One more step...

As the days wind down for 2009, the question that is entering the political mind is "what has President Obama accomplished during his first year?"

Many will point to the Stimulus package, while others will point to the equal pay equal work act. Others will point to town halls, bigger government and bailouts.

He has done all of these. This is probably the most active President in years. He has built a reputation for being a President willing to tackle a large number of tasks, chew gum and walk to Air-force One at the same time. While President Bush spent nearly 30% of his term on vacation--our current President has not been that inactive.

The Health care bill will probably get through the Senate...though weakened by the opposition and moderate democrats and the President's next big task...a jobs bill. Next year a Jobs bill and Afghanistan will be his top priorities.

The Republican minority don't have the votes to stop him but they have moderate democratic allies who are willing to slow him down. This President will need to work fast and furious next year, a mid-term election year, to get some of his agenda accomplished. If the Senate picks up just one seat in the Senate...expect little to get done in 2011 thru 2012.

The opposition will have a filibuster minority and will embolden moderates to help. Harry Reid will probably be forced to change majority rule to 55, thus making it necessary for a filibuster to get 45 votes--rather than the current 40 votes.

I think Harry needs to even go further and change the rule to say that 51 votes can get legislation passed--thus making 49 the magic number for filibuster. Wow, majority rules...who would have "thunk it", the Senate actually working like a democracy.

So, has it been a good year for the President--I would say it has. His agenda has picked up steam though it has hit some bumps...but next year will be the watershed moment for his Presidency. Hopefully, he will unfurl the sails and hit minimal headwind as he heads towards the end of 2010. However, watch for the storm in November--it may just turn that sail boat into a dingy for 2011.

All or Nothing

Enough already! Progressives, this all or nothing mentality is injurious to our nation and the uninsured. There are those that say President Obama needs to take an LBJ stance and twist arms to get a progressive Health Care Reform bill out of the Senate. Then they go and talk about FDR and how made some tough decisions during a crises and changed the national culture by moving forward with the "New Deal". However, its time to look at today's political climate and realize that if FDR was in office today...getting Social Security passed would be much more difficult today.

Back in 1934, FDR had a democratically controlled Congress. Democrats were in line with him...no one, not even moderates, were against his agenda. However, he called Congress into special session and made them pass 15 pieces of legislation during three months of being holed up in Congress. Secondly, Republicans were willing to work and put their name on the legislation by voting for it. In today's partisan environment, Republicans won't vote or consider Health Care Reform and conservative democrats have reservations about voting for the bill, despite thousands of uninsured in their districts and states.

Obama's Congress is nothing like FDR's and getting legislators to work for the countries best interest is hard to find. Only one Republican in the House voted for the bill. Thirty-nine Senators in the Senate, all of them Republican have sworn to vote "no". One Republican is thinking about it and about a handful of conservative Democrats are wavering against it--one has even declared that he may block the Senate legislation from being voted on.

Give President Lyndon Johnson credit for knowing one thing: delaying legislation and just letting it sit on a desk allows opposition to organize against it. He pushed and twisted legislators to get to quickly on the floor for a vote. Obama was aware of this bit of history and tried to get it through by setting deadlines--but unfortunately Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid didn't learn this lesson or take the President's deadline seriously enough to push it through. Thus, we got the town hall meeting "shout downs', the death panel arguments and millions of dollars spent on opposing advertising. The opposition was allowed to organize.

Due to false arguments and opposition organization, the legislation is watered down...it's not progressive enough and now one House Democrat has thrown the legislation into jeopardy.

However the consensus for the legislation is that, while it is not bold enough, it is something that will still be historic.

Progressives need to continue the fight but don't make it a "all or nothing" proposition. Why? Because this may be the last time Health Care Reform will get this close to passing both Houses. If it fails again, it will take two or three generations before our politicians take it up again. If it fails again, you will see moderate democrats become an extinct species and the partisanship fever will continue to get hotter and hotter.