Obama lost the hearts & minds of people with insurance & are scared about what they will lose if coverage is extended to the 45 million without it.

Eleanor Clift writes in Newsweek:

Much of the current impasse is a problem of Obama's own making. By leaving the writing of the legislation to Congress and his own wishes deliberately vague, he lost the clarity of message that would have helped sell voters on the need to overhaul a sixth of the economy. This is classic Obama. He doesn't show his hand and leaves people guessing as to what he'll really fight for, if anything. It's a strategy designed to allow him to take credit for whatever passes. He doesn't want a debate about how much he surrendered along the way. By keeping his counsel about critical aspects of reform and playing so much of an inside game, he gave up the bully pulpit, his most powerful tool, squandering the advantage he once held in public opinion.

He did a superb job co-opting most of the big dogs that killed health-insurance reform in 1993, keeping doctors and hospitals in the loop and negotiating an $80 billion deal with the drug companies to narrow the hole where Medicare patients lose coverage. But what he lost along the way is the hearts and minds of people who already have insurance and are scared about what they'll lose if coverage is extended to some 45 million Americans without insurance. In one of the raucous town meetings that popped up on YouTube, the lawmaker asks how many in the audience are without insurance, and not a single hand went up.