"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Obama is very radical himself, and he’s realizing that he’s in charge and not his advisers. To Obama, it’s all about Obama; to them, it was all about their theories of government, economy, or whatever.
Also, don’t think that just because the left is huffing and puffing, they’re really dissatisfied. Anybody with a lick of common sense sees that a phased in “surge” (which is NOT a surge) followed immediately by withdrawal is simply a strategy for doing nothing. Obama is afraid that the military and perhaps even the press will be upset with an imediate withdrawal, so he’s doing the same thing but dragging it out. The left realizes this, and ever since they discovered the fact that the approval of the extreme left translates into more disapproval from everybody else, they’ve realized that they’ve got to dissumulate a bit.
But I do think that Obama is beginning to set off on his own program now. The radical left created him, but he has escaped and he’s on the loose. This could be similar to some of the showdowns between the Leninists and the Trotskyites. But Joe Stalin is going to crush them all.