‘…in two years Obama has done more to enact a liberal agenda than George Bush did for the conservative agenda in eight. That's not bad, folks. All things considered, I'd say Obama is the most effective politician of the Obama era. And the Bush era too.’

A skewering of the non-politics of those members of Generations X and Y who would likely attend John Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, based around a paragraph-by-paragraph deconstruction of a viral ‘Breakup Letter to The Left’.

“Almost overnight, Barack Obama overhauled his White House and rewrote much of the script. Now all he needs is a happy ending.”

On the self-examination and cabinet shuffling over the last two months, and what it could mean for the next two years. If anything it’s incredibly promising that Obama is willing and able to rethink everything and actually take the hard steps to implement a change of operations.

A good interview, and explains Obama's long-game strategy explicitly. His indignation at progressives and Democrats complaining about the state of things when much has actually been accomplished is reasonable, but his final statement bothers me.

"We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that's what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place." OK, but what does that mean? What's going to make a difference with ten-to-one odds and enormous corporations and special-interest groups lined up on the other side? Your base gave you a lot of money to help you get elected, but is that what you're asking them to do again, deep in a recession? They need direction, advice, some instruction or insight. What exactly do you want us to 'try harder' at?

"A day in the life of the President."

"Durable achievement demands a long time horizon—something that the country as a whole seems to have lost. We can’t wait for the carrots to grow—we keep pulling them up to see how they’re doing. Thus, deeply complex problems, from illegal immigration to the BP oil spill—problems that by definition have no quick or easy solution, despite their obvious urgency—become easy emblems of presumptive failure, whatever the president may actually be doing to address them."

"These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class. They drove our economy into a ditch. And we got in there and put on our boots and we pushed and we shoved and we were sweating and these guys were standing, watching us, sipping on a Slurpee."

On the effectiveness of teachers.

"That's some serious neanderthal action going on."

Full-text transcript of President Obama's recent commencement speech at Arizona State University. This man can be downright inspiring.

Obama's always been silent about copyright and bootlegging, but Biden's been, apparently, quite the industry advocate and technology ignoramus.

Stylistic changes in the Obama White House. "I've got to do something about these plates. I'm not really a plates kind of guy."

If you reverse 73, which is Obama's rating for today, you get 37, which was Bush's rating for much of last year. And that's disgusting.

Merlin thinks Barack has the cojones to tell us all to grow up, and I think he's right. "Thing is, I’m supporting an honest, level-headed man who seems to care about doing a good job and telling people the truth. But, I’m not supporting a poster. It’s posters we need a shit-ton less of right about now."

And you might not care. "He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds."

A truly awesome collection.

"America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world." A cautious but firm and thoughtful endorsement from an excellent publication.

"Grab Change by the Stem!"

Photographs stretching back to 2004. There are some wonderful shots here.

"Barack Obama held onto your Nintendo collection while you were in France."

"...would he be instituting the most open and participatory executive branch our nation has seen, directly following the most closed and secretive? ... Oh, the answers are: yes, sure, and of course."