Democrats face a dilemma of juggling ideology, with the hard demands of the party's base, against the pragmatism of governing and maintaining a large majority.

What a preposterously false dichotomy. What a crock. The correct choice is to legislate based upon principles of liberalism, not to reward your corporate benefactors. Guess what? That'll keep you in the Majority. Remember?

I agree that Obama is coming closer to edge of standing for "whatever" rather than standing for key isssues and positions. He is presiding over a dysfunctional Senate that proects its own and can not move forward. Obama must lead or jeopordize his agenda. Has he not learned that working with the GOP is killing hope and change and his own political future?

I'm afraid I don't read Obama's remarks the same way Eric does and I don't think they sustain his headline that Obama wants to "revise" Stupak's amendment.

The president says: "And I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test -- that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we're not restricting women's insurance choices, because one of the pledges I made in that same speech was to say that if you're happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, that it's not going to change."

The "provision" he is talking about certainly seems to be the health care reform package as a whole, not the Stupak amendment. While there is sufficient ambiguity for Eric to interpret it another way, I don't think you can make the claim that Obama wants to revise Stupak without a more explicit statement on his part. And it isn't there.

if you expand the quote even further, the context (and kleefeld's reading) becomes clear:

TAPPER: Here’s a question a lot of Senate Democrats want to know. You said, when you gave your joint address to Congress, that under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions. This amendment passed Saturday night which not only prohibits abortion coverage in the public option, but also prohibits women who receive subsidies from taking out plans that — that provide abortion coverage. Does that meet the promise that you set out or does it over reach, does it go too far?

OBAMA: You know, I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. And we’re not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions. And I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test — that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we’re not restricting women’s insurance choices, because one of the pledges I made in that same speech was to say that if you’re happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, that it’s not going to change. So, you know, this is going to be a complex set of negotiations. I’m confident that we can actually arrive at this place where neither side feels that it’s being betrayed. But it’s going to take some time.