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The quote from FDR in the first comment is a good one; I have a similar one drawn from personal experience.
Some years ago I was involved in a project to lobby Congress to end the war in Vietnam. I and a colleague met with Rep. Pete McClosky, a California Republican who had co-sponsored several resolutions seeking to cut off funding for the war.
We spoke for about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer, but the pull quote from that conversation was him saying "Keep my feet to the fire." He made it clear that he was getting a lot of pressure from the pro-war side and he needed war opponents to keep their own pressure up if only because it enabled him to say "Look, my constituents are demanding this, I can't ignore them."
We can't forget the other side will be in there pushing whether we are or not. That is as true with Obama now as it was with McClosky then.
