I dont envy Obama, not one bit. The man had an absurd amount of clean-up to do when he got into office, and he'll still be working on that when he leaves. And it's been sad to watch what's happened to him and his obvious feelings about the job as the years pass. In the beginning, he was optimistic — maybe too much so — about puling the US back together... but he got saddled with a congress that was, in both parties, more reactionary than anything else — Republicans who obviously didnt like the fact that a black man was in their pristine White House and Democrats obviously afraid of the racists within their own base. And as a result, virtually nothing has gotten done in the past six years. The economy got better in spite of Washington, and it's my humble feeling that the wars in the Middle East wound down not because of their inherent foolish futility, but because they were no longer a profit-making machine. Yes, there were a few bright spots, but they were very few and very far between. I have no doubt that Obama will wind up like Carter: someone maligned unfairly for his work as president, simply because he had too many people around him and in government in general who were working to their own agendae. But when he leaves, I have even less doubt that America will finally realize the gift it was given in that office and which it ruthlessly squandered. No, he wasnt perfect, not by a long shot, but when you look at what could have been in there, the man might as well have crossed the Potomac in a rowboat and ridden up to 1600 on the back of a white horse. He was given an impossible job, and he did it to the best of his ability. Even as recently as yesterday, when the horrific details of what laughingly passes for a "spending bill" were shoved through Congress, you could see his pragmatism coming through. It was either sign it off or see the government shut down yet again — and so he did what most Americans do when they voted in 2014: held his nose and danced with the devil he knew. It does feel like people are abandoning him now, and when they do, they cant rush fast enough to sign the deals for the tell-all books that these days read like extended articles from the National Enquirer. I'm sure we'll see a spate of them before the election next year, all written in an attempt to demonize whomever the Democrats put out there. And people will buy them and read them and accept them as gospel — just like they did when Kerry got Swift-Boated in 2004 by a book that later was proven to be wall-to-wall lies and distortions. I'm sorry if it feels like my boys are abandoning him too... but sometimes you just have to look at a situation and see it for the no-win it truly is. After the 2014 election, it's going to be even harder for Obama to get anything accomplished on his agenda — if indeed he gets anything at all. And about the only possible bright spot in all this is maybe this is the wake-up call the US needs. Maybe these next two years, as horrific as they promise to be, will finally get Americans to realize what kind of government they deserve. Okay, some filler for the next few days — lots of stuff that's happened recently that needs a bit of play — then onto something special for Christmas. I hope you enjoy it.