Glenn Greenwald tweets: "The most intense passion Obama exhibits is when he gets to explain why the Left is so misguided: he really lights up; it's inspiring."
John Aravosis tweets: "Once again, the only moment Obama gets animated is when he's going after the left. None of that anger/passion against GOP."
There are plenty of very fine diaries here doing a very good job of discussing the ins and outs of policy and politics in regard to Obama’s latest ‘compromise’ with political forces who are generally opposed to the people’s best interest. Rather than presenting well-crafted, in-depth criticisms of Obama’s political mechanizations, this diary simply observes how differently Obama seems to treat certain political groups, in particular, progressives (many of us).
What I’ve found striking is the lack of respect President Obama has frequently betrayed with progressives, who, myself included in no small financial way, supported him strongly in 2008. It is a condescending tone he takes with no other group, including GOP politicians, as consistently. You certainly would never hear him use this tone with the Tea Party supporters.
You would need to watch the video at this Talking Points Memo piece to get the full effect of how fired up Obama was when he was talking to and about progressives toward the end of the press conference, but contrast these two passages from the TPM link:
To Democrats:
Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.
... And so, to my Democratic friends, what I'd suggest is, let's make sure that we understand this is a long game, this is not a short game.
And:
And to my Republican friends, I would suggest, I think this is a good agreement, because I know they're swallowing some things that they don't like as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the field of competition over the next two years.
Notice the much greater passivity and respect accorded when he addresses Republicans.
Now, I put the over-and-under for the "Awww, Obama hurt the wittle wiberals’ feewings" at about the third comment, but one’s tone (not just the words spoken, but accompanying gestures, voice inflections, and so forth) can reveal a lot about one’s true beliefs. I strongly suspect that many Democrats in Congress have observed this same discrepancy in their dealings with Obama. My impression for quite some time has been that Obama has roughly the same opinion of progressive Democrats that much of the establishment media have of bloggers.
It’s one thing to pick fights with a political opponent; it’s quite another to pick one with a group of people who probably sacrificed a helluva lot more than I did in supporting him. Obama would do well to take a long look at this poll.
So, here is my compromise, as one of the sanctimonious purists of the Left: I promise to get more with-it on the concept of 'compromise' if President Obama promises to study the concepts of ‘political base,’ 'bargaining from a position of strength' and ‘persuasion.’