You can tell when people feel strongly about things--they go to the trouble of making metaphors to express themselves. Here are two I noticed this morning, just in passing:

"[Obama] has a broad, broad agenda that he's in a rush to enact, and if he's not careful he will be viewed as a steamroller who tries to get things fast and not necessarily right."

"This isn't how a democracy works. This process is how professional wrestling works."

I'm also noting lots of language describing Obama as trying to "ram" or "strong-arm" the health care bill through (see, for example, the New York Times article linked above); these are metaphorical images, too, and not flattering ones.

The thing about images like these is that once they are made, they stick. As the Times article notes, Obama "is at a pivotal moment. ... How he handles the issue over the next several weeks could shape the rest of his presidency." So much of Obama's popularity--and power--has to do with his image. That's why he continues to poll pretty well even as his policies are tanking in the polls. But is the image changing, too? I think it might be.

UPDATE 7/24: Still more:

--"They say they feel they are being asked to buy on spec from a government they do not trust."

"Ms. Pelosi said she was not worried about losing steam if votes were postponed to the fall."

That steam would be from the steamroller cited above.