I know I'll be called an "Obamabot", told that I'm drinking the Koolaid when it comes to our President. But someone has to defend the President, because if you believed everything you read at DailyKos, you would think he was the worst President we've ever had. It seems to me that it's not only Rush and the radical right who wants the President to fail. No, I think we have people in the Kos community who wish for the same thing.
I love this site. When I come here every day, I learn about issues I'd never thought about, or I realize things about issues I care for passionately. It goes without saying that DailyKos has been an invaluable resource with regards to the crisis in Iran. But more and more, I see diaries and comments that seem to blame President Obama for every perceived failure of the government or every instance when someone's pet issued is not dealt with in an 'appropriate" way. I even see comments that Obama is no better than Bush! Even the most adamant Obama critic would have to admit that is simply not true. Let me list the legislation the President has signed into law:
Credit Card Bill
Weapons Acquisition Reform
Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act
Kennedy Serve America Act
Public Lands Management Act
Stimulus bill
SCHIP expansion
Lily Ledbetter fair pay act
Along with that, he has done the following per executive orders:
raised fuel standards for automibiles
expanded stem cell funding
announced closure of Gitmo
announced plan to withdraw troops from Iraq
Were all of these things perfect? No. But the President deals with complications none of us deal with. There has been great consternation with regards to the President's decision not to release photos showing abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. I've asked before, and I'll ask again, what is to be gained from releasing these photos? Will you learn something you didn't know before from them? You say there is no proof they could cause harm to a soldier in the field. Are you sure? Isn't it possible a soldier could be killed by someone angered by the content of the photos? Isn't that possibility enough to reconsider the release of the photos? President Obama has to sign those letters that go out to the families who lose sons and daughters in the field of battle. I don't have that responisbility, I wouldn't want it. But if I did have it, it might change the way I think on certain issues.
On health care, it seems there is a rush to blame the President for the inevitable disappointment the Senate will provide. Maybe the last 8 years have erased our understanding of the constitution. There are three branches of government. Congress writes legislation. Bush may have ignored Congress, but that mistreatment has only served to embolden them. They are determined to regain their stature, and if that means spitting in Obama's face, so be it. If Obama sends a single payer bill to congress, puts all his weight behind it, and it gets voted down(which it would), Obama would be embarrassed, the GOP would be reborn, and it would be 1994 all over again. Of course he should fight for what he wants, but he does not have the luxury to make empty threats, unlike many Kossacks. He should sign a bill if it helps Americans, which is what he will do.
Maybe some of you resent Obama. Maybe you supported Hillary, and you're still angry she didn't win. Maybe you supported Edwards, and your upset that he and Newt Gingrich share the hobby of cheating on cancer ridden wives. Maybe you supported Kucinich. Well, let me ask you-do you think any of Kucinich's proposals would pass through Congress? He can't even get them up for a vote in the House.
We belittle the purity impulse of the GOP, but are we any better? We cannot wait for the perfect. We must fight for the perfect, but when it is not feasable, we should accept the almost perfect, that which will do the most good for the most people.