Though I did a diary a day or so ago, I have not been on dkos even as a reader since the diary previous, posted immediately after Obama's election. I was taking a break, I had to leave, because like so many I was exhausted from eight years of politics to melt your mind. And we had Obama. Perfect or not, I could look at who else it might be, even beyond his Republican opponent, and say, "well that's pretty good".
Since then I listen to a little NPR, play drums, and buy recycled materials to make up for political inactivism. I call it ballance. Of course the day will come to judge Obama. I do not say he goes unjudged, but my judge-engine had been running on bushenol for freaking ever. It needed to have time for restoration.
The idea was to come back four years later, or maybe three, or two, or one. So it's about one. I figured, well, I can go to teh dkos, see what's up about Obama. I didn't see any obvious stories on the top of the front page or in the recommended, but I might have skimmed to quickly for I figured I would like to do a search anyway.
I probably did the search wrong, but the search engine came up with no "stories" related to "obama" in the last four weeks. I did a search on diaries and stories related to "obama" came up, and it was somewhat interesting. I saw a guy asking Obama for a job in a very heartfelt and patriotic (what can I do for my country) way. But I couldn't confirm one or another opinion on Obama. Mission "Let Dkos Tell Me" failed. I considered threatening to leave! I think there are some people in particular, like XXXXXXX and MrXXXXXFroter and XXXXXXabcXXXXX (redacted), that don't appreciate that technique.
But I don't have to... like told last time I pulled that, I could just do my own research to find out if things are going well or not, if Obama is the greatest president ever, or just better than average. That was easy... I read some online newspapers, I was able to use Google and find top ranked sites like CNN.com, and to watch Washington Journal on CSPAN.
So, it sounds to me like it's all great! They are talking about health care all the time! It's obvious something called health care, or health care reform, or the health care modification addendum act of 2012 or something is going to pass. YEAHHH!!! Score one for incremental-ism, eat it Edwin Meese.
Also, people were concerned that just one year would be far too fast to remove ourselves from Iraq. But look, it's been a year and there doesn't seem to have been any problems with removing the troops from Iraq!
The way that Bush neglected the Afghan War was abysmal, and again, I hear more and more that it's an important war, requiring more thought. Sounds like it's being taken seriously!
Sure we had a bank meltdown, Bush's fault, but we also had a bailout, and from what I hear, all the money spent is going to good causes, and people that need it. It's going into infrastructure we will use for centuries to come, or at least that's what I gather from the Newsweek and Time at the doctor's office, in between the lines of where they say how "controversial" his platform has turned out to be.
Now, mind you, if I'm wrong, I want you to know, I don't blame Obama. I'm certain he's the best president the Democrats have offered since Clinton, and probably even longer. But Clinton had the advantage of a hostile congress, a Republican opponent. Obama is cursed with a Democratic Congress as his opponent. Thus, if I am wrong on these things, and the solutions are not in the wings, good as done, I blame the the Congress, and the Democrats, who just don't like working with Democratic presidents. Obama does have some good ideas... he said them out loud. Only the congress could do something about it. Yes, from what I read, Obama is still great, and the Democrats are still (this message interrupted for the following poll).