Maybe you weren’t with me when I linked to Adolph Reed Jr.‘s now infamous “Obama No” piece from the progressive, but you might find Joan Didion’s sober thoughts on the Obama presidency more palatable. From her essay in the New York Review of Books:
No one ever suggested that the candidate himself was drinking the Kool-Aid—if there had been any doubt about this, his initial appointments laid them to rest. In fact it seemed increasingly clear not only that he would welcome some healthy realism but that its absence had become a source of worry. “The exuberance of Tuesday night’s victories,” TheNew York Times reported on November 6, “was also tempered by unease over the public’s high expectations for a party in control of both Congress and the White House amid economic turmoil, two wars overseas and a yawning budget gap.” A headline in the same day’s Times : “With Victory in Hand, Obama Aides Say Task Now Is to Temper High Expectations.”
What’s happening now is pretty much what happened with Bill Clinton. People thought the revolution was at hand and then welfare was more or less abolished. We’re dining on thin political gruel these days, but there are those who call it a feast. It’s time for what remains of the American left to regain its senses and actively pursue a progressive agenda in the face of austerity. It’s our only hope.