Reply #35: As has been

[billh58]

stated elsewhere on DU, there seems to be some confusion between what is ideologically desirable, and what is realistically possible. The expectation that any POTUS, regardless of their political and social ideology, can perform feats of instantaneous legislative magic is ridiculous. Even Dubya was unable to push his complete neoconservative agenda through a more-or-less "puppet" Congress. The Far-Right was just as unhappy with his performance (after eight long years), as the Far-Left is with President Obama's performance (after eight short months).

I will accept President Kennedy's definition of American Liberalism as a standard for comparison, and by that standard, President Obama is in all respects a Liberal Democrat. He is also doing a much, much better job of being the President of ALL Americans, and in attempting to heal our national partisan divisions, than any Republican POTUS has in our recent history. That is another definition of Liberalism: giving weight to all opinions while attempting to win hearts and minds.

I am old enough to have had the pleasure of voting for the first Catholic POTUS, as well as the first African-American POTUS. Please don't try to tell me that our country is not making social and economic progress, or that our Constitutional way of representative government does not work. It may work too slowly for some, and for others ALL progress is painful, but this young and growing experiment in democracy is only made better and stronger by Liberal Americans like President Obama.