It's all about prioritizing.

Some GOP activists are getting a little upset on how elected Republicans are "retreating" on health care.

From the National Review:

Republicans ought to be seizing on each revelation to press the case for repealing Obamacare. It is, after all, the worst law the Democrats have enacted on Obama’s watch; and it is also the GOP’s best issue in this year’s elections. Instead Republicans have largely allowed the Democrats to switch the subject from their unpopular health-care legislation to financial regulation, oil spills, and immigration. They have been reacting to the news instead of trying to make it.

I agree with almost every part of the above paragraph. Without question, the GOP has been playing reactive politics rather than active politics. But I do take exception with this: "it is also the GOP’s best issue in this year’s elections."

As I said a couple days after passage of Obamacare:

The fact is this, health care is not the most important issue, and more relevant to the topic at hand, it's not the most tangible.

People are feeling the jobs crisis. They see their shrinking checking accounts. They are having trouble selling their homes. They know friends and family looking for jobs.

By and large, the majority of Americans aren't feeling a health care crisis. Sure, they think the system needs reformed, but mostly for the guy on TV the President is talking about, not for their own lives.

Of course, this doesn't mean the GOP shouldn't be utilizing missteps by the Obama administration to highlight how crappy the bill is, but it also doesn't mean it should be issue #1.

By far and away, the jobs crisis and the economy are the top issues on the minds of voters, and the failure of the stimulus is still our best weapon to highlight the ineptitude of Democrats.

We can't forget that.