Leadership is about doing the right thing. Leaders must be deaf to expediency where principle is involved. What 8 Democratic Senators did in voting with the Republicans may have led to an ending of the U.S. government shutdown, but was not the right thing. It was capitulation. It was a cave in. They achieved little, if anything. They agreed to a future vote on ACA tax credits without the votes to prevail. A failure of leadership. The Democrats were winning. The American people supported them. Yet they caved in.