Obama's First Year

By GottaLaff

The L.A. Times says that Prez O has "proved to be presidential." See? He's not the fascist, communist, socialist, Marxist failure the Rushpublics says he is:

[I]f unemployment numbers don't improve, the president may not just be a diminished president but a finished one.

Still, Barack Obama will today complete one of the more successful first years of any modern president. Love him or hate him, Obama has demonstrated that he can be both president and presidential in the face of some galactic challenges. [...]

But the circumstances he confronted were certainly worse than any of his immediate predecessors -- deep recession at home and two costly wars abroad. [...]

He is indeed still the question-mark president [...]

The president has stopped the economic bleeding and the panic of recession, stabilized and moved to reform the financial sector, and gone farther and faster on healthcare than any of his predecessors.

Abroad, his policies are also works in progress. [...]

Indeed, the president does well on the international stage. He's emerged as the well-spoken Energizer Bunny of American diplomacy. [...]

Obama is out there (everywhere) in the face of crisis, trying to restore confidence until the economy improves. [...]

And herein lies the problem: A president who wants to be transformational is trapped in a dysfunctional political system of oppositional Republicans, unruly Democrats and overly grandiose goals of his own making. He has no large Roosevelt or Reagan coalitions to support him; no martyred predecessor to unite the nation; no nation-wrenching crisis that compels the public to accept bold change and follow his lead.

A year in, Obama may well be coming to realize that while politics is about what people want, governance is about what they get.

It's nice to post something more positive once in awhile.