Two quick observations: To the extent that any left-wing president cares at all about public opinion -- or reelection -- such disappointment on the left is inevitable. That's because America, quite simply, is a conservative country on the whole -- and won't swallow rotten ideas like ObamaCare whole.
Of course, liberals were hoping that the sheer force of Obama's rhetoric could transform Americans into social democrats. If that's what they were counting on, they shouldn't have gone for a guy like President Obama, who's spent his life in the faculty lounge, and therefore has -- as I've pointed out before -- no experience persuading people to share his point of view