Time To Take Your Licks, POTUS

A lot of time is spent on this blog snarkily sniping at the GOP; rightfully in MHO, as they continue to come across as an entirely unserious political party ("It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man," says my progenitor). One should not take the disdain for one party as unabashed celebration of the other, however. President Obama, no matter where exactly you ascribe the blame, has failed to live up to the immense promise exhibited during his 2008 triumph. Perhaps part of that blame falls upon his supporters, myself included, who expected far too much of the man and thought far too little of the institutions in place. There is, however, one specific failure that is definitively attributable to the man and his administration and that is the failure to move ahead with pushing the proposals from the Simpson-Bowles Commission. This failure presaged numerous future problems that came up and, I believe, continues to hurt America today.

Although hardly news as it has been harped on brought up repeatedly by Andrew Sullivan and recently by the Republican National Committee in a helpful research briefing, it has yet to gain traction with the larger public. I know we are unofficially in election mode now, but it would be nice, as others have advocated, if the POTUS showed leadership by jumping back into the business of governing by reviving Simpson-Bowles. How effective would the picture he is painting of a do-nothing GOP Congress be if, a month and change after the RNC advocated the move, Simpson-Bowles proposals were shut down or hijacked with unnecessary additions. Or, even better, how excellent would it be if the proposals went through and Obama's spinmeisters got to work highlighting his leadership on the matter?

Regardless, promises were made about how this man was a post-partisan who was about what was good for the country rather than what was good for the campaign for re-election. Though there is no one on the other side who I would consider voting for (outside of Capt. Haughty-pants Huntsmann, who has no shot at being the nominee), it would be nice if President Obama was, well, presidential and completely solidified my faith in my vote. I don't want to be threatened into it again...

*** UPDATE ***
A persuasive, and conservative, argument of why it is imperative to trim our military spending. I could not agree more and can only hope that the cuts are very significant. Much like the belief that taxes should rise to around Clinton era levels, I think our military spending should fall, at the least, to pre-9/11 levels. In the balanced checkbook view of our economy, decreased spending AND increased revenue is the only way to bring down the US deficit.