Yglesias: the budget catastrophe is Obama's critics' fault.

This is what I'm talking about:

I hope people remember this year next time large Democratic majorities produce an inadequate stimulus bill, a not-good-enough health reform bill, a somewhat weak financial regulation bill, and fail to deliver on their promises for immigration and the environment. It’s easy in a time like that to get cynical and dismissive about the whole thing. But there’s actually a huge difference between moving forward at a slower-than-ideal pace and scrambling to reduce the pace at which you move backwards. Now we’re moving backwards.

Not according to Obama. He just said we're winning the future!

This response to Yglesias nails it:

I hope Democratic majorities remember that they lose elections when they fail to deliver results (or in the case of civil liberties and executive power, when they actually move backwards by ratifying the abuses of the prior administration.) The next time Democrats win majorities, I will encourage as many people as possible to make their continued support conditional on results.

We do not have a problem with Democrats not winning elections often enough, we have a problem with Democratic politicians not doing their job when they win. What we should do is organize a parallel set of progressive institutions that makes their support for Democratic politicians conditional on progressive outcomes.

Exactly.