Understanding Obama's mindset

From the State of the Union address: 

Still, [healthcare reform] is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became.  I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people. 

Blame? After all the speeches, one would think the legislation was thoroughly explained.  So, what is the President talking about?

It helps to understand a progressive's view of the role of the president.  From Woodrow Wilson's Leaders of Men: 

That the leader of men must have such sympathetic insight as shall enable him to know quite unerringly the motives which move other men in the mass is of course self–evident; but this insight … need only know what it is that lies waiting to be stirred in the minds and purposes of groups and masses of men. 

…

The competent leader of men cares little for the interior niceties of other people’s characters:  he cares much—everything for the external uses to which they may be put.  His will seeks the lines of least resistance; but the whole question with him is a question as to the application of force.  There are men to be moved:  how shall he move them?

So, what O, being the consumate Progressive that he is, is saying, I take my share of blame for failing to satisfactorily fulfill the role of progressive leader.  In a nutshell, this sums up O's mindset—how O sees his role as president:  Mover and shaker, progressive shaper of public opinion, all directed toward imposing the Progressive's agenda on the nation. 

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Postscript:  From O's remarks at the GOP House Issues Conference: 

I am not an ideologue. 

Amazing! When did pigs begin flying?