out : Some critics urged the President to press for a single-payer system-Medicare for all. Despite its ample merits, such a system had no chance of winning congressional backing. Obama achieved the achievable. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the single greatest expansion of the social safety net since the advent of Medicaid and Medicare, in 1965. Not one Republican voted in favor of it. The idea that Obama should be criticised because he didn't go further -- as some Senators refused to go along -- misses the wood for the trees. Once established and reinforced (providing Obama is re-elected), it would be near impossible for Republicans to reverse it later. In passing the bill Obama surpassed even FDR and his efforts. By the time the bill passed, in July 2010, the legislation hadn't found many new friends. Banks were especially upset by the inclusion of the Volcker Rule, which banned proprietary trading and virtually all hedge-fund investing by banks. Banks also complained about an amendment that slashed lucrative debit-card fees. They capitulated mainly because the alternative-breaking them up-was worse. ... And yet, from the moment Dodd-Frank passed, the banks' financial results have tended to slide downward, in significant part because of measures taken in anticipation of its future effect. Ignore the opinion columns that take predictable positions; look at what the banks themselves are saying and doing. * * * * * * * * * * * * Where he failed In 2009, when President Obama