[...] if Barack Obama found himself caving in to the lobbyists and watering down his reform of the health care system, it’s because his preelection promises were not sufficiently specific. He hadn’t really been elected on a program, hence his current weakness. Looking on from Europe, where we’re more sensitive to the international dimension of Obama’s election, we tend to be more forgiving of the American president. Obama certainly should have avoided using Republican arguments in the primaries to criticize Hillary Clinton’s health plan, which was more ambitious than his. [...]