It's an estimable first year for our new guy.

[NYC_SKP]

But a lot of people are going to disagree, they're going to call Obama a corporatist warmonger.

They think they're "his base", which is so wrong that I have to laugh to keep from crying.

They think, like Rush Limbaugh, et al, that the Brown win was proof of failure of the administration.

Some even think that it's their fault that Brown won (for not pushing Obama harder for progressive ideals).

The truth is that the base is made up of people like the family that runs the independent grocery store down the street.

And the guys who mounted my tires today and aligned my front end.

And the school teachers I had to email today.

Obama has done a great deal in this one year, Maddow had a great piece on it a week or two back.

The president, in this first of four years, did just what I'd expected, but not the things some others had hoped for.

He did not start off from the left, pushing from the gate for the most progressive objectives, making enemies of the center and the right, and setting up his next three years for failure.

He did not do that.

He started by giving bipartisanship a chance (even if he didn't expect results) so that he can't be painted into a corner.

He gave the 60 Democrats in the senate a chance to behave like Democrats, (even if he didn't expect them to), and they failed.

We are all richer for this first year strategy, the president's point of departure.

We are the wiser, he is the stronger, and getting these many (though not everyone's favorite) things done is better by far...

...than having tried and failed in year one to pass ambitious progressive policies that would have made him a laughing stock.

:rantoff:

:donut:

:patriot: