If a bill, that gives the gift of tens of millions of involuntary customers to the health insurance industry, and affords to the tax payers the great privilege of paying for those who are uninsurable because of preexisting conditions, is the President's signal achievement, we need Obama's achievements as much as we clamor for the swine flu virus.

i wouldn't dismiss weisberg by any means, but his piece is surely the rah rah piece par excellance.

the mingling of "public option" "abortion" and "taxing Botox" is indicative of the rah rah, and the "a bit to sanguine about the real effects" by jacob weisberg.

but then we are dealing with slate.com ... reality is rarely a big deal over there...

Now THAT's spin we can believe in!

It is a little early for retrospection, isn't it?

To tell you the truth, I think Obama has done a great job so far. His singular achievement is making Republican racist heads explode. Now that's change we can believe in. You betcha.

I agree with Steve that 2010 is shaping up to be a disaster that will kill all chance of further progress.

Weisberg offers a good model for the same kind of "no, Obama really did a lot" op/eds that came out on the anniversary of the 2008 election. Fine, but what did he do for the progressives who backed him to the hilt in 08 and who are now so soured as to sit out 2010? A watered-down stinker on HCR, more war, anemic or no jobs bill, a Social Security commission, shelving don't ask/don't tell . . . For the Democrats' sake lets hope that the mythical silent majority of centrist voters turn out. Alternatively, a bold strategist within the administration might propose addressing the concerns another constituency, registered Democrats.

+10% unemployment, two wars, and a failure to close GITMO are a pretty strong counterweight to the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Frontline pretty much destroyed the new credit card reform bill this past week as truly being an effective measure.

If we judge a President's "success" on getting Supreme Court nominees confirmed then President Bush had a really successful second term. Hell, he didn't even have the majority in the Senate tha Obama had to get Roberts and Alito confirmed.

Let's hope year 2 is better than year 1.

I won't be voting for Obama in 2012 based on his first year. Yes, if he's the nominee, he gets my vote because he would be better than anyone from the insane party. But if there is a primary--and I hope there is one--he's not getting my support.

I like to think that I have company here. It's early, but he's giving me no reason to think that year 2 will be different from year one.

I think it is important to introduce a Constitutional Amendment banning super-majorities in all things other than a declaration of war.

Legislatures will obviously be unable to pass it due to minority obstruction, but I think it is necessary to introduce the amendment to establish the general interest of the minority in disrupting society.

Anyone who votes against it will have to defend that vote every time they run.

This Vietnam vet, who worked hard for Obama in the election, is not a happy camper. I'm disappointed in many of his policies, but I'm angry on his Afghanistan policy. Afghanistan will be Obama's abyss. I personally will work for any democrat or independent candidate that comes out against the Afghanistan build-up.

Raising positive points to negative whiners always gets their panties in a bunch.

And gregor, your monitoring of this site and probably others to palce your posts at the top pretty much labels you as a troll. The only trouble is your comments rarely make sense as your mindless rant at the top of this page well illustrates.

Didn't George Bush

"swiftly and determinedly remodel" America's global role?

Just askin' ... how about his immediate scrapping of the nuclear test ban treaty, nuclear nonproliferation, the ABM treaty, the deals with North Korea, support for the International Criminal Court? Then later, the Geneva Conventions? His "Bush Doctrine" that the US would come down with overwhelming force on anyone who made him feel uneasy? Preventive War?

Admittedly, the last 8 years were like a nightmare. But they were real. Don't ever forget.

He has accomplished a great deal but when the economy is still crappy, everybody is in a foul mood.

Obama may soon be able to point to his first 12 months in office and say he rescued the economy from a depression

If Krugman turns out to be right, then all Obama has done is delay the depression a year or two. We will have to wait and see, but I have more faith in Krugman's analytical abilities than I do in the economic team Obama chose (who were part of the braintrust who got us near a depression in the first place and seem to think doing the same things again is somehow sane).

Micheline The economy looks to be improving. In polls in January 2009 a large majority of the people were willing to give Obama 1 1/2 to 2 years to get the economy on track. The recovery looks to be on schedule. Could be better but could easily be much worse. If by July 2010 things are going backwards then all of the whiners will have a point but staedy improvement has been the trend. This above all else is what is making the Republicans fear the future and it is why they are dong whatever they can to impede progress. It is difficult to see democrats joining their ranks.

And gregor, your monitoring of this site and probably others to palce your posts at the top pretty much labels you as a troll.

do you mean gregor or neill?

The meme that Obama has accomplished a great deal - all to America's detriment - is counterbalanced by the opposite meme that Obama is a ditherer and empty suit. Neither meme makes much sense but they're not meant to. It's just the attack itself that means something, usually visceral and nonsensical, but a vehicle for the rageaholics on the right.

