CAMPAIGNS ARE IMAGINARY, LEGISLATION IS REAL:

Toilet-Paper Barricades (MAUREEN DOWD, 8/12/09, NY Times)

The postpartisan, postracial, post-Clinton-dysfunction world that Barack Obama was supposed to usher in when he hit town on his white charger, with turtle doves tweeting, has vanished. [...]

The young grass-roots army that swept Obama into office has yet to mobilize now that the fight is about something complicated rather than a charismatic hope-monger. No, they can’t?

Instead of a multicultural tableau of beaming young idealists on screen, we see ugly scenes of mostly older and white malcontents, disrupting forums where others have come to actually learn something.

The UR has had relatively smooth sailing because he hasn't tried doing anything. On the only two issues where he does propose change--health care and cap&trade--he's dead in the water. A smart politician would learn from that.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 12, 2009 7:20 AM