Grading Obama

Bill Keller provides a thoughtful appraisal of Obama's tenure thus far in today's New York Times.  On the one hand, as he acknowledges, critics on the left can rightfully complain about 'Obama’s deal to continue the Bush tax cuts, his surrender of a public option on health care, his refusal to call the Republicans’ bluff on the debt ceiling rather than swallow budget cuts', etc.  But regardless of his shortcomings, we need to keep in mind some considerable achievements; to the hyperbolator who claims that Obama hasn't done a goddamn thing, Keller replies that 'Obama pulled the country back from the brink of depression; signed a health care reform law that expands coverage, preserves choice and creates a mechanism for controlling costs; engineered a fairly stringent financial regulatory reform; and authorized the risky mission that got Osama bin Laden'.