Obama at a crossroads

What to make of Mr. Obama after one-year in the WH? As is the usual Democratic approach he tried the Mr. Niceguy comes to Washington and got completely slammed. He tried not making the same mistake of Hiliary and Bill who micromanaged healthcare reform and only now is he realizing that he was too hands-off. He is accused of taking on too much, only because the prior 8-years was so laissez-faire as to allow the current financial calamity unfold. Now the Right calls any attempt at reform "Government Take Over" of medicine (as if the current system is anything but government run just without the tag).

What will be his saving grace is a recovery of jobs data. If he can show that both Wall Street and Main Street benefited from the stimulus and the acts of Treasury then he will be assured of a second term. WS has already recovered much lost ground. Main Street has a ways to go. With 1 in 10 still out of work (and an even greater proportion having stopped looking or underemployed) we all know people who have been affected in one way or another. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

What the Right is afraid of is any success on his part at all. Claiming to be the party of Family Values, they would sacrifice the well being of future generations in the name of "free markets". Failing to see what the lack of regulation and control did for the financial industry, they claim that "the markets" will adjust to global warming (if it exists at all). They would propose that private insurers will solve the health care dilemma - just allow purchase of insurance across state lines. They decry a "government takeover" while screaming at the president for attacking Medicare - a textbook form of socialist medicine.

The President will likely adopt some Republican ideas (as he already has) - like purchase of insurance across state lines. Of course the only reply of the Right will be to insist that it is not enough and just a token political move on the part of The White House. And so the game goes on. See who can outlast the other until the next election when the tables get turned and the Democrats are out for vengeance, not allowing any Republican measures to pass.

Just as the Republicans did to get Bush's tax-cuts passed, the Democrats will have to resort to reconciliation to get healthcare through. The only difference being that Bush's tax cuts have made the biggest difference for the highest earners where as healthcare reform will bring benefit to all.

Let's wish the President well in the months ahead - his legacy is in the making.