And again, for the 27,127th time: if Obama and his Justice Dept were simply dutifully defending the quasi-dictatorial “unitary executive” precedent put in place by Cheney and Addington, I (and many like-minded people) could understand that. I still wouldn’t like it, but I could accept it in the short term as a process of “laws not men” (disregarding for the moment the fact that men named Cheney, Addington, Yoo, etc. deliberately broke the then-existing laws to create the new environment that is supposedly now our law).

But that ISN’T what is happening. Obama and his lawyers are not only dutifully defending the Cheney/Addington philosophy, they are deploying it aggressively and with relish, and in some cases seeking to extend it to greater heights of dictatorial power. That I cannot accept as “11-dimensional chess” or “keeping the powder dry”, because it is a flat-out repudiation of why I and many many others worked in the campaign and the promises that were made then.

Cranky

Also, he seems to want to focus on kitchen table issues first. This, too, is a massive break from the past, where the installation of Karl Rove in several, simultaneous positions of policymaking authority metastasized the tendency to play everything according to how it would play with their base, which meant that ideological hot-button issues came first, not last. The result is that this president is more popular overall than the last, but has more problems with his base from day to day.

This is not to say that the detention and transparency issues are not real conflicts. Justice delayed, as they say ….

On this view there are trends and pulls certainly, but not necessairly anything solid or stable. How this interacts with the practical question, what should we do to put Obama’s feet to the fire, I’m not sure, but I think it’s worth considering in debates like this.

For the other issues I’m not so sure. But, I do think that his general view of where he’d like the country to go isn’t too different from my own. And if I were in his place I would be doing continuous political calculations over how to eventually achieve as much as possible of my agenda. So I am not disheartened, I still think he will accomplish as much as he thinks he can. Its just that I think he is playing the deliberate general -carefully choosing which battles should be fought when,and on which ground they should be fought, and during the most favorable weather conditions.

While I’m optimistic that these matters will be addressed in the other3.5 years of his first term, I’m pessimistic as to their outcomes because, as we constantly need to remind ourselves, Obama is a politician and he is lieing to us.

Sure, it’s a sweeter, higher grade lie than the cut rate schwag lies we got peddled for the last 8 years, but still lies.

This is sort of what I have been wondering. On gay issues for example (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell or DOMA or the Travel Ban) I want to trust him, but I wonder how long I have to wait before I can fairly start to worry.

But also, it strikes me that in areas where the Senate conservatives aren’t likely to react, Obama has been quite progressive. Consider executive appointments at the lower ranks, and Obama’s science policy. One thing the Obama presidency highlights is the power and dominance of the Senate conservatives. The W. Bush administration was indeed an imperial presidency. But, with Obama in the White House, it’s clear that the Senate conservatives and W. Bush were covering for each other, so that responsibility could not be place. I am actually more hopeful of Obama than I was before the election. But if we are going to have a progressive government, we need to achieve a progressive, or at least moderate, Senate, and so far we do not have that.

Thnx – that is a point to note