He has accomplished a great deal but when the economy is still crappy, everybody is in a foul mood.

Posted by: Micheline

And that's the whole discussion in a nutshell: approval ratings, right track/wrong track, what "independents" think, it all comes down to the economy.

but a vehicle for the rageaholics on the right.

They're not all on the right. I'm not a cheerleader, but to everyone who says Obama has done nothing, specifically about jobs, look back to the stimulus (i.e. jobs) package, and look what a hard time Obama had getting that through, tripped up by Demcrats (Nelson and McCaskill at the head of the line) all the way. And to everyone who likes to keen about how Bush was able to do so much with smaller majorities: Republicans and Democrats are different, and are judged very differently by the Broderist media. This is news to whom?

OK you can call me a troll or whatever, but the facts are what they are.

1. The Iraq war continues. No noticeable reduction in the number of troops.

2. The Afghanistan involvement will be escalated.

3. Gitmo is not going to be closed.

4. Not a hint of any prosecutions for torture.

5. The DOJ supports GWB's DOJ's positions on most issues.

5. The health care bill is a giveaway to the insurance industry, and the public option, even if it is retained as a part of the bill, is nothing substantial. Ask the experts.

These are substantive complaints about major issues. To say that it takes time is to ignore the trajectory of Obama's actions and words on these matters.

You guys are delusional if you think that a majority of the public will buy the excuses being put forth by the Obama diehards.

look, reversing the effects of the previous eight years is like reversing the effects of greenhouse gases. it ain't gonna happen over nite, especially considering that 40 percent or more of congress is held by a party driven to oppose his every move. if you expected obama to snap his figures and change everything, you probably think clicking your shoes together will put you in kansas. you're as delusional as the average sarah palin fan.

4,000 troops came out of Iraq last month and the withdrawl schedule is still in place.
Obama hasn't made an announcement about Afghanistan yet.
To be blunt, get ahold of some facts before you write. You live in fantasyland where what you want to believe must be real.

SB: "Imagine what Obama's record would be like if Republicans hadn't gone mad and if supermajorities weren't needed on every vote in the Senate."

Imagine what Obama's record would be like if Senate Democrats voted as if they had a majority. Filibusters wouldn't be possible and the Repugs would have to deal. A steady stream of progressive legislation passed by the majority would show the emptiness of their platform.

The Democrats are their own worst enemies - Harry Reid is a complete disaster - and Rahm erodes Obama's strength from within.

Basically, I agree with Weisberg's article. I think Obama has done an excellent job this year, given what he's had to work with. The intangible is the rise in respect from around the world.

I'd like to see us OUT of Afghanistan, but I'm willing to wait til Tuesday to see what Obama says.

Weisberg's piece sounds pretty rah, rah. I'm sure the WH will pump it up, but people with no job, home, or 401K probably aren't gonna vote for the guy that leaves them in the poor house.

And the rest of us are wondering if we're gonna keep our jobs, homes, and 401Ks or get put in the poor house while Wall St gets trillions.

*gasp* What is this, Steve? Perspective? Don't you know that all good Democrats are supposed to see Obama as Teh Failure and Teh Sellout?

The past year has reinforced my belief that politics is fundamentally flawed; that we get snookered by promises that can't quite be full-filled.

We can't expect Obama to fix our country. He's said it himself. It's up to all of us to realize a lot of work lies ahead.

The Bush years were all about robbing us blind.

Obama isn't a saint, but he at least reminds us of that fact.

To go forward from here, we have to realize how f**ked up Washington is, be it demoncrat or repugnacan.

Obama has enemies on his Left. Those enemies will eventually want the same thing as the Republicans. Their rhetoric will differ but in the end, they will want the same thing. Right now, they want the Health Care Bill to not pass.
The sooner that progressives wake up to the fact that not all who claim to be progressives actually want progress, the better off we will be.
The comment section of this blog is a window into the worldview of infantile leftism.

OK I am open to facts. Give me the facts on
1. Iraq withdrawals to date, and in the future 2. Afghanistan deployment plans, 3. the plans for closing Gitmo, 4. prosecution of people who broke law by torturing, 5. changes in the DOJ policies vis-a-vis the Bush DOJ policies, and 6. the real reforms to be implemented via the health care reform bills.

My contention is that the statements and actions by Obama and his advisers during the last ten months suggest that on none of these major issues Obama is going to be able to keep his promises.

If you have any facts to disprove me I am willing to listen.

Calling me names is OK but does not help. It only suggests that you are supporting him for emotional reasons and not for logical ones.

