They say this is how it is supposed to work

By Carol Gee

Washington, D.C. -- President Barack Obama has maintained a very full agenda since taking office two months ago. Our New President of Change promised he could do change, and that he could do more than one hard task at a time. It appears that he, indeed, can "walk and chew gum" at the same time. And, oh how he needs to be able to do that, ever so perfectly:

We elected you, now fix it. We all made the mess, now you clean it up. You and all those very smart people you brought with you need to get after it. Faced with economic, military, diplomatic, domestic and political challenges, the President is expected to do magic often all by himself. Competence demands that it be done soon and perfectly, no room for slack. You need to jettison people as soon as they become a liability.

And, oh by the way, you need to look good while you are at it, and talk good, too. And everybody in your administration needs to talk good too. And you can't change your mind about too many things or the stock market will panic. We are impatient and extremely anxious, the lot of us. We want everything fixed now. And you need to hurry up, but not too fast or too much. And it all needs to be accounted for on the Internet, because you promised transparency and accountability.

And we will be watching you every minute, and we will make constant running judgments about whether you and the Democrats are winning or losing. Because winning is everything in this town; we are in permanent campaign mode. And blaming is the coin of the realm.


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(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)