Timidity to Govern

With the Occupy Wall Street movement heading into its second month in existence, one of the open questions in Washington, D.C. among Democratic lawmak...

Yesterday evening, reflecting on what he called the "looming landslide" for Scott Brown, Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan characterized the Democratic...

There was never going to be a revolution. Obama ran on change, but he's always been a centrist and an institutionalist. He believes in making things work, in practical results; not starting from scratch.

There's been no Rooseveltian realignment for Obama, just Clintonian regression. Perhaps the situation might have been different if he had focused on jobs rather than health care and global warming.

The point is this: Obama has accomplished an extraordinary amount in his first nine months. He had the audacity to win and the patience to govern. We should be patient too.

Those presidents who are both remembered by history and re-elected have been those who stuck their necks out to fight for the rights of the vulnerable. The gay community is still waiting for Obama.

Coming off the election, the president had enormous political capital (really a blank check to move forward with anything he campaigned for), and I can't help thinking that he didn't make enough use of it.

Arianna has written much that I agree with. But when it comes to her suggestion that there is some great difference between President Obama and Candidate Obama, I have to register the strongest possible dissent.

We cannot shortchange the shift in consciousness that Obama's election stands for and that his Presidency continues to inspire. The left is always caught between moral righteousness and legislative reality.

So far this year, there has been a tendency to vocalize intent and engage in convenient can-kicking, rather than actionable resolve. That's not timidity -- that's testing the state of the ship's rudder.

In looking at Obama's first year, we must not fall into the typical trap that pits idealism against pragmatism, where the virtuous line up against the effective, and the purists fight the negotiators.

Obama seems to be deliberately moving his party rightward in order to capture the political spectrum from center/right to left. He wants to become the Tony Blair of American politics.

Those who thought Obama would end all war, wipe out global poverty, save the environment, and eradicate terrorism in one fell swoop will be sadly disappointed by this mere earthling's first year performance.

What can we expect from a President who presides over a relatively conservative public, whose party is fractured by a fundamental contradiction, and whose legislative agenda is held hostage by Ben Nelson?

Considering what he inherited, and the accomplishments he has made regarding America's image and extension of soft power abroad, Obama's first year cannot be said to have lacked audacity.