By end of Obama's presidency, most hope had vanished

By end of Obama's presidency, most hope had vanished: Distinctly Catholic: Politics is about the admixture of ideals, relationships and power, and Obama seemed incapable of sorting out the mix.

MGB: The problem with the ACA debate is that he listened to political strategy too much.  He should have included the Public Option rather than drop it because a few conservative Democrats were up for election.  They either did not run or lost anyway.   Democrats have never been a congressional party to fall in line when in the majority (their minority behavior is different), although they did do a good job in unifying around the stimulus plan, which was inadequate because they needed at least one Republican (they got three).  Obama did get his way on taxes at the end of his first term and did successfully play chicken on the debt limit, both very important.  Twice he got the GOP to abandon the Hastert rule - no small feat.  He also survived a racist GOP opposition without doing what Trump would likely do with similar opposition.  These will be considered the golden years.