Mr. Weisberg wrote:

"Barack Obama, too, seems to be caught in this dialectical rut. His early difficulties with health care reform, which will probably be the defining domestic initiative of his presidency, are the consequence of over-learning Clinton's lessons."

Am I closely following the same health care reform process as Mr. Weisberg? Do I understand Mr. Obama's philosophy in the same way? Apparently not. He was a candidate who said he was personally a liberal but that he would govern from the center. That's what he's doing.

In the first place, Obama has said it so many times that the press must just disbelieve him out of cynical habit. He is a liberal promising a an agenda of moderate to liberal change. His personal preference for a health care system is a single payer system. He knows that won't happen. So, his proposal is for a public option and a dozen other progressive details. He knows and has said he knows that many of these features will need to be compromised so long as the ultimate bill addresses his key concerns. He has brilliantly allowed the factions within his party to work out their philosophical differences without polarizing the debate by firmly taking sides.

Why has he taken this approach? First, he wants to guarantee that he gets a bill. Second, and significantly, he actually prefers a bill that can begin a national consensus around health care reform. This won't be the last health reform measure during his administration, and he needs as much support as he can get to make the new approach as non-controversial and effective as possible.

The fact that the most progressive wing of the Democratic party is unhappy is no surprise to me and certainly no surprise to Obama. But he has never been on the same page with the left, even though he is philosophically aligned with them. He believes in change with the added virtue of bringing in as many factions as possible.

The most surprising part of the Weisberg quote above is the very notion that he is having "early difficulties with health reform." The only early difficulty I have seen is that he needs to get his own message clearer when he talks about healthcare to the public. It's complicated and he needs to put it into populist terms.

But the progress on the Hill has been no less than stunning. Even if dozens and dozens of liberals don't get their way on every important detail -- do you think they'll vote against a package brought to the floor by Pelosi and Reid? Hell no! Nor will the Blue Dogs want to earn a reputation as the giant killer by blocking a bill. In a few months, they have come close to enacting changes that have eluded our nation for fifty years of trying.

As usual, Obama is winning and the media doesn't get it. Obama is on his way to revolutionary progress influenced and adjusted by moderate thinking. That is his trademark and its working again.