Personally, I like President Obama, but would be happier if he hadn't hitched his wagons to Wall Street.

However, I understand that is probably the only way one can get elected President in this day and age.

That said, would you prefer he drag the electorate and the corporate media kicking and screaming to progressive positions?

Understand that this would likely mean he went to the mat for the public option and we may not have gotten coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Bush and his Wall Street buddies might be in jail now, but Obama might be dodging actual bullets and have no path to re-election.

I'd like Obama to speak out a bit more for progressive policies and hold the people who embezzled trillions from America to account, but if that's career (or actual) suicide, then I'd rather have him in the White House splitting the difference and taking what he can get.

I see a lot of people acting like a President, a black President at that, can do whatever he wants. And admittedly, the last guy in the White House gave us that impression.

Personally, I suspect Obama is doing the best that he can. He's an extremely smart man, who has necessarily made some deals to get to where he is.

Understanding the political and electoral system, it's hard to imagine someone more progressive than Obama actually getting elected. It's something of a miracle that he did.

So to those of us who think Obama can do whatever he wants, without regard for the existing power structure in America, completely ignoring what happened to the Kennedys, etc., would you be happy if he went for broke, possibly endangering himself and his family for the sake of our personal politics?

Do you think it's reasonable to expect him to pull the country to the left, to personally make up for 50 years of corporate media domination of the political debate, to try to convince the majority of Americans that everything they've been taught about capitalism is wrong, and then run for re-election?

I know people are disappointed, and have every right to be, but I also think our expectations may be a bit unrealistic.

I don't like the way Obama used Social Security and Medicare as bargaining chips, but I'm also still not convinced there was a scenario in which he'd actually follow through on significant cuts to those programs.

Successful Presidents follow the American people. Presidents who think they can drag the American people to their positions generally end up going down in flames, like George W. Bush.

Is that really what we want?