The Cat Shepherd

When Liberals talk about the President there is plenty of having it both ways. We get so upset at his scathing betrayals because he is the Second Coming. Lately the needle has been swinging to the negative. There seems to be a flurry of “his first year sucked”, and “his agenda is stalled”, but I see a very different picture.

There is plenty to complain about, but it's important to remember that it could be so much worse. Theoretically, with the Presidency and a Super-majority in Congress, a much larger Stimulus, a public health plan, lawful adjudication of terrorists, meaningful banking reform, repeal of DADT, etc. should have been a matter of paperwork. The problem is that Obama isn’t fighting the Republicans. And by that I don't mean that he isn't fighting against the GOP with enough ardor. I mean the GOP is not the obstacle to his agenda. They have made it clear that they would filibuster a resolution to declare puppies cute, but that doesn't really matter, or at least it didn't for most of the last year.

The GOP has whole-heartedly embraced their irrelevance with proposals like a spending freeze, less banking regulation, and a “shadow budget” that raises most people’s taxes. If there was any chance of them being able to achieve these overwhelmingly unpopular, ill-advised objectives, I doubt they would still want to. And yet there are plenty of people listening to their cable news antics. The Stupacks and the Lincolns hear them loud and clear and are digging their heels in to have something to tell their angry, conservative-leaning constituents in November. When Obama talks about compromise and bipartisanship it means trying to placate both Democrats and conservative Democrats.

And yet Obama is actually accomplishing something. His policies have immediate benefits: a soldier comes home alive, a teacher keeps their job, a bridge doesn’t collapse. It is difficult to get excited about things being “less bad”, but it is none the less real. We are still waiting on health insurance reform, but it feels like we are going to get something, if not the public option that the vast majority of Obama's supporters, not to mention most Americans want. When HCR passes everyone who's been predicitng doom and gloom since Scott Brown's election will suddenly remember just how superhuman Obama is. Of course they will still be wrong.

I'd describe him as a cautiously effective centrist. Rahm Emanuel knows that the tasks set before his boss are too important to tackle boldly. It is more like a vicious uphill slog that we are slowly, painfully winning. Clearly everything that happens in Washington is a deal with the Devil, and it seems that Obama has made a calculation that to successfully fight the Neocons, health insurance providers, GM’s management, the Religious Right,and the conservative wing of his own party, he desperately needs the support of the pharmaceutical industry, the investment bankers and the military contractors. With friends like these…