Versions of the myth popped up each time something went wrong, even among the president's staff. Gen. Jim Jones, Obama's national security adviser, explained the failure to have terrorism specialists question the Christmas Day Detroit bomber as "one case where we didn't support the president as well as he should have been supported."

Fact is, Obama announced creation of the specialist unit five months earlier, but never followed up to make sure his words were turned into deeds. He spoke and assumed it had happened.

But it wasn't his fault when it all went wrong. Nothing ever is.

Until now.

By leaving his fingerprints, his DNA and proudly claiming ownership of yet another massive health-care plan, Obama has removed any doubts about where he stands. He can no longer hide behind the illusion he was an honest broker looking for the kind of common-sense fixes the country wants.

We have found the radical in our midst. He sits in the Oval Office.

This, of course, is not a revelation to millions of Americans, especially independent voters who never took to Obama or who abandoned him. Former supporters -- I raise my hand -- have concluded he misrepresented himself as a centrist who would unite the broad middle of the nation.

Yet polls showing Obama remains more popular than his policies reflect a lingering faith among many he will prove to be the man he promised he was during the campaign.

It's not gonna happen. He is who he is.

By trying to revive a massive government takeover the public doesn't want, Obama has passed up another big chance to govern from the center and turn his full attention to the sagging economy and high unemployment.

Even worse, his health plan incorporates some very bad ideas embraced by Congress, and adds new bad ones of its own. According to The Wall Street Journal, he adds about $75 billion in costs, which he covers by more taxes. He would increase penalties for individuals who don't buy insurance and raise fines for businesses that don't offer coverage to employees.

His plan also gives birth to a new bureaucracy that could block insurers from rate hikes it finds "unreasonable or unjustified." That makes it -- dare we say it? -- a death panel for insurance companies, their customers and stockholders.

Obama's plan, coming on the eve of his gimmicky televised summit with GOP leaders, carries a warning he's on board with Dem plans to short-circuit opponents. A rules maneuver called reconciliation, it would eliminate the need for 60 Senate votes and require only a simple majority.

All of which means the vast public rejection of the overhaul, along with the clear message of the upset Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, are being ignored. Once again, Obama marches to a drummer out of step with the country.