The weight of the presidency

This picture is worth a thousand words in conveying what President Obama must be feeling. The set of the jaw, the tired eyes, the gray hair, and the strikingly stooped posture in someone who so recently looked youthful and athletic.

Some presidents have died in office from health problems; a not insignificant number have been assassinated. Others have had serious medical problems. I'm convinced that the burdens are unimaginable. Even the ones we know about -- and we obviously don't know many of the crises that get dealt with silently and secretly but must weigh heavily on the man or woman in charge.

And then there are the very real accomplishments, which the opposition party has pretty successfully demonized with its base and throughout the media sphere that this base listens to.

It's time for us Democrats to get behind Obama's re-election campaign and give him some reason to feel supported. Yes, there have been big disappointments in what he has failed to get accomplished; and there is anger and frustration that he stuck to his conciliatory style far too long.

It seems, though, that he has finally decided that doesn't work these Republicans -- and seems to have morphed back into campaign mode -- both in his actual campaign for re-election and in his campaign to build support for his policy initiatives.

Our progressive friends want him to give them some reason to believe again. I say let's give him some reason to keep working hard for us, trying to get progressive policies passed. I can very easily see that man in the picture above sometimes feeling: what's the use? When even his friends and supporters turn against him.

First, we need to get him re-elected. But equally important, we need to elect a Congress that will work with him. I do not doubt for a minute that, if he had had a co-operative Congress, we would have seen a much bigger stimulus, more jobs programs, more regulation of financial institutions, a better health care reform bill, possibly even with a single payer provision, and bold new energy and environmental protection programs.

Just because he didn't fight harder for some of those things doesn't mean he didn't favor them. There's only so much political capital -- and he and his advisers know better than we do which battles are worth fighting and which should be avoided in order not to poison the well for other, more winnable issues.

It's not all his fault. Let's make sure he has a second term.

Go, Obama 2012 !!!

Ralph