Drew Westen of Emery University has a fabulous essay in the NYT Sunday Review on how Obama’s failure to fight and talk plainly, in the manner of Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, has undone his policies.
Read it, then see my post “Lessons in Negotation for Obama” for some ways to fight harder.
NewPopulationBomb 
Westen’s piece is compelling, and not just because (as you might imagine) I appreciate the prominence and place it affords to story/ies. That said, I am struck yet again by the extent to which liberals and even those on the left are somehow surprised that they have gotten exactly what they voted for–no drama Obama who seeks the center (at best, as Kurt Andersen’s not uncomplicated but interesting bit suggested just the day before: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/opinion/the-madman-theory.html)…truth be told, it used to be pretty easy to make a pretty convincing case for how much further right Bill Clinton was than Nixon; at the rate he is going, Obama may make Ronnie look liberal and Papa Bush a wild eyed radical…I suppose Shrub continues to give him cover from the right…for now…we shall see…
On another note, what an interesting and entertaining blog.