Seems that Arianna Huffington (The audacity to win; the timidity to govern) hasn't learned what I'm learning -- that there are processes and procedures and politics deeply entrenched in Washington that have to be dealt with, whether we like it or not. I was hoping all those new to the political process because of last fall's events would learn, for example, that the U.S. Senate is a particularly frustrating body -- by design -- and serves its purpose best when it grinds sea-change level legislation into a better (if not best) form. That takes a lot of time and screaming and empty rhetoric and even back room dealing. I never expected magic to happen with an Obama administration and still don't. Seems as though Huffington always has and always will, and that she doesn't understand that there is a difference between campaigning and governing. During a campaign, you get to promise; once you reach the big chair, you have to deal with the realities on the ground in order to get things done.
I still expect big changes, and they've already begun to occur. The incredibly unpopular -- on the Right and Left -- stimulus package, along with other measures, including a few implemented late in the Bush administration, kept us from another Great Depression and is pulling us into a recovery. If he did nothing else his first year, that would have been major, but he's also on the verge of fulfilling a major campaign promise -- to deliver health care reform, something every previous president who tried failed -- that would also radically change how we do things in this country. Huffington's insistence on the public option is overwrought, considering the Congressional Budget Office has determined it won't cover many people and won't be a major catalyst in bending the "cost curve." It's not necessary. Health care reform itself it. The audacity to govern isn't to become a belligerent tyrant or adhering to a single ideology, it's about getting important things done.
