Mandark, you're comparing second term apples to first term oranges. 
We all know why Bush was able to get his way so easily in 2002-3 and I'd rather not see those circumstances repeat. Pre-9/11 Bush passed an education bill co-written by Ted Kennedy and a tax cut (the easiest, most popular thing you can call major legislation).
I think Taibbi's piece captures a kind of liberal self-flagellation. The sky is falling, failure is immanent, and our guys are ineffectual wimps while theirs are Machiavellian geniuses. I get where he's coming from. The administration has been disappointing in a few areas and the process of getting this through Congress has been dumb and frustrating.
But it misses two things. First, comprehensive reform of the US health system is really fucking hard. That's why it's never happened before. Second, the climate has shifted towards reform pretty drastically in the last few years. This plan is vastly more ambitious (even without the public plan) than the ones Gore and Kerry ran on, and health care wasn't a major issue in the 2006 elections. That this is even happening now is in large part because of Obama himself (and my boy Edwards, for pushing it to the forefront in the primaries).
The final bill is going to be less than it should be, but just a few years ago we would have killed to get something like this.
