Obama said, "I'm prepared to make a whole range of compromises"

[pinto]

38. I think it is similar to LBJ's America, but more so if that makes sense. We're extremely divided,

the stakes are high and the opportunities for real progress call for some deals to be made.

Health care - continue to expand access and protect the gains made to date.
Social equality - continue to expand legal equality for all and protect the gains made to date.
Taxation - continue to chip away at the inequities in our complex tax code and protect the gains made to date.
Federal government - continue to resist abdicating established federal oversight / guidelines / regulations.

All of these will require some compromises to be achieved, given the Congressional (i.e. House) membership for now. Gains have been made at some questionable costs and compromises. Yet they have been made. And Congress is the primary problem in the picture, not Obama.

Realistically, I get it that progress will likely be frustratingly incremental. And you have a good point, it's not LBJ's America in some ways. LBJ knew how to twist arms, make a hard deal. Was pretty blunt in the process. Obama is more a policy debater and tends to look for deals solely on the merits of the result. He himself has acknowledged that. I think the second term will be a different ball game.

Yet in some ways they both share the same approach - the long term gains to be made. I support that, as messy as the process may have to be.