Yeah, the presidency is a leadership position. To execute the will of the united states. And there's a few things about being a leader.

The guy before you ALWAYS left things in a mess. Every president inherets problems of different sorts from the previous administration.

Leading people is like herding cats. They all want to go their own way and none of them care about authority that's based on "because I said so". Every president has to deal with getting support, and can't just count on everything he wants to pass without opposition (and a side not, opposition != bad. our government shouldn't be an army of clones because one viewpoint is never right all the time).

You'll never receive credit for positive, long term improvements. This is because these invariably won't bear fruit until after you're gone. You will, however, get the blame for the long term screwups of the guys before you that just now come to a head. On the plus side you'll sometimes get credit for someone ELSE's long term improvements.

Leaders have to /deal/ with these issues, not complain about them or how unfair they are. As you say, the ones who grit their teeth and figure out solutions get things done, those who don't, simply don't! I really don't have much sympathy for Obama each time he plays the "Bush did it" card, because, that doesn't do a thing to FIX the problem, no matter whose fault it is.

Obama has the biggest majorities in the House and Senate that any President has had in literally a century . . . well, until today with the Republican winning MA. Now he's got the biggest majorities in eighty years. There is simply no excuse for him not to have pushed through any agenda he's had. The problem is that he doesn't want to face his political opponents down. In short, he's a weak leader. He's great at getting elected, he is a wonderful speaker, but none of that matters unless he can get things done. He feels like a one termer. I suspect by 2012, people will be tired of his failures, and the only way Democrats can punish their politicians is by electing Republicans . . . which is a wicked irony, and helps to explain why our government is so far to the right of our population.

Seems to be the feeling these days unfortunately. :( Not delivering too much.

While I'll give him some leeway for year 1, he really needs to start getting things done for the rest of his term. Rather not see him as our modern version of Carter.

My dad considers Carter an outright failure, a useless personage whose actual strengths -- as an incredible diplomat -- shouldn't be exercised under any circumstances because he was a Bad President, a stumblebum, and a loser.

And every time my dad expresses this opinion, I see someone so dedicated to being The Enemy Of Carter (And His Party) that he can't even acknowledge the man's successes. Which means my opinion of my father drops another notch when the subject comes up.

I've been really less than happy with the whole thing.

Part of it is that, with my focus on environmental concerns, I'm less than happy with Mr. Salazar's job as Interior Secretary. Part of it is the Afghanistan thing, which feels like the only decision that's really been rushed at top speeds. Part of it was the great big nothing that was Copenhagen. Part of it is that I feel like he's played it safe on the great Gay Marriage issue, because he doesn't want to risk alienating his nice homophobic churchy supporters.

A lot of what's really driven my dissatisfaction home the last week is the OH NO THE REPUBLICANS MIGHT WIN IN MA/OH NO THE REPUBLICANS CAN NOW FILIBUSTER AND STOP HEALTH CARE REFORM flap. Oh, come on. The Democrats couldn't create health care reform with everything on their side, why should I believe they'll be any less capable of doing so now that the Republicans can filibuster again?

I'm not impressed with Obama. I see him as another Jimmy Carter - someone sold as a great hope from outside the nonfunctional system, then condemned as a clueless nothing from outside the system. I know exactly what Americans chose to follow up the Carter administration. I feel really hopeless that Obama and his best buddies will come out of this with a pretty good reputation and future, and the rest of us will have to live with and pay for whatever repressive crap our Red State fellows choose to set over us when the time comes.