pssst, howard – he’s always had game, you just didn’t notice

HuffPost / Howard Fineman: People who play basketball with Barack Obama say he’s more dogged than flashy, more determined than skillful, more adaptable than unique. He’ll trash talk on a dribble-drive with Reggie Love, but in the old days he was a studious, unselfish passer with classroom colleagues at Harvard Law.

And often, they say, he ended up with more points than you thought he’d have. No one noticed until it was over.

As in basketball, so it is now: his life on the court is a parallel to the first two years of his up-and-down-and-now-sort-of-up-again presidency.

It hasn’t been pretty; it certainly hasn’t been easy … but through dogged patience, and adaptable style and a refusal to panic, the president has piled up the longest list of new laws, treaties and administrative actions anyone has seen here in decades.

….everyone should accept that the fact that Obama’s got game. Or found it.

….It’s just the end of the first half. But, as Obama heads to Hawaii, he’s entitled to point to the scoreboard with pride – and to feel that he’s at least got a fighting chance to win it all when he comes back out onto the court.

Full article here

two years of progress

hawaii here he comes

President Obama walks out of the Oval Office to board Marine One at the White House, Dec. 22. The President is heading to Hawaii to join his family for the holidays

President Obama walks toward the press corps to shake hands with members of the media before boarding Marine One

the toast of the town

President Barack Obama shares a toast in the Oval Office with the members of his National Security Staff who worked on the New START nuclear arms control agreement, Dec. 22, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

plenty to smile about

President Barack Obama smiles during his news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington December 22

2010 …. march to april …. picture perfect

January to February video here

it passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Senate votes 71-26 to ratify the START treaty

Politico: President Obama is calling a press conference for 4:15 p.m., most likely the last thing he’ll do at the White House before leaving for Hawaii. The presser is in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Live here at 4:15 PM EST

the advocate

Advocate: …. President Obama also said that he is “incredibly proud” of following through on repealing the 1993 law and recalled a pledge he made to a service member while working a rope line in Afghanistan just a few weeks ago.

“A young woman in uniform was shaking my hand—it was a big crowd—she hugged me and she whispered in my ear, ‘Get ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ done.’ And I said to her, ‘I promise you I will.’”

On the question of marriage equality, the president said his “attitudes are evolving.”

“Like a lot of people, I’m wrestling with this,” he said. “I’ve wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.”

The president also signaled that he and his lawyers are reviewing “a range of options” when it comes to the administration’s responsibility to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, especially since repealing it over the next two years will be a nonstarter with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

“I have a whole bunch of really smart lawyers who are looking at a whole range of options. My preference wherever possible is to get things done legislatively,” Obama said, drawing a comparison with repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“That may not be possible in DOMA’s case,” he added. “That’s something that I think we have to strategize on over the next several months.”

Read the full interview here

signed, sealed, delivered

President Barack Obama signs the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 into law at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, on December 22

“We are not a nation that says don’t ask, don’t tell – we are a nation that says out of many we are one.”

‘new start’ & ‘dadt’ … obama wins again (critics lose … again)

HuffPost / Frank Schaeffer: With the Senate closing in on voting to ratify the “New Start” treaty with Russia, and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Obama’s critics from the Left and Right have — once again — been proved dead wrong…..

Once again, the president has proved smarter than his critics, let alone than the Republican “leadership.”

….As for the Left it’s also trying to undermine the president with talk about a sellout to Wall Street, “failed” tax policy etc., etc. (Somewhat perversely these days some of Obama’s Lefty critics even seem to be rooting for Julian Assange with a lot more enthusiasm than for their president.) Or as Bob Cesca put it in the Huffington Post:

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to participate in a [progressive] movement where so many colleagues have careened off the rails. We’re supposed to be the smart ones, the reality-based people.

And yet, out of some sort of manic-depression or desire for hipster cred, we’ve become overly preoccupied with tearing down the most liberal president in decades using non-reality-based criticisms instead of laser-focusing our efforts and resources on tearing down the real killers — conservatives, Tea Party people and the GOP.

And that’s not the half of it. Before he’d served even one year, President Obama lost the “support” of the easily distracted, terminally impatient, American “Left” and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled Right.

But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds … are sticking with our president.

Why? Because he is, has been, and will continue succeeding. Obama’s critics from the Left and Right are being proved dead wrong, again and again.

We Obama supporters trust our first impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us. We also trust our belief that he is the smartest man in any room.

Full article here

Thanks for the link Chi 😉