Reviews of Obama's first year

It may be a measure of how bad things have become for the current Democratic administration that the Huffington Post, a liberal blog, has posted an article entitled Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency. It references a scathing article entitled America: A fearsome foursome in the Financial Times by Edward Luce that is getting a lot of attention in the media world and on the web. The Los Angeles Times also has an article on this today, entitled President Obama Day 386: What's happened to him?

The gist of all these articles is that, despite President Obama's smooth eloquence, what we have elected is a tough Chicago politician, who has surrounded himself with equally tough advisers and henchmen - in essence a Chicago political machine in the White House, used to running over all opposition. And these authors argue that does not bode well for anything bipartisan, or in the long run for the Democratic Party. Certainly there is no evidence yet that President Obama or his advisers have been listening to the polls or the by-election results on the matter of health care, or government deficits, or any of the other issues roiling the public these days.