Oh wow. Gitmo will close a few months later than January. Yea. That Obama is a bum. Seriously, you yahoos who listen to asswipes like Krugman need to get a clue. He one of the many brilliant economists that believes in nafta and free trade. He has the audacity to ask where are the jobs and he's one of the clowns who advocated sending them to India and China. The only one to call him on it was Amy Goodman. But you ignorant yahoos keep believing what you want. The President is working and even in your teeny "liberal" minds you know this. Piss on all you mofos. Obama in 2012!

Check out the new piece by Matt Taibbi in the latest Rolling Stone about who Obama put in charge of dealing with the economy and financial sector - how he put the foxes in charge of the chicken coop - and tell me again how wonderful Emperor Wonderfulness is.

Oh right, he's going to go to Copenhagen and set us on a course to deal with global warming - that involves him exercising powers he doesn't have in order to accomplish them - and that's supposed to solve the climate crisis, now that we have the Chinese agreeing to lower the speed of the growth of their pollution...

And then there's his dive into the Big Muddy in Afghanistan. Did he consider offering every Taliban in Afghanistan $500/month for life (a middle class income there)??? It'd be a helluva lot cheaper than deploying the Imperial Wehrmacht to Declare Peace Justice and the American Way.

I regret every penny of the $350K I raised for him, and reading David Plouffe's book about the campaign only rubbed salt into the wound to realize how we were all taken by this bullshit artist.

What I took from the piece is that Obama has a good record only if health reform passes. Since it hasn't passed yet and since it looks like nothing worthwhile will come of it, I think it is a bit early to say that Obama has done anything to cheer about.

He certainly hasn't given any real indication that he has a basic understanding of what the Constitution says about individual rights (supports the Patriot act, illegal surveillance, holding people without charges, etc.) , despite having supposedly taught the course, and neither does he show much awareness of decent human behavior, witness the continuation of holding prisoners in Bagram without charge, without informing the Red Cross, and under inhuman conditions. And don't even mention favoring blowing apart little kids with mines.

"and tell me again how wonderful Emperor Wonderfulness is"

Yep. Saying he's done more than the insane rightwing and idiot "leftie" trolls like yourself give him credit for is christening him "Emperor Wonderfulness."

And you wonder why you don't get taken seriously. Hint: it's because you're a moron.

How the hell can someone be connected and savvy enough to raise $350,000 for Obama and yet be naive enough to express disappointment that the president doesn't seem open to putting the entire Taliban on welfare? Were you shocked, shocked when Obama didn't pursue this course of action last January, TCinLA? Was your little heart crushed?

Maybe the rise of the most incoherant of the lefty detractors is a healthy thing for liberals. It's a reminder that even though they may not be nearly as numerous as the teabaggers, we still have a few crazies of own. Don't get me wrong, dedicated fundraisers, but crazy...

Set a course for Iraq exit, too. Has everyone forgotten about Iraq? There is a great Presidency unfolding, but we cannot see it.

How the hell can someone be connected and savvy enough to raise $350,000 for Obama

There's someone just now noticing that TCinLA is 1) not at all bright 2) completely unstable and 3) a liar? This is the guy who constantly posts here that various Republicans and Jerry Brown should be murdered. He ain't one we want to call our own.

Very likely some organization, for which he personally spent 15 minutes on the phone before storming out in his usual angry bewilderment, raised $350K. It's highly doubtful that TC raised anything more than his voice.

This guy is to the left what RedState and freeper posters are to the right. We wish he'd shut up and stop embarrassing us, but it's not like he has anything else to do with his time.

Maybe the rise of the most incoherant of the lefty detractors is a healthy thing for liberals.

Yeah, but it''s just us mean lefties trying to make the party smaller...

Shocking that creeps like you don't think snorting "fucking libertards" isn't going to make this party smaller

Some of the comments here along the lines of "why aren't we out of Iraq yet" are just laughable, folks pointing out that the left has a fringe too are right and it is the essential reason why I remain against supporting parties over policies. The reality is that the first year for Obama is mostly the setting of the table, and we will be eating the fruits of that labor soon enough. All things consider I would give Obama a B+, especially given that the media is not given to holding hypocrites like Lieberman accountable for their needlessly contrarian positions and a party that has decided that only by not governing can they get put back on power. It is an unfair world we live in, I think Obama is making the best of it.

And seriously, anybody who thinks that HCR is all about insurance is just bonkers... the insurance industry ahs been up in arms over the potential passing of this bill.

Benen- After reading your appeal to the faithful, I must conclude that the White House has finally began to appreciate the depth and breadth of the disenchantment felt by vast numbers of those who voted them into office last November (i.e., the "most incoherant of the lefty detractors", as someone upthread so snidely described them). When Howard Dean is also tapped to reassure the democratic rank and file that everything will be hunky dory in 2012, you know they're worried.

As well they should be.

