I also think that there is a certain mindset among some people that if you are not spending every day dramatically freaking out that Obama sucks, you aren’t doing your duty as a citizen and aren’t thinking critically and are “just in the bag” for the President. There honestly seems to be a group of people out there who think that when the President tells them to “make him do something,” they don’t understand that he wants them to apply constructive pressure on him and on Congress, they think it is a license to scream and flail and yell “just words” and adopt Republican messaging frames. They think it is permission to have a hissy fit. And I don’t think it is being “in the bag” for Obama to point out those hissy fits.
For my part, I've always believed that being constructively critical and setting priorities in terms of what's important and what's not is more effective than ongoing hissy fits. For example, I rabidly supported the president during the campaign even though I admitted on several occasions (including my initial endorsement) that I disagreed on some issues like clean coal and telecom immunity. But when the Rick Warren thing came down, I thought it was a bad idea and was very critical of the president's decision. I think my criticism had more impact because of my support up to that point. If I had kept up that level of criticism beyond the inaugural, it would've just amounted to loud noises.
Yes, the president has made mistakes. No, I'm not a fan of Rahm Emanuel's style. Yes, I wish the president would stop repeating the memes he's attacking. Yes, I think the White House should be more aggressive with Wall Street. But the mistakes are far outnumbered by the successes -- the liberal successes and the leadership successes.
You've seen the list. This week alone was huge. Hate crimes legislation protecting the LGBT community, winning a major battle against the military-industrial complex, positive GDP growth and the technical end to the recession, independent economic analysis showing the stimulus has created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, the Senate and House reform bills and the public option (we haven't been at this stage since Medicare), etc. This is all empirical evidence and not bias from an "in the tank" observer. Reality, at least this week, has a pro-Obama bias.
Adding... This week in review from Matt Osborne:
Obama has ended the grant program for abstinence-only education, restored powers to the independent Intelligence Oversight Board, announced $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for smart grid technology, helped make electric cars a reality...
Man, he'd better stop acting like Bush or else.