When Obama took office, the voters had had enough of Republicans. But as a nation we were still trapped in the very powerful cultural and political atmosphere of fear imposed by the Republicans after 9/11. The paradigm of the Right Wing had been shoved down America's throat for so long that everything...and I mean everything was approached, examined, and acted upon from a RW viewpoint.
But now with the Republicans out of political power, and thus unable to effectively ratchet up the fear without the bully pulpit, and with a new generation rising that does NOT buy their divisive wedge tactics such as gays are evil or mosques are evil and Muslims are coming to kill you in your bed or that Christianity is the State Religion. And with the rash of Republican sex scandals that have forced them to back away from claiming the mantle of Family Values....
The cost of being forced to pander to the Republican paradigm on absolutely everything from national security to health care has taken an immense toll not only on the sensibilities of many of the folks who would like to support Obama....but even worse, on the policies themselves. Pre-compromising to the Republican paradigm, going way too far, farther than was absolutely necessary, to pander to the Republican paradigm lost Obama a LOT of goodwill. And that and that alone makes the arguments that "Obama has achieved more than any President" ring false to aware lefties. We KNOW we could have gotten much more through Congress if it wasn't for this pre-capitulation to the existing paradigm.
As the old paradigm fades and a new one is established sans the Cheney/Bush/Religious Right influence, the Obama administration will be forced (kicking and screaming apparently. in Gibbs' case) to adjust to the new paradigm. A paradigm where the horrific, ineffective and just plain wrong policies and views of the past have far lesser currency.
This guy had me going 'til the very last line and then I was forced to nod my head and agree, but it reminded me that even a spark plug takes time to fire the mixture. It has to start somewhere.
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