"Shocking that creeps like you don't think snorting "fucking libertards" isn't going to make this party smaller"

You people are so goddamn high strung and emotional that this is certainly possible (I assume you mean my criticism is chasing away more leftists from the Democratic party but I cannot be sure. As I mentioned before, many leftist detractors are pretty incoherant).

Honestly. If we can't mock you guys now, when can we? We are three years away from a presidential election, and I doubt you fuckers will vote in the mid-term no matter what happens between now and then. I never got a chance to mock the Nader voters during the 2000 election, I actually thought being nice and rational with them would maybe sway them to voting for a candidate who might win. Turns out not so much, but I'm trying to make up for that a little bit these days.

Or you could take the optimistic view: he's pulling a Gil Amelio -- making necessary but invisible changes, for which the next, more dramatic president will take credit.

Not a path to re-election, to be sure.

"..Historically, it seems to me, legitimacy is the single most important attribute of a government. Lacking that, it falls, just as a President whose motorcade lacks normal military escorts is prey to the most extreme elements of society. When legitimacy falters, public confidance in society stumbles with it, and the polls seem to indicate such movement now. Obama entered office with the promise to change things, and surprise, compromising has failed to make a difference once again.

The Obama administration is of course not losing legitimacy to the extent of falling to a 1963-style coup; realistically, fight is not what you expect from Obama. But the Democrats have shown no reason why they should be given control of Congress again in 2010".

Chuck Dupree
Blogger (Bad Attitudes)

"You people are so goddamn high strung and emotional..".

Easy, big fella (aka Sweaty Guy).

And once you calm down, reflect that sober, substantive criticism of the Obama administration by its erstwhile allies marks much of the ongoing debate, both subterranean and online.

reflect that sober, substantive criticism of the Obama administration by its erstwhile allies marks much of the ongoing debate, both subterranean and online.

Sweaty Guy's obviously not talking about the sober and substantive type of criticism. He's talking about the shrieking drama queens who have never once managed to achieve perspective. soullite, for one example, was just as over the top as an Obama-can-do-no-wrong supporter last year. There's nothing rational, much less sober and substantive, about this guy.

I like to think the "left", or Obama supporters or whatever you want to call us, has a little more patience than a gnat.
These problems took a lot longer than a year to create, why do so many self-described sensible people here demand results in less than a year?
I have to agree, we always seem to have a couple of regulars who see nothing but gloom and doom and hopelessness. What is your point in posting here day after day?
Don't think Obama is living up to expectations? Then start supporting another candidate, start another website(since most of you also whine about this one, along with whining about Obama), get involved with working for whatever cause you think Obama isn't addressing to your satisfaction.
Whatever, anything that gets you doing something other than blubbering here day after day after day.
You accomplish absolutely nothing and impress no one.

That's exactly right, Estelle and Allan Snyder. There is certainly room for criticism, and a need to pressure this administration to do the right thing even when it's hard. I just get tired of having to treat every criticism as if it's substantive. It is worth remembering from 2000 that there are some people who cannot be pleased, and they often get a kick from mingling with everyone else.

Just because I despise the modern Republican party doesn't mean I don't think there are things worth learning from them. They've contracted enormously, seen themselves relegated to a wizened minority after the rejection of the most conservative president in modern history, nevermind the rejection of all their policies and values, and yet they band together. They know there is strength in unity. Their pathetic witch hunts aside, they know the one thing they hate is liberals and it doesn't even matter why. Why can't reasonable people have that kind of discipline? Why can't some people on the left see that their is value in standing together for something, even with people you don't absolutely agree with? That it doesn't mean cutting off debate, just affirming the value of trying to keep coalitions strong?

And then we have idiotic articles like this one from Politico:
"7 stories Obama doesn't want told"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091130/pl_politico/29993

Ummmm, "stories", no. Narratives, made up stuff, yes. And by the way, Politico, thanks for bringing them to the fore; it's the lead article on yahoo.com. And by the way, Politico, you could help by getting the facts and telling the truth.

"I just get tired of having to treat every criticism as if it's substantive".

Supercilious criticisms are the meat and potatoes of politics. To contend that you have grown weary of them is to betray your inability to separate the wheat from the chaff. As I noted upthread, you should instead "reflect that sober, substantive criticism of the Obama administration by its erstwhile allies marks much of the ongoing debate, both subterranean and online". They are serious people, and they number in the many millions. And there numbers are growing, for serious reasons.

"It is worth remembering from 2000 that there are some people who cannot be pleased, and they often get a kick from mingling with everyone else".

Sheeit. You sound like David Broder.

"Supercilious criticisms are the meat and potatoes of politics. To contend that you have grown weary of them is to betray your inability to separate the wheat from the chaff."

To grow tired and irritated with having to do so is not the same as being incapable of doing so.

"Sheeit. You sound like David Broder."

I don't read Broder, so you'll have to provide an explanation if you even think this is worth that.