The First Quarter...

There's a lot of hand-wringing, gloom, and doom after the first year of Barack Obama's presidency. Health care's a cock-up. We've doubled down in Afghanistan. The Senate is a millstone around The First Brother's legislative neck...

Joe Conason says "NOT SO FAST!

Having taken the oath of office just one year ago, Barack Obama is a flashing meteor that sputtered out too soon -- or so the national media narrative tells us. According to this story line, the young president is a presumptuous liberal who disappointed his own idealistic followers while irritating everyone else. Media tipsters spoke of a "final judgment" in Massachusetts before the stunning returns came in -- so we may soon hear declarations of a "failed presidency" from Washington's pundit herd.

Yes, after a run of extraordinary luck that helped get him into the White House, Obama today is confronting his share of electoral trouble. He may well encounter more and worse as November's midterm approaches. But he and his critics should remember the last time a Democratic president had to listen to the drafting of his own political obituary.

The premature farewells came early in Bill Clinton's first term.

The joker in the deck is the Supreme Court Decision of January 21st. That's a game-changer. The damage it causes can't be addressed until Congress can take definitive action (snerk) or someone is actually injured in November's elections. That's the way things work when the Supreme Court screws up.

Anyway, today's media have a stake in making Obama's situation seem more dire than it is.

Finally, I've been a football fan all my life. If I've learned anything, I've learned not to assume the outcome of the game in the first quarter even if "the better team" is ahead by twenty-eight points. There are three quarters left in this game. Root the way you want to, but don't assume that it's a blowout yet.

Oh... and watch the referees.