So, did Obama save all his "good stuff" for Campaign Season?

[Taverner]

It sure is looking that way. And don't get me wrong, I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I think its great.

And a smart move.

[JuniperLea]

1. I'm thinking in terms of second term action... not campaign...

I thought he'd go this route about two years into his first term... my prediction is on DU somewhere, many, many times over.

[JoePhilly]

2. +1

He had 2 years to get the Dem Congress to do as much as he could get them to do (with 6 months lost until Franken was seated, and another year lost when Kennedy died) ... and now he has two years to old of the crazy right wing House, win in 2012, and then, unable to run again, he has no political responsibilities to maintain because he can't run again.

[JuniperLea]

3. Yep... they had their chance to play fair...

We don't have time to waste now. Too many things are coming to a head, and too many people are falling through the cracks. Even a good pragmatist knows when it's time to get tough.

[ThomWV]

4. I was really hopin' like hell for some 1st term action.

Tax cuts for the rich are fine, but the Public Option is just a left wing pipe dream.

[JoePhilly]

5. My neice who had cancer at 2 appreciates the first term action.

They can't use it to limit her coverage to sports injuries and colds any longer.

Of course the PO died thanks to Joe Lieberman. He was NEVER going to support it. Period. And getting Ben Nelson to vote yes was going to require the "corn husker kick back" ... or the embarrassment of the same.

On the tax cuts ... Obama could have let them expire for sure. And then here on DU, and in the media, he'd have been crucified for raising taxes on the 95% making under 250k, which was a HUGE campaign promise. If he broke that one, the media would be running "read my lips" video of how Obama and George Bush #1 raised taxes on the middle class when the promised not to do so.

When Obama is reelected, and those taxes come up again to expire ... there is no political penalty if he lets them all expire.

And when that has happened, he will have kept his promise to end the tax cuts for the rich, but will be breaking the one from 2008 to not raise them on the middle class ... unless the current Congress sends him a bill to extend the middle class tax cuts (which the Dem majority should have done in the fall of 2010).