Obama at Eight Weeks

It has been a lively eight weeks indeed!

Newsweek has the establishment circling in the water while the NYT columnists are pushing Obama en masse; Frank Rich provides an example.

Certainly it has not been a triumphant eight weeks, nor has there been much in the way of change, believable or not, other than in the deficit and, by implication, in future taxes.

Here is my accounting:

Good - limitations on stem cell research lifted
Good - no more raids on medical marijuana stores or distributors (more could be done here)
Good - backing off a tiny bit on Cuba (lots more could be done here)
Good - Summers on the team plus other reasonable economist types
Good - Not Linda Darling-Hammond at the Department of Education

Not good - more transparency than under Bush but no more than typical of recent presidents
Not good - the stimulus, like all such things before it, is mostly pork and mostly too late
Not good - total cave-in on earmarks on the continuing resolution - chance for change missed
Not good - Labor Secretary is a congressperson you never heard of and a shill for unions
Not good - doing nothing to combat idiot populism from both sides of the aisle

Overall the Obama administration is still exceeding my (admittedly low) expectations. I suspect that is not the case for most people who voted for him. That, of course, is the danger of setting expectations too high.