This is what I said/say to anyone who expresses reservations about Obama or Clinton because of evidence of two-facedness and what-not. I mean, of course they're bastards. You can't get far in politics otherwise. Feeling betrayed by Obama because he's not pure perfection is just plain silly.
And this is exactly what I've said to numerous friends/colleagues over the past few months. Liberals who looked into Obama's eyes and saw love really need to ratchet down their expectations several notches. It's just the nature of our political system that a president will take positions and, if elected, actions that will create tremendous disillusionment among their "base." What's more, that's probably for the best. Our current president, who shall remain nameless, has really governed from a pretty stridently ideological place, and look at the ideological conflict that he has sown. A lot of conservatives and liberals who won't talk to each other. And still, the most ideologically devoted conservatives are disappointed (e.g., taxes, the fact that Medicare and Medicaid haven't been dismantled, Social Security, the list goes on).
A great lesson for me was how "sold out" I felt by Bill Clinton, again and again, on issues like DOMA or welfare reform. What I discovered is that Clinton was also shrewdly co-opting Republican issues this way and that, which turned out not to be a bad way to govern from the standpoint of his political survival (which was ultimately threatened by his more prurient pursuits, not so much by his policy positions). And it beat the hell out of having, say, Newt Gingrich running the country.
Just wait until these poor liberal folks get a nice, big taste of disillusionment. You can't always get what you want. And if you could, our political system would be terribly unstable.
(Mokin, I thought your comments were right on too)
