I recorded President Obama on Letterman Monday and last night we watched it. I was struck by a couple of things. First, Letterman asked better questions than I’ve seen from the traditional media talking heads or the White House press corps. It isn’t that Journalism is failing us, it’s that the corporate owned, profits above all else traditional media outlets refuse to hire journalists, and instead hire pretty boy and girl talking heads who will do what they’re told, and “real” journalists just can’t break through (with a few notable exceptions, such as the McClatchy news service, Bill Moyers, and of course Mike Boettcher, who I’m glad to know is teaching a new generation how to be real journalists – though it’s too bad he isn’t teaching up here at the Newhouse School; it’d be nice to see him and “NYKat” – or, better yet, “SYRKat” – plus, IMHO, “Newhouse” is just a tad bit better name for a school than “Gaylord” – unless it’s, like, a College of Ballroom Dancing or something).

Another thing that struck me was how likable Obama is. He comes across as a nice person, with a brain and a good sense of humor. For the life of me, I can’t understand the hatred directed at him by the pitchfork and torch-carrying “T-Bag” idiots. You can disagree with what he’s doing (though I’d like to hear these morons actually articulate what it is they don’t like, because I know damn well they won’t be able to do it), but why the hatred? I mean, I thought dubya was the worst thing to happen to this country in my lifetime, but I don’t hate him, wouldn’t want to bring an assault rifle to one of his appearances, and wouldn’t demand to see his certificate of live birth.

Of course, these mouth breathers don’t hate Obama so much as what he stands for. No matter how shitty things had gotten in their lives, at least they knew how the world worked, and what their place in the scheme of things was. In other words, they were white, and their “people” ran the show, and at least they were better off than those colored people (except maybe athletes, but their purpose was to entertain the white folks, so that’s OK – not that their parents and grandparents were too pleased about “those people” playing right alongside the white folks back in the day, of course – by the way, have I ever mentioned the movie, “The Express”). Now, white folks are on the verge of becoming a minority, and one of them colored fellas is actually the goddamn preznit, if you can believe that.

These changes are mighty scary indeed. Their world might have sucked, but at least it was theirs. Now, everything’s all backwards, and who knows what’ll happen? I mean, imagine being an Afrikaner when the natives were suddenly in charge. It would have to be one of those real “oh shit” moments – especially if you’re assuming that the “natives” are going to be just as ignorant, ruthless, and cruel as you are.

That’s the problem with the winguts. They think we all operate on the same limited instruction set that their brains were programmed with.

The third thing that struck me about Obama’s appearance on Letterman, was just how deeply disappointed I am with his presidency. I knew he was a corporatist, and completely inside the political mainstream, but, still, I feel like deep down he gets it. He gets what’s important, and what needs to be done. And he should have understood what an extraordinary opportunity was handed to him. Granted, Bush left him with a great big steaming pile of shit, but he was elected to be bold and bring real change – and the people (other than the wingnuts) were ready to let him do whatever he wanted. Perhaps it wasn’t quite like the support Bush enjoyed after 9/11, but it was pretty close.

But, instead of being bold and bringing change, Obama tried to make back room deals with people who only want to see him fail. Nothing new to see here – just the same old do-nothing Congress and dysfunctional Democratic party, the escalation of a war on some distant foreign soil with no clear objectives or definition of victory, bailouts for huge corporations and financial institutions, the protection of torturers, and the continuation of the suspension of the Constitution. I don’t know if he’s just become so isolated inside the bubble of the Oval Office that he’s forgotten what he was elected to do, or if he’s just been listening to Rahm Emanuel or what.

But, “Yes we can?” No, I guess we couldn’t.

I’m not quite ready to give up on the Obama administration just yet, but it’s going to take a lot of push back from real Democrats to force him to do the right thing. And maybe that’s what he’s hoping for – for progressives to restore the mandate he had on election day. Because it seems pretty clear that he needs a good swift metaphorical kick in the butt to get him moving in the right direction.