Easy answer why Obama has problems from progressive side...

Question: Why is President Obama having trouble in keeping his liberal base enthusiastic?
Answer: Because Obama's rhetoric hasn't matched the action.

It would almost be laughable, if it weren't sad, that now Obama is scrambling to encourage the liberal base to stay with him. But there is also a whiff of contempt and snottiness that those White House people seem to have for the progressive base that got them there in the first place. When Vice President Biden tells the left to "stop whning" or when press secretary Robert Gibbs refers to the left in insulting ways, then you can't help but wonder if they really want to represent the progressive view. Maybe it is just too hard to stand tough with progressive ideas and action. Maybe it is just politically easier to compromise with Blue Dogs and Republicans.

Obama and the White House people remind me a bit of "Eddie," the character from the old TV series "Leave It To Beaver." Eddie was always so proper and polite when he was in the presence of the Cleaver parents in that show. In articulation, he was the model young man. But the Cleaver parents were never fooled. They knew the reality that Eddie's actions, often bad-boy, didn't match his words.

Oh, that's President Obama's problem. He is the best speaker, with speeches, that I have ever heard in the current times of America. Martin Luther King Jr. was another eloquent speaker. Of course, King would have never bartered with the South in order to find some common compromise that, in effect, would have resulted in poor-quality law and bad social conditions. He wouldn't have traded for integrated drugstore counters in exchange for allowing segregated drinking fountains. King's words led the way to his actions. Unfortunately, Obama's speeches don't translate well into the action. His rhetoric doesn't seem to match the action, perhaps because the reality of politics won't allow it or perhaps because he doesn't committedly fight for it. As much as like Obama's speeches, I almost dread hearing them now. Am I hearing the ring of truth or the disguise of politics?

Now Obama needs the progressive base...again. Wow, imagine that. What visionary couldn't have seen that need? Only a fool who did care or who took his support for granted would have been so out-of-touch.

There are some good changes (that I can believe in) going on right now. Lawrence Summers, the economic adviser, is leaving the administration. Good riddance. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is leaving the administration to run for mayor of Chicago. Good riddance, and good luck to poor Chicago. Those are some changes that might lead to hope for progressive change and improvements.

However, when Obama's rhetoric truly matches the action, then he won't have any problem gaining the support of progressives. It is just too bad that a lot of progress and good candidates, like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, may well be in danger because the Obama administration chose weak and inadequate compromise over strong principles that could have achieved both progressive action and strong support.