Know Hope

Remember that unpopular health care bill? As parts of it start to go into effect, suddenly it's not so unpopular anymore. Now more Americans approve than disapprove. Think about that in connection with the next battle for clean energy, and don't miss Andrew Sullivan's eloquent appraisal of President Obama's achievements. It's called Getting Shit Done, and it ends: "And that's why Obama's incrementalism, his refusal to pose as a presidential magician, and his resistance to taking the bait of the fetid right (he's president - not a cable news host) seems to me to show not weakness, but a lethal and patient strength. And a resilient ambition. Know hope."

The self-destructive insanity from the Rabid Right GOP continues, with Rep. Joe Barton apologizing to BP for the President getting the $20 billion fund for Gulf gusher victims. But the left is suddenly not much better, from the virtual civil war being waged at Kos and more generally in the left blogosphere, and among the media pundits of whatever persuasion, whose self-fulfilling prophesies, which I've placed in this perspective here before, were exposed in a larger forum: Newsweek. For example, "In the postgame show, the pundits judged Obama’s success by how well or poorly he fulfilled the expectations that pundits like themselves had set earlier."

(Photos are from President Obama's appearance before the American Nurses Association yesterday--the Nurses were big supporters of healthcare reform. And thanks to blackwaterdog at Kos for links.)