress have a go at it and stay out of it in order not to repeat Clinton's mistake of having it be the President's agenda. in hindsight not such a good idea and he's failed to use hi spopularity and hi sbully pulpit to articulate why this is important.

But it's the right wing that has methodically pushed the 'socialist medicine government takeover' bullshit that has systematically pushed conservative and freaked out Democrats to gut their own legislation on this one. That and Dems who are really closet Republicans. And Joe Lieberman.