How Good Can President Obama Be?

The military has an advertising slogan "be all you can be in the" military, without really saying how much "all" is.

Bob Dylan made this statement about Obama's potential:

"He'll be the best president he can be. Most of those guys come into office with the best of intentions and leave as beaten men."

(Telegraph). It is fiction to expect more than can be done, and it sets one up for disappointment to give in to the delusion of expecting too much.

For example, in a declining republic no person can do as much as they can in a robust booming republic; and the opposition to the goals a president has can be overwhelming.

Capacity and potential are major players in the game, so we will miscalculate if we do not take them into consideration.

This delusion of excessive expectations has led many progressives to join the neoCons in denouncing this president before he even had a chance to do the first 100 days.

With minds like that, the capacity and potential is diminished further, thus the nation is held back even further by unfair and fake progressives who talk as if they are really wannabe neoCons.

I think a telling illustration is to ask:

"Would you rather enter the presidency following the Bill Clinton years, with a big budget surplus and no unpopular wars, or enter it after Bush II with a financial disaster, two unpopular wars on your hands, and a global dislike of Americans like no time in the past?"

The potential in the two cases is vastly different, and will have a bearing on the capacity and potential a president has to work with ... and what ultimately can be accomplished.