At sparsely attended sessions this week at the Omni Shoreham, the progressive leaders debated whether they should shift their efforts to defending Obama, or fighting him when he strays from liberal doctrine. “It was easy taking back America,” Robert Borosage, the conference organizer, told about 250 of the faithful at yesterday’s closing luncheon. “Now we have to remake it. . . . That’s the hard work.”

Apparently so. Speakers at the closing session exhorted the liberals to take back America — from Obama. “The president of the most powerful country in the world is doing all right, but there are a lot of people in this country who are not doing all right,” writer Naomi Klein told the crowd. “Obama is making us stupid,” she added. “Love can make you stupid.”

And Leo Gerard, head of the United Steelworkers, warned that if his fellow activists don’t “seize the opportunity to lead with our progressive ideas,” then “Rahm Emanuel will lead.” And while “Rahm has the president’s back,” the union leader said of Obama’s chief of staff, “I don’t think he has our back.”