I really hope it does not come to this, but if today's backtrack on the smog regulation signals a "trend" for President Obama - then there is not much hope for a NO vote on the Tar Sands pipeline.

If the pipeline gets approved, then the President I worked so hard to elect will have completed his transformation to republican-lite.

I have never voted for a republican and never will.

This would signal a call to action for some true DEM from within our party to run against him in the primary next year. I know, historical precedent suggests this is unlikely to succeed. Yet in my lifetime I don't believe we have ever had such a case of "bait and switch" from an elected president. At least with Bushco, nobody was surprised at his fuckups while running the criminal regime.

This is not (yet) a call to make it happen, but it's getting close. We all know that a divided party runs poor vs a united party. Yet there has to be a minimum standard of sensibility applied to what we expect from a candidate's campaign pledges - a YES on the pipeline suggests a total abandonment on Obama's commitment to fight global warming etc.

Maybe this smog capitulation was his way of setting the stage to vote NO on the pipeline, so he shows some compromise to Wallstreet minions. That's the optimistic view and it would keep my vote. Yet if it's a trend, finding a viable challenger from within may not win - but he or she might at least hold Obama accountable for his campaign promises, because apparently he is not beholden to those who voted for him.

There is still time to change this trajectory, but not much.