Mapping Obama's Mistakes

Jay Cost at RealClearPolitics' Horse Race Blog talks about What Went Wrong with Obama?:

Obama simply lacked the broad appeal to guide the House's liberal proposal through the Senate. So, the result of 'going big' was an initially liberal House product that then had to be watered down to win over red state Senators like Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson, and Pryor. The end result was a compromise bill that, frankly, nobody really liked. Liberals were disappointed, tantalized as they were by the initial House product. Conservatives were wholly turned off, recognizing as they did that the guts of the bill were still liberal. And Independents and soft partisans were disgusted by congressional sausage-making and wary of the bill's provisions.