The Obama idea ran something like this: People know there are problems with health care, they want the uninsured covered and they want relief from what they may regard as an unfair bureaucracy at many insurance companies. Therefore, the scheme went, this is the time to introduce the vehicle of "reform" that will be sold as limited, but end up in a couple of elections with nationalized (socialized) health care in the supposedly great European tradition.

With President Obama riding a wave of popularity and with media that literally would eat out of his hand if they could get that close, the Administration bet that a big push should be made this year. The Recession didn't bother them; they tried to turn it to their advantage, asserting that somehow increased spending on government medical care would save money for the economy.

What has happened politically is very different from what the Obama Administration hoped. Instead of the President's popularity carrying the medical care proposals to victory, the increasing public unease over a costly new entitlement has cut into Obama's job approval rates.

Meanwhile, the reporting of the major media finally is beginning to take cognizance of the problems with the assorted Democratic bills in Congress. Until the public's opposition started to firm up, Establishment organs were describing each development in language that the White House might have crafted itself. The failure of the public to see the proposed changes as mere "reforms", however, as Democratic leaders and the media have presented them, is testimony to the discernment of public opinion once a subject finally gets enough attention that people can see behind the headlines and the spin.

Hats off to The Wall Street Journal editorial pages on this one. The Journal's Peggy Noonan's insightful weekend piece quickly became the "most emailed" of the paper's work. But outstanding digging went on by other columnists, including John Fund and Kimberley Strassel.

The Journal's editorial writers on Friday ("A Better Health Reform") called, wisely, for Obama to respond to the current de facto reversal of momentum on the Administration-favored Congressional health care bills to develop a program that would have bi-partisan support. He could start by taking a fresh look at what Sen. McCain proposed last fall.

In truth, the President should step back and realize that his big scheme is not going to make it, even with much of the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies and apparently the bulk of the American Medical Association having thrown in with him in hopes of being spared government revenge. If, instead, he made a more limited proposal that ordinary people in both parties could understand and applaud, the political reality is that it is he who would be given credit in the end. He could just adopt John McCain's proposals and the public would still call it Obama Care. That would be bad for Republicans politically, but it would be good for the country and the economy.

Instead the President seems intent on pushing ahead. As a result, his public approval ratings are falling fast and, with them, his whole domestic program. Critics say that the Rassmussen Poll is often skewed toward Republicans, but there is no ignoring what it says about the trend.