I guess someone’s criticism of Obama got under his skin yet again, because the esteemed Mr. Cole went off on a tear again about how nobody gives President Obama any ‘credit’:

And when you point that out, you are hippie-punching or just an O-bot and not a critical thinker. And he managed to do all this without ANY help from the Republicans and minimal help from the Blue Dogs, all while dealing with a childish media (Is he smoking? Does he hate the womyn folks because he won’t shoot hoops with them? Is he angry enough?) and a left-flank that thinks teaming up with Grover Norquist and echoing Republican talking points is moving the fucking Overton Window.

You point out the fact that this is the most successful Democratic Presidency in my lifetime and all you hear is but, but but… He didn’t get single payer!

This after Cole posted a lengthy comment about all the supposed achievements of the Obama administration, getting the health care fiasco passed, the stimulus bill, his Fierce Advocacy on gay rights or on behalf of BP victims, etc. Why, oh why, the Obama-bots ask, won’t we give him any credit for these enormous legislative achievements?

Answer: because, and I’m truly sick of saying this to Obama supporters, LIFE DOES NOT GRADE ON A CURVE.

Let’s just take one example from the list, the stimulus bill, and thus evaluate Obama’s overall work on the economy.

Why don’t I give Obama credit for the stimulus bill? Because it didn’t work. It didn’t work, his own advisors knew it wouldn’t work, prominent economists like Paul Krugman said it wouldn’t work, and he pursued it anyway, knowing it was too small, because he thought it was good politics.

Did it do some good? Yes, in the same way that pouring a single bucket of ice water on the fire consuming your home does good. Did it come anywhere remotely close to solving the problem? No. Absolutely not.

Here are some handy facts about life post-stimulus, sports fans:

–Long-term unemployment is at record levels, with over 4.7 million Americans looking for work for over a year.
–An astonishing 22% of children in the United States will live in poverty this year. That’s right; 22%.
–Since the start of the Second Great Depression, Americans’ personal income has declined by a shocking 500 billion dollars, even as exports and corporate profits soar.
–In 2009, Fortune 500 profits tripled to 391 billion. That’s right, 391 BILLION dollars. Profit. Simultaneously, they fired 800 thousand people.
–Gross Domestic Product is off by approximately 1.3 trillion, that’s trillion with a ‘t’, dollars. That’s counting the much-vaunted stimulus bill, and gives you a good idea how inadequate it was.
–Unemployment is now forecast to rise to 9.9% in early 2011, by the esteemed, and thoroughly bailed out, Masters of the Universe at Goldman Sachs.

So let’s recap: according to Obama supporters, we should give him lots of credit for a stimulus bill that prevented the recession from getting worse… only it’s apocalyptically bad, and in fact, projected to get worse yet. Almost five million Americans have been looking for a job for a year with no luck, and the unemployment rate overall is at the astronomical level of 9.7%. Worse, it’s projected to go up another .2%. Things aren’t getting better; they’re getting… worse.

Meanwhile, corporate profits are through the roof and hey, the banks got bailed out at 100%, including Goldman.

This, right here, is the root cause of my greatest frustration with Obama supporters. They think that they’re arguing with us when they go on about how successful he is, when in fact, they’re arguing with the cold and indifferent universe itself, and that’s an argument you just cannot win. No matter how many times you say black is white, it doesn’t become true, and no matter how many times you claim otherwise, the stimulus bill DID NOT WORK.

And Obama knew it wouldn’t. He knew, and pursued a failed policy anyway, with bold speeches and fierce advocacy.

Over and over throughout the Obama presidency I go back to a post by Ian Welsh about what he calls the ‘American Death Wish’, which also aptly sums up Obama’s repeated pursuit of inadequate half-measures, from the wars to the economy to health care, climate change and financial reform. The choicest bit:

Sometimes the world doesn’t grade us on a curve. You need to jump a fence, and you can’t. You need to climb a rock face, and you aren’t good enough. You’re running away from a bear, and you don’t run fast enough. And now you’re dead. You wanted to get into a good grad school, but you don’t have the grades or test scores. You’re in a fight, and the other guy wins, and you wind up on the ground and he puts the boots to you and you’re crippled for life. You tried “your best”, but you lost and you’re going to pay the price for losing for the rest of your life. Maybe you lost because he fought dirty, and you’d rather take a chance of being crippled for life than kick someone in the balls. Maybe you lost because he trained harder than you, and you’d rather go have a drink with your friends.

Or maybe you needed to pay for health care, and you didn’t have the money, and someone you loved died. And they died because you didn’t have the money, and because your country didn’t have universal health care. And maybe you always worked as hard as you could, and you campaigned for health care with all your heart. It doesn’t matter, your child, your wife, your husband—they’re still dead. Your best wasn’t good enough.

I don’t give Obama undue credit, or praise for half-measures, because if this is his best, his best isn’t good enough. He’s the President of the gods-damned United States; if his best isn’t good enough, then nobody’s is. We’re not getting better as a nation until more people stop praising the perpetual mediocrity machine that is the Obama Administration, endlessly pursuing legislative compromise with the Republicans while struggling to make the universe conform to its wishy-washy corporatist centrism.

Up isn’t down. Black isn’t white. Obama’s efforts to change the world to suit his views have failed. Recognize that fact and move on.