I have a liberal black coworker who swears that this is all a brilliant Obama strategy to trap Republicans like he did with birth control, but unlike that fight(where I could see trouble coming) I can see that this conflict is not in Obama’s best interest. He is trying to play it both ways and he is caught doing it, and there is no phony compromise he can make up that satisfies both his liberal base and independent voters as with the BC mandate,
If he surrenders now and says he has suddenly 'evolved' then Republicans can accuse him of being a slave to that group, much like his campaign strategy accuses Romney of being hostage to the Tea Party,