On Friday, President Barack Obama told House Republicans that he wasn't an impractical idealist and Sen. Lamar Alexander agrees.

"If you were to listen to the debate, and frankly how some of you went after this bill," Obama said while speaking to the House Republican retreat. "You'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot."

"I'm not an ideologue. I'm not," the president argued.

Chris Wallace asked Sen. Lamar Alexander Sunday if he agreed that the president isn't an ideologue. "In many ways, no," he said.

Alexander continued, "But I think he doesn't think he's an ideologue but I think he approaches things in a way a professor would in terms of big comprehensive schemes. When, in fact, the way the big complicated country we have works best when we solve problems step-by-step."

Following Alexander on "Fox News Sunday," conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer took exception to the senator's description of the president. "I disagree with my colleagues on interpreting how the president is acting. I think he has not learned. I think he has not changed. I think he remains an ideologue and I don't see a pivot," he said.

John Amato:

I think the fact that President Obama said he's not an ideologue is a big problem for the Democratic Party and his base. He's the leader of the party and if he's not making a case for an ideology then he's actually attacking his own Congress.

Obama clearly is not a progressive ideologue and a reason his approval ratings are down as much is because the base feels they are not being represented. Krauthammer is not being honest on this issue because he's pushing the Roger Aile's agenda of defining the president. If Obama did push HCR like an ideologue, the base would be pumped up and a bill would have been passed by now.