Watching A needless accident in slow motion

Robert Kuttner in the HuffPo today encapsulates my thinking on the Obama Presidency so far, My Private Obama.

We in the progressive community have projected our own visions onto Barack Obama ever since we first noticed him as a remarkable political novice. It was clear from the 2008 campaign that he was a basically a centrist and seeker of common ground. But sometimes a crisis makes a presidency. And history has seldom delivered a more graphic, teachable crisis than the one that Obama inherited. So we voted our hopes that events could compel Obama to govern as a progressive.

[...]

But despite our hopes, Barack Obama is unlikely to offer bolder policies or give tougher speeches any time soon, even as threats of a double-dip recession and an electoral blowout in November loom. This is just not who he is. If the worst economic crisis in eight decades were going to change his assumptions about how to govern and how to lead, it would have done so by now.

[...]

But I reluctantly conclude that whatever progressives might desire in our private visions of who Obama could yet be, he is who he is. It is like watching a needless accident in slow motion. Without a drastic and abrupt course correction, the missed opportunities will continue to accumulate this summer and fall. The whole country, not just the progressive movement, will pay dearly.

That’s it!! I knew Obama was not an FDR/New Deal Democrat but I had hoped that seeing the parallel of this time with the 1930′s he would govern more in that way. But he didn’t…and I’ve accepted the fact that he will not govern like that either.  He better keep his damn hands off of Social Security!

The stupidity is getting worse by the day.