Every Democratic President in my lifetime has disappointed me in some measure.

[Jackpine Radical]

And I was born during the reign of King Franklin and Queen Eleanor.

You expect that of Presidents. They just aren't going to do everything to your satisfaction. I still have high hopes that Obama will be a far better President than any of his predecessors since FDR, but I don't expect him to do everything to suit me. And I reserve the right to squeal, tantrum and pout when he does not. There has never been a President, at least a Democratic President, who didn't need his feet kept to the fire by the very ones who voted for him.

Yeah, I'm unhappy with the appearance of several major policy thrusts right now, particularly the apparent shuffling off of single-payer health care and the apparent giveaways of taxpayer money to the super-rich. However, I also recognize that, in the case of the health care proposal, we don't know anything about what sort of plan is shaping up, and Obama has something of a track record f feinting toward his opponents and then, if they don't cooperate to the extent he wants, veering away from them and essentially doing what he wants. The stimulus package and the case of the Recalcitrant Republicans is an example; the current GM situation is maybe another. So he could end up putting out a health care plan that is much better than it now looks.

Likewise the bailout of the American financial empire. The fact of the matter is that I am not an economist, I don't fully understand the ramifications of everything that Obama and his acvisers have to be considering, and anyway there may still be a feint-toward-the-enemy move in there somewhere.

I am glad that the Keynesians are back in force--Stiglitz, Krugman, Roubini, Galbraith--and I have the sense (following Robert Reich's analysis) that the Obamites are Keynesians at heart. But there is a vast world of difference between being an academic (or even applied) economist and being a politician who has to balance off many different factors, economic and otherwise, in arriving at a policy for a nation. The economists only have to deal with one part of reality--a part that doesn't include the political realities, or the need to sometimes make moves that appear to be 90 or even 180 degrees from the place where you want to end up.

So I know where I want to go with health care in grand terms, and I know that ultimately I want the common people to have a greater share in the wealth they produce, and I want to have a clean, thermally stable, and healthy environment. But sometimes you just got to trust they guy you hired to do the job for you. You need to keep reminding him of the outcome you want, but you have to let him turn the knobs and levers to get you there.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Well said and reasoned.

Especially important was the part about economists not having to deal with factors that politicians do. The only ramifications that happen if Krugman and Company are wrong is that they don't get the Nobel Prize this year. If Obama's wrong, well, that's certainly a whole other ball of wax. I wish more people understood this.

[Warpy]

2. He is going to make mistakes

and some of them will be large ones.

Better his staff should read about them here than someplace simply hostile and non constructive.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Ya know, sometimes this place seems pretty hostile and non-constructive.

[WI_DEM]

3. Agreed. I wish Obama would let AIG fail and bail out the car industry for instance

but I also realize that Obama is doing his best and is also on many issues much more progressive than any president we've had since Johnson.

Let's look at some democratic presidents:

FDR: the locking up in concentration camps of Japanese Americans/ made no real progress on civil rights.

HST: Father of the CIA (even though he didn't expect it to become what it did)

JFK: moved slowly on civil rights/ was a strong cold warrior/ began escalation in Vietnam

LBJ: Began wholesale escalation in Vietnam

Carter: fairly conservative on economic issues

Clinton: NAFTA/Welfare Reform

[AirBaud]

4. I completely support his decisions regarding the economy, however,

I would like to see him put aside some of his personal feelings and advance the cause of civil rights for gays.

[starroute]

5. I became extremely disillusioned with Kennedy after the first year

And I swore when he was shot that I wouldn't ever let myself forget that.

My issues with Kennedy were the same ones we're having with Obama -- he was great on style and symbolic moves and things like the Peace Corps, but he sold out far too often to the corporations and the military-industrial complex.

(And it's since come out that he also gave the CIA free rein to do some really nasty stuff.)

When it comes to presidents, you have to take what you can get -- just as they themselves have to take what they can get -- and the results are often less than satisfactory all round.

Obama is a student of history. He knows where Kennedy was stymied, knows how Carter was made to appear weak and ineffectual, knows how Clinton's agenda was undermined and turned back against him. And he's treading his way very carefully through the mine field. That's really all I feel prepared to conclude at this point.

[LeftHandPath]

6. I'm starting to think...

that the people who WANT to be politicians, are the last people we should be electing.

I know, it sounds strange.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Doesn't sound strange at all to me.

I've often said that I don't like the idea f voting for anyone who wants the job badly enough to go through what you have to submit yourself to in order to get it.

[alsame]

7. I realized a long time ago that no Democratic President was

ever going to pull this country as far to the left as I would like.

That being said, each Democratic President of my lifetime (starting with JFK) has contributed to making this country better in some way.

[4_TN_TITANS]

9. k&r... Well said.

But, I'm just not comfortable with 'good enough' or 'better than the alternative' anymore. The country needs a strong shove in the right direction, the momentum from FDR has long since vanished.

[blueworld]

11. All humans are disappointing - like clockwork! That's life.

Essentially, I agree with what you've posted so eloquently. It's the definition of the word "trust" that's the rub, so to speak. I trust the President's intelligence, his motives, his overall agenda. However, I think questioning some of his policy moves and the advice of his staff (who are pretty terrific generally) is healthy for the country. I believe in faith, but not blind faith. I believe in healthy debate & disagreements.

And I try to recognize that when some people are hurt or angry, they rant & vent. They'll calm down eventually most of the time. :)

[Joe Fields]

12. I think the only thing we can take solace in, is that we aren't quite as bad as republicans.

[reggie the dog]

13. I agree, and the Republican presidents were even worse