Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly sympathetic to Mr. Obama. I mean, come on: the guy, albeit knowingly and eagerly, took the reigns of a nation that had spent the last eight years being routinely rode hard and put away wet by a fool from Texas who fancied himself a sort of divinely chosen Christian cowboy, 
literally sent by God to round up some bloodthirsty Islamobandits in the wild, wild East. He failed miserably and left his successor the task of cleaning up all his bullshit. Add to that delight an impossible war in Afghanistan, a perfect financial fuckshow of staggering proportions, and a constituency that is as ideologically and stupidly divided as its ever been, and I think any reasonable human being should show at least a little sympathy for President Obama. And just remember what our alternative was and what might have been – even you Republicans. My guess is that the crushing pressures of the job would have seriously jeopardized McCain’s already frail health, and we would be left with President Palin, a miserable, know-nothing opportunist who has no business being near firearms, let alone the nuclear button.
So I was glad to see Obama starting to fight back a bit against the mostly overstated and/or unsubstantiated critiques recently lodged against him. And I was particularly pleased to see him taking his own party to task for their inability to grasp reality. In a brief press conference today, the president sternly reminded his fellow Democrats that this country was founded on a little thing called compromise. “So as sympathetic as I am to those who prefer a fight over compromise,” the President said, “as much as the political wisdom may dictate fighting over solving problems, it would be the wrong thing to do.”
No shit. And to those Democrats who are decrying Obama for “giving in” or whatever, I would remind them that Obama has been trying to compromise with Republicans on many major issues since the day he took office because he promised to do so during the election. This is not giving in, this is simply the bittersweet taste of political compromise. If we flinch at first taste it’s only because we’ve not had it on our lips in far too long.
To be honest, I was actually glad the Republicans regained the House in November. Not because I think they actually have any real, new ideas or solutions to our systemic problems – at least not currently – but because it is generally a bad thing when, in a country that only has maybe 2.5 viable political parties to begin with, only one party controls two of the three branches of government. It’s a case of too much partying for the party in power and bad choices are made.
Finally, call me hopelessly naive, but I do hope that Obama’s tax compromise opens the door to future and greater cooperation. The nation’s problems are far too vast and complex for one party to handle alone. It’s going to take diverse ideas, tough choices and pragmatic compromises from everyone involved in order to repair the damage.