I’m not unhappy with Obama, I just realize that his constituency needs to stay vocal and involved on the issues that they care about.

I wasn’t particularly unhappy with Clinton’s 8 years of peace and prosperity either, so bringing back Larry Summers doesn’t upset me.

But even more important are things that don’t involve money. There’s a tremendous opportunity to use the presidency’s bully pulpit to build on the “day of service” he promoted before the inauguration. Without spending a dime, he could encourage religious bodies and congregations to increase volunteer work. As much as anything, he needs to change the tone and pessimism in America, which was as important in what FDR did to combat the Depression as New Deal spending.

There are more areas where religious groups agree with each other, and with sectarian organizations, than there are differences. I’ve been recently working with Catholic Charities and with a Somali community group whose members are all Muslim. Their theologies are different and some of their social views are more conservative than mine. But they’re both working on the same issues — affordable housing, early childhood education, care for dependent elders, etc.

I think this is an arena where Obama can bring people together without getting caught up in the points-scoring games of “Bi-partisanship.”

This isn’t Maoist China, and politics should not permeate every aspect of our existance.

So Michael and Martin, just to be clear, you’re unhappy with Obama so far? What are you unhappy about, exactly? All the warmed over Clintonistas with tax problems?

Thanks for these comments, I agree completely that we need to keep pressure from the left on Washington for the change that Obama promised. He’s actually asking for this when he encourages house parties to lobby congress. A president and administration will inevitably go in the direction the American people support (whether or not that support is manipulated as with Bush).

That said, SM2 is bringing up the same issue I was trying to address with my comments on your “Focus on the ball..” post. I wasn’t disagreeing about the content as much as the tone. Because someone is wrong doesn’t mean their motivations are evil.

SM2 I believe there is a bigger issue here that you have brought up that is absolutely critical for us as a society. Therefore I answer here at length:

As someone who had great hopes for Obama and supported him very early in the primaries because I believed in his message of change, I am articulating what already is a subtext out there of disappointment (check out Alternet, Juan Cole, even Democratic websites such as Daily Kos. These early days of his Administration are so critically important for his success and our success as a country.

The company that a President keeps has an enormous impact on what he/she does. I do not believe that those of us interested in change should keep our mouths shut when those who represent us are going down the wrong paths or worse yet continuing down the wrong path created by George Bush. We have had eight years of deafening silence when even critics largely gave up (as an aside I asked my student for the last five or six years why they weren’t rioting in the streets because Bush was destroying their future). A cacophony of voices and explosion of discussion is needed. Debate and disagreement are necessary if we are going to forge a new path. If we are silent when we believe the candidate we hoped for is starting out on the wrong foot then when is it that we should criticize, after the policies are already in place and disastrous outcomes have arrived?

Plainly speaking, this is the most important period our nation has faced in 80 years and we need to agitate for what we believe in. If you believe in what Mr. Obama is doing then you need to leap to the defense of those policies.

As the agora in Athens, the British parliament, and every other vibrant democratic institution has been filled with debate and disagreement, so should websites that are about creativity. All creative places are full of argument and passion. Destroy the argument and passion and you have a location populated by lemmings and patsies.

Thank you for your criticisms that is what healthy and constructive debate is about.

That said, I agree completely with Michael about the faith-based initiatives. Then again, I’m not certain that decision is the biggest one to be made, given the magnitude of the current economic situation. Is it perpetuating bad policy with a thinly-veiled political manuever? Quite possibly, but I daresay the fact that Obama hasn’t overturned every bad Bush policy in the past 17 day does not necessitate the use of such a tone of condemnation.

By the way, I’m noticing more of the grant scams showing up in the Google ads on the side of these pages. Be aware that none of these “Free Money” promises are legitimate (including the one that says “warning”).

Obama panders to his base: ACORN.

I predict that ACORN storefronts are going to add shrines to Obama, thus becoming churches AND bastions of community organizing.

Ugh. What a mess. May you live in interesting times.