his policies being retrograde and overly conservative? well, we have to be careful in how we characterize this, right? so there s a sense in which there s an argument that was being had among democrats about health care. barack obama made a case. he won in a certain way, but there were other people within the context of that argument arguing for him to go a bit further. so it seems to me, joe, that in the context but, eddie, he couldn t go further though. if you re debating this on a cable news show or in a princeton classroom, you can say that. but barack obama only got 50 votes. right. it was the one of the most difficult legislative fights in recent american history and he still barely got there. so it wasn t a question of what barack obama wanted. it was a question of what was possible and by the way, eddie,