Just thinking aloud...
Yes, I know that health care is kinda defining moment for our man Barrack in Washington right now..or at least that's what we're told a mere 8 months into his regime. Does that mean that it's over if he messes up this..8/48s in and it's all FUBAR???
No, of course not but clearly there is more riding on this than, say, gays in the military (as much as many of us would like to see that one go through, just because, simply, in this day and age, such a thing is a moral anomaly in any educated nation).
Myself, I'm rather more keen to see him resolve a few other those other issues that made the world dislike, and then, increasingly, despise his nation's foreign policies in the years since, ohhh, about 1963.
We had such high hopes and whilst many of those were simply unrealistic, given his voting record and verbal stance, the word "hope" was applied to the Obama candidacy once or twice.
But, given such expectations, realistic or not, it's looking an increasingly sad record beyond the rhetoric right now: Israel is furiously building in the West Bank and Netanyahu is happily thumbing his nose at Obama with the sort of impunity that an Israeli PM always enjoys, civilians are dying all over Afghanistan, which is currently turning into the sort of clusterfuck it always threatened to be; Gitmo remains open, an looks likely to for god knows how long; American troops seem stuck in Iraq; they're talking to those lovely bleeding hearts in Colombia about building military bases (ohhh, that's gonna stablise the region...)
Not much of any substance seems to have changed since January 20th, which makes me wonder why those on the right feel the need to slash and abuse. He is, after all, mostly just following his predecessor's policies in the (it's not called this anymore, so I'll lose the caps..substantive change alert) war on terror.
On this anniversary, have they still (and by 'they' I include Obama) not worked out, 8 years after 9/11, why that tragedy happened?
I've still got my hope badge and I won't put it away for a wee-while yet, but its fading fast.
Update: Andrew Sullivan gets it (although I take issue with the notion that it was one of the most despicable mass murders in history...perhaps in American history, but I can quickly think of dozens of episodes in the last century alone that were worse. They just weren't as televised, or close to home for the most media-heavy society on the planet. They're all despicable).
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