Why are we surprised?

Barack Obama is not a champion of liberalism. During the campaign, he ran on a platform of bi-partisanship and compromise, and that is exactly what he is doing now in his plan for health care reform... compromising.

I grant that the President has made concessions that have rendered any reform essentially moot, but at least he tried to understand the other side of the argument, as opposed to former President Bush, who not only dispensed with intelligent debate, but went out of his way to criminalize and stifle opposition to his policies. He has thus far behaved as if there are subtler shades of gray to policy making, and that public policy does not break down into black and white. Obama said he would reach across the aisle, and this is what he has done (albeit sometimes unsuccessfully). Why are people so surprised? We elected a negotiator, not a self-proclaimed crusader. We had eight long years of that. One scandal followed another. Thousands of American soldiers died as a result of that dreadful dogma. The economy crashed. If we are to remain a republic, compromise must remain the crucial element of the Office of President. Anything else is simply Tyranny.