This is a hopeful sign that Obama has learned the lessons of the health-care debate, when he acceded too easily to the wishes of Hill Democrats, allowing them to slow the legislation and engage in a protracted debate on the public option. Months of delay gave Republicans time to make their case against “socialism” and prevented action on more pressing issues, such as job creation. Democrats paid for that with 63 seats…

Liberals, if they can see beyond their pique, should realize that the emergence of Obama’s forceful leadership could be good for them. This time, he stood against his Democratic colleagues, but there’s reason to hope that he’ll show his newly discovered spine to the Republicans the next time.

One White House official told me that Obama will build a “shifting set of coalitions, issue by issue” over the next two years. If so, and if Obama will no longer allow those in the Capitol to run his presidency, he’ll have a strong couple of years.