Barack Obama is bitter that his mother had problems paying for cancer care. He revealed this during his speech at the health care summit.

His drive to push for government takeover of health care should be more than about him and his ideological and emotional grudges. Americans by large margins, across many polls, do not want Obamacare. That is what the President should be considering - not his own personal biography. This is reminiscent of the reasons some people have considered what motivates his disregard for the British. His grandfather was imprisoned by the British during their colonial days in Kenya. Con Coughlin, in a Wall Street Journal column, speculated that Barack Obama's rudeness to the British stems from this family history.

We know Barack Obama has a healthy self-regard. We also know that every President's policies are informed by his own history and personal experiences. However, personal grudges and bitterness do not make good policy - especially if they are exercised in ways that are inimical to Americans' desires and harmful to our place in the world.