I was reading the cover story of the New York Times Sunday Magazinethe other day—the one about Obama’s team taking Capitol Hill—and I came upon the following quote from Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

“The only nonnegotiable principle here,” he said, “is success. Everything else is negotiable.”

That’s the problem I have with Emanuel—and with Obama.

There’s no principle they’re willing to go to the mat for.

They didn’t fight for universal single-payer health care.

They didn’t fight for giving judges the authority to reduce the mortgages of people in bankruptcy.

They didn’t fight against the bank bailout.

They didn’t fight to keep GM from shutting down plants and laying off 21,000 people, even when they’re taking ownership of GM.

They didn’t fight for marriage equality or against don’t ask, don’t tell.

They didn’t fight against indefinite detention without trial; hell, they’ve embraced it.

They didn’t fight to dismantle Bush’s entire edifice of repression, including the NSA spying and the Military Commissions Act.

And they haven’t fought to bring the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to speedier close.

Emanuel’s comment is the very definition of being unprincipled. From a DLC-er like him, I’m not surprised.

But many expected better from Obama.

Success is not a principle. It’s an outcome.

And the outcome is going to be much less satisfactory if there’s no principle being fought for.