Even though I criticize the President on occasion I fundamentally like him and he has neither surprised nor deviated from what I expected of him, he is a centrist as far as the Democratic Party goes. Honestly I never expected much help as far as DOMA and DADT were concerned because of his stated views in particular about DOMA, sadly, being kind, I just don't think they are high up on his agenda. His methodology vis a vis Afghanistan did not surprise me in the least given the power of the MIC and the mess that was left. Getting out of Iraq I can applaud and any events that occur from now on can be squarely blamed on the fact that we went in in the first place. I have criticized his tendency to look forward and not prosecuting war crimes was a big mistake, its too late now.
I also believe he was served a pretty bad hand despite having huge majorities in both Houses there appeared to be little consensus between congressional Democrats on how to get their agenda through. I don't blame 'professional' progressives outside of government for this collapse in front of a rabid Republican party; but many of our elected officials just didn't get it, divided you fall. It appears we have a three party system even though they wont admit it, Republicans, Blue Dogs and Democrats.
Many opportunities were lost, not because the President didn't scream loudly enough to get a real democratic agenda through; but a divided Democratic party failed itself and its electors by not getting the job done. It was obvious that the Republican Party that had ruled without regard to bipartisanship [aided by many in the Democratic Party] were not going to play ball in these circumstances. To be nice, that was merely wishful thinking that they could change from being spoiled brats to responsible representatives overnight.
The best that can happen this fall is that the Democratic Party merely has reduced majorities in both houses. More likely they will lose the majority in the House, and have 52/54 seats in the Senate including 2 independents.
This basically means nothing will happen until 2012 except that a rampant and unrepentant Republican party will vaingloriously try to turn the clock back on every progress that has been made. I hope the President has warmed up his veto pen, he is going to need it.
The question over the next two years will be if the Democratic Party holds together long enough to resist the onslaught, I have my serious doubts they can as too many have common accord with those in the Republican Party, due to their allegiances with the business community and their lobbyists.
My regret is we could have won these elections easily if their had been common accord by congressional Democrats working for their electors that demanded hope and change and many of whom owe their very positions to the Obama campaign.
So if you want to blame anyone in November blame those in the Democratic Party congressional caucus who failed to support both the President and stated Democratic Party principles, rather than whining about the critics outside of the two chambers, nor for that matter the Republican Party.
This can all be rightly targeted at those in the Democratic party who failed us, and not the other way around.