If you want to continue IGNORING the voters (mostly NEW ones) that got him into office - go right ahead -- risk losing the younger generation because their motivation was slapped in the face by Obama and the Dems.

I'm warning the President -- hoping to give him a heads up that there are MANY of us that aren't seeing what he SAID he would do.

I'm willing to give him a year but if things don't start CHANGING instead of being a BUSH like admin, then I will predict a loss big time in 2010.

Do I WANT a loss -- hell no. I want real results instead of words.

Aside from attempting to appoint too many tax evaders to public office early on, Barack Obama has been enormously sure-footed in his approach to issues, and I commend him without reservation.

Obama came to office with a set of priorities. Domestically, these included rescuing the economy from free-fall, and his stimulus appears to be proceeding in that direction at a pace no reasonable economist tells us can be exceeded.

The next priority was health care reform, which was to include a public option but not a single payer system. He is devoting enormous effort to this, and I expect it will result in an excellent bill that accomplishes much of what he asks for, although not all. I've commented on health care reform in other posts, including my own on "A Child's Guide".

Other priorities included education and energy. Education has not received much attention yet, but his energy policy, including climate mitigation, is such a refreshing change from the past that the air already seems cleaner. Again, the result will be less than optimal, but still an important step forward.

His last major priorities involved foreign affairs, with a need to disengage in Iraq, focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and fashion a new American image in Europe and in the world of Islam. This is not an overnight undertaking, but the near-hysterical denunciation of his Cairo address by Al Qaeda testifies to how much he threatens their efforts to portray the U.S. as an enemy of Islam rather than an enemy of Islamic murderers.

With great wisdom, the President has also abstained from inviting major controversies over issues of lesser priority to him, and to the U.S., including gay rights, abortion rights, torture hindsight, and the like. His views have not changed, but he has enough common sense not to let his adversaries bog him down in these areas as a means of sabotaging his more urgent priorities. Ultimately, I expect those who supported him in regard to these other issues will feel vindicated in most cases, although not all. Clearly, he believes this can wait, and I expect most objective observers will see this as prudent.

Most commentators have suggested that for any new president to come close to success with even a single major priority in his first year is near miraculous. Obama may not be a miracle worker, but until one comes along, he's the next best option available.

Ronald Reagan, for all his faults, had a sense of humor, and once recited the following tale to counter attacks on him by others who had liabilities of their own:

Two prospectors were walking out in the wild one day, when they spotted a ferocious grizzly bear rushing toward them from the top of the next hill.

Immediately, the first trapper sat down and started to exchange his boots for a pair of running shoes. The second trapper looked at him incredulously. "You don't think you can outrun a grizzly bear, do you?", he asked.

"I don't have to", said the first trapper. "I only have to outrun you."

I'll stick with Obama for the while. His running shoes still seem to keep him ahead of the alternatives.

I'm an old-fashioned liberal and Obama is not. From the beginning it was clear that Obama was too much of a blank slate and that once he had to finally decide on a platform either the center or the left was going to feel betrayed. I tried to warn people. I was dismayed by those who voted against Hillary for fear that she was not enough of a peacemaker -- it was clear that Obama's foreign policy was, if anything, more hawkish and more to the right than hers. So I started laughing when he appointed her Sec. of State and haven't really stopped. So far he has done pretty much what I predicted -- started a war in Pakistan and turned to mush on every domestic issue.

I didn't vote for him but I expect in the next Presidential election I will be working my fanny off for him despite the fact that I dislike him: The probable nominees from the rump of the GOP as simply too apt to be too dreadful and to have too little a grasp of reality.

So the real problem as I see it is how do we drag Obama left? There are two avenues which come to mind -- one is to change public opinion in our direction some of which is happening and the other is to make sure that he has a legislature which is well to his left. This means carefully targeting political resources so that the bluest politician for a particular area is elected and even dumping some Democratic incumbents if they are too doggish. This means that I cannot contribute through the Democratic party which is much more interested in maximizing votes in the legislature than in maximizing the likelihood of advancing the issues preferred by Democratic voters. I am not interested in have mush passed with a 70% vote -- I would much rather see a good Democratic solution passed with 50% plus one of the vote. Further, in the long run, the later is better politics. If you pass mush which doesn't work sooner or later it catches up with you as the ReThuglicans found out with deregulation and the voters dump you. In my view, reality rules.