Obama's War Within the Democratic Party

President Obama is raising more doubts than ever on the Democratic left about his goals and policies, even though liberals provided some of the most passionate support for his election. If the doubts intensify, they could jeopardize Obama's ability to negotiate a grand compromise on healthcare and eventually undermine his ability to move his larger agenda through Congress.

Perhaps the most troubling sign for Obama is that the left is increasingly distressed over the war in Afghanistan. MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group that mobilized many young people for Obama's campaign last year, is now pressuring the president to shift course. In an E-mail to its members, the group says, "U.S. policy in Afghanistan has reached a pivotal moment. President Obama is poised to make a critical decision about the Afghanistan war in the next few weeks." The message adds that "pro-war advocates," such as Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, are calling for "a big escalation," but others, including Vice President Joe Biden, "are urging caution."

MoveOn, which claims 5 million members, says, "Some administration officials are arguing for a smaller, nimbler approach with a narrow focus on the threat from al Qaeda," and urges its members to "write to the White House and tell them we need a clear exit strategy—not tens of thousands more U.S. troops stuck in a quagmire."

That's not the only flash point. Concern and anger also are rising on the left over healthcare reform. The Senate Finance Committee stirred the pot last week when it rejected two proposals to provide government-sponsored health insurance. Liberals want this so-called public option to compete against private insurers and theoretically hold prices down, and they pledge to wage an all-out campaign before the full Senate to get their way. The committee vote was "just the first battle, and the least friendly battlefield," Sen. Charles Schumer, a liberal Democrat from New York, told reporters.

But Schumer's relatively mild comments don't reflect the left's depth of disappointment, Democratic strategists say. In fact, liberal groups targeted Sen. Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the committee, with a television ad last week in his home state of Montana and in Washington, D.C. The 60-second commercial, sponsored by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America, tells the poignant story of Bing Perrine, a Montana father whose family has accumulated more than $100,000 in medical debts because of his heart problems. No private insurance company will cover him. The ad makes the case for the public option, and it is an attempt to put Baucus on the hot seat. This could be the start of internecine warfare within the Democratic coalition.

Liberals are hoping that Obama's support for a government insurance option will eventually persuade Congress to include such a provision in a final bill, but Obama hasn't made his commitment to the public option ironclad. And this will make him even more of a political target as the weeks go on.

If the full Senate passes a bill, as expected, the entire issue of healthcare overhaul will be decided in a House-Senate conference committee. And because the House is strongly in favor of the public option, the likelihood is for a major confrontation. Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, predicts that this is exactly what will happen. And he believes that the public option (which he opposes) will carry the day. "What we've seen this week is not indicative of what we're ultimately going to get," Steele says. This would give the liberals a victory and lower the heat level of their disappointment with Obama. But if the public option fails, there will be hell to pay.

As far as the White House is concerned, there is no open break between liberals and the Obama administration. Not yet, at least, and White House strategists argue that the liberals really have a friend in Obama, who is pushing for much of their agenda on social policy. The White House argument is that the liberals have nowhere else to go, and it's not in their interest to alienate Obama. But the left's patience is wearing thin.

In the end, it is probably the war in Afghanistan that will make the difference. Many liberals believe the situation there looks more and more like the stalemate of Vietnam. And a major escalation by Obama could do more than anything else to shatter the uneasy peace at home.

• See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.
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