Retiring Democratic Senator Says Obama Erred By Tackling Health Care First

FOXNews:

Sen. Byron Dorgan, who announced he would not seek re-election in November, said Friday that President Obama should have focused his first year in office on improving the economy instead of pursuing health care reform.

In an interview that will air Sunday on C-SPAN, the North Dakota Democrat said Obama made a mistake, not because health care isn't important but because the timing wasn't good.

"Standing in a very deep hole, it's hard to reach as high as you need to reach in order to put together a proposal that can get through the Congress," he said. "I personally would have said, let's work exclusively on restarting the economic engine once again and putting people back to work."

Dorgan's rebuke echoed comments made by fellow Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who also said this month that Obama should have focused on jobs first.