The Democratic Party seems to have no earthly idea why it is so damn unpopular

[zentrum]

39. It wasn't just the bipartisinship

...problem. Insurance companies basically wrote the ACA. They threatened to destroy him with a fierce counter campaign and they had unlimited PAC money. I think as a new President, he felt he had to back off so he could have a win, and what emerged was this weak compromise.

But too, I think one of the main problems was that he invested so much political capital on the ACA, as soon as he was in office, and right in the middle of the Bush recession. It should have been jobs, jobs, jobs. The Dems should have been seen as the Party of Jobs. He was seen as doing this health care thing which was important but not the crisis at the middle of people's lives as unemployment went up to nearly 9% and they lost their houses and then, on top of that, the health bill was never explained well. It was confusing and the roll out was a mess. And people were forced to pay money they didn't really have.

So 20million got covered in an expensive way (expensive compared to single payer), insurance companies did pretty well, but how many millions were unemployed or underwater in their homes? I really think the ACA was not the best the Dems could have done at that time. Considering Obama's huge mandate and momentum. If he'd gone back to the people who voted for him and said "I need your help--let's do single payer"---he'd have gotten it. But he was cowed by the PAC's and the relentless tactics of the Repugs.

I think the problem goes back to the Democratic Leadership Council, established in the early 90's, and decisions they made about starting to accept corporate money as much as the Repugs did. That really changed the party.
Wish they had solved their low electability problem in another, more populist, way.