Dean: Obama's staff "misjudged" progressives

Politico:

Former Democratic national chairman Howard Dean says President Barack Obama's staff has "misjudged" American progressives.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier this month that the "professional left" is too critical of the president. On Sunday, Dean said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he doesn't know what Gibbs meant by that phrase.

"I think that the people around the president have really misjudged what goes on elsewhere in the country, other than Washington," Dean said.

"I don't think this is true of the president, but I do think his people, his political people, have got to go out and spend some time outside Washington for a while. The average Democrat is a progressive," he said, adding that the administration had made "upsetting" deals on health care to get the bill passed.

But he said Democrats should put infighting behind them and focus on maintaining majorities in the House and Senate in November.