askew wrote an excellent diary Yes We Did - A Celebration of the Obama Admin and Congress' Achievements. (for some reason I could not get the "!" to work in the title.) Please go to the diary and read the diary. I am not going to repeat the achievements here.
I also believe President Obama to be a great president, perhaps greater than FDR, Lincoln, and Washington. That said, what the voters will be looking for this fall is tangible results.
Despite the achievements the tangible results are hard to see. Take for example health care. Does the health care bill make much difference in people's lives today? NO! Take unemployment, has unemployment decreased to a lower level today than when President Obama was elected? NO! Take the Lily Ledbetter law? Has this made a difference in a woman's pay? NO! Has anyone even sued under the new law? Not to my knowledge. Take Gitmo, is Gitmo closed? NO! Take financial reform, do people really believe that the banks and insurance companies are reformed? NO! Will bank and insurance executives still receive outrageous compensation? YES! Take global warming, is there inexpensive green energy today? NO! Will there be inexpensive green energy in the near future? NO! Take education, are schools closing? YES. Are college costs increasing? YES! Take infrastructure, are there fewer pot holes? NO! Is the infrastructure still crumbling? YES!
Okay, I can go on and on and on. Results from legislation and in particular economic legislation are near impossible to show in two years or less than two years. Results though are what politicians run on, not projected results. In 1994 the results from the Clinton tax increases were not in. Republicans ran on the "Contract for America." One item in the contract was to "require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase."
Critical to the contract were the bills republicans pledged to bring to the floor in the first hundred days. Amongst those bills was a balanced budget requirement and cutting taxes.
Does any of this sound familiar? In many ways we are seeing a repeat today. Instead of balanced budget, we hear reduce the deficit. On top of this there is the same cutting taxes. This worked in 94.
We should be worried about republican gains in the house and senate, or as Paul Krugman say's in today's New York Times op-ed page Redo That Voodoo "fear the consequences if the G.O.P. actually does as well in November as it hopes." Voters just do not understand that while tangible results are few today, the consequences of republicans gaining more votes in the congress might very well be disastrous.
We need to work very hard to insure that republican gains in any are minimal and if possible for democratic gains. This is a priority!