When Barack Obama assumed office in January, 2009, he already had two strikes against him. He inherited a mess comparable to what FDR faced the last time the Republicans had wrecked the economy under Hoover. But in FDR’s day, Republicans were a saner breed and many were willing to work with him to make things better for Americans. Today’s Republicans are so despicably desperate for power that they are intentionally sabotaging our nation to keep Obama from making accomplishments, even going so far as to filibuster their own proposals. In spite of that, he has accomplished some amazing things. I have been free with my own criticism of the man, and will continue to be so. Whenever I think he is wrong, I say so, and will continue to do so. However, he far better than anyone the Republicans have to offer and he will have zero chance to accomplish anything else, if Republicans take the House and the Senate. Lets give him the chance.

…From the outset, it was inevitable that Obama’s transcendent campaign would give way to an earthbound presidency — one constrained by two wars, an economy in free fall and an opposition party bent on obstruction at any price. "Expectations were so sky-high for him that they were impossible to fulfill," says presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. "Obama’s partly to blame for this: People were expecting a progressive revolution. What the president has delivered instead is gritty, nuts-and-bolts, political legislative work — and it’s been rough." During his campaign, skeptics warned that Barack Obama was nothing but a "beautiful loser," a progressive purist whose uncompromising idealism would derail his program for change. But as president, Obama has proved to be just the opposite — an ugly winner. Over and over, he has shown himself willing to strike unpalatable political bargains to secure progress, even at the cost of alienating his core supporters. Single-payer health care? For Obama, it was a nonstarter. The public option? A praiseworthy bargaining chip in the push for reform. This bloodless, if effective, approach to governance has created a perilous disconnect: By any rational measure, Obama is the most accomplished and progressive president in decades, yet the only Americans fired up by the changes he has delivered are Republicans and Tea Partiers hellbent on reversing them . Heading into the November elections, Obama’s approval ratings are mired in the mid-40s, and polls reflect a stark enthusiasm gap: Half of all Republicans are "very" excited about voting this fall, compared to just a quarter of Democrats. "Republicans have succeeded in making even the president’s victories look distasteful, messy — and seem like bad policy steps or defeats," says Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Many on the left have expressed nothing but anger, frustration and disappointment." But if the passions of Obama’s base have been deflated by the compromises he made to secure historic gains like the Recovery Act, health care reform and Wall Street regulation, that gloom cannot obscure the essential point: This president has delivered more sweeping, progressive change in 20 months than the previous two Democratic administrations did in 12 years . "When you look at what will last in history," historian Doris Kearns Goodwin tells Rolling Stone, "Obama has more notches on the presidential belt." In fact, when the history of this administration is written, Obama’s opening act is likely to be judged as more impressive than any president’s — Democrat or Republican — since the mid-1960s. "If you’re looking at the first-two-year legislative record," says Ornstein, "you really don’t have any rivals since Lyndon Johnson — and that includes Ronald Reagan." [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Rolling Stone>

This is the lash half page of an extensive seven page article that thoroughly lays out the issues involved to reach this conclusion. I urge you to click through and read it.

During Obama’s campaign I warned over and over again that he is a centrist and would govern from the middle. I sat on the fence for a long time, before I decided to support him shortly before the primary. Sadly, many of my fellow progressive friends were to ecstatic with Obamaphilia to see that and painted him with the image of who they wanted him to be instead of seeing him as he is. Many now feel betrayed and are taking the attitude that they want what the want, they want it all now, and if they can’t have it they will jump off the bandwagon.

In my ideal world we would have single payer health care (Medicare for all), ENDA in, DOMA and DADT gone, 100% public financing for campaigns, TBTF banks broken up, massive stimulus and more. If only we lived in my ideal world, but we don’t. At least under Obama we have had some PROGRESS.