The endless effort to pass a health insurance reform bill will go down as one of the great debacles in U.S. political history. In early 2009, Democrats had wide lead over Republicans in the matchup for congress and overall party identification. The Republican administration had left a deep recession and rising unemployment. However, after passing a needed, but insufficent, stimulus bill, Democrats promptly stopped focusing on the need to reduce unemployment and correct the policies that led to the '08 financial collapse, and through most of their energy and effort into passing a health insurance reform bill.
That was their mistake. Just check the polling over the last year. By comparison, when FDR came into office he focused solely on economic recovery and economic regulation. It was not until 1935 that social security was passed. However, rather than keeping the focus on the economy, which is what most of the general public wanted, and from which Democrats could have reaped political benefits by keeping the focus on the Republicans' responsibility for the mess, Obama and congressional Democrats focused their effort and energy on an issue which they should have known would inevitably divide the party and the public.