Politics is as much about action and reaction as ideas.
Obama has ideas. But on the big stage, I’m afraid, he just doesn’t know how to act.
So what we thought was transformational may only be transitional.
The man who seemed larger than life now seems too small for the job.
Republicans made a mockery of his crusade for bipartisan governance. They spawned and cleverly cultivated tea party activists. They deflected their own responsibility for economic and environmental catastrophe. And they weakened his "reforms" to the point where the finished product may confirm opponents’ predictions for failure.
All the while the president implored them to "play nice."
Now Obama is trying to wash the oil off his presidency.
Maybe it’s just the all the chatter; the cable tv / internet echo chamber?
So we wait for the count in the November mid-term election. Hoping that the right has overplayed its hand.
Well, everybody knows that a president’s party loses congressional seats two years into his first term.
Except it’s not true.
George Bush picked up seats in 2002 as did Franklin Roosevelt in 1934.
Sure we’re disappointed. But aren’t we tired of the ‘Obama should have done it this way’ game?
A year ago I argued that we should give the guy a chance and watch his back.
How does that sound now?