How is President Obama doing? On this page, we try to look at the substance of what he is doing and whether he is taking steps to achieve policies we deem effective. Hence, we applauded his executive orders on Gitmo and torture, stem cell research, the signing of the Lily Ledbetter Act, the S-CHIP bill and similar actions that forwarded policies we think are good policy. We criticized actions we believe forwarded bad policy, most recently the Obama Administration's embrace of the Bush expansive view of the state secrets privilege. We have spent a good deal of time on the stimulus issue. Today in the WaPo, Ruth Marcus provides a prime example of how the Beltway pundits discuss issues - style over substance:

David Sirota writes:

I, and many others who supported Obama, weren't misled by him. I had my eyes wide open - [b]ut I did think - and continue to think - he was far and away the best and most progressive person for the job, among the serious contenders out there.

Not to restart the primary wars- but the "most progressive?" Come now David. I also supported Obama, in famously tepid fashion. Because he was the one I thought could best move a progressive agenda and was the most electable. But on the issues, stop me if you have heard this - there was not a dime's worth of difference between them (going forward, in the past -- on the Iraq Debacle, Obama was right and Clinton was wrong) except on health care, where Clinton's position was deemed much more progressive than Obama's. David still has his hate on for the Clintons and still is living in a fantasyland on Obama's trade positions. Sorry David, Obama agrees with me and the Clintons on trade, not you.

Speaking for me only

I have been joking about how Obama defenders will tell us how his every move is President Obama playing 11 dimensional political chess that we can not possibly understand. Well, now "11 dimensional chess" hits the pages of the NYTimes Op Ed page, from Bob Herbert:

Mr. Obama is like a championship chess player, always several moves ahead of friend and foe alike.

All righty then. How did you like that Senate stimulus package Mr. Herbert?

I’d personally like to see a more robust stimulus package, with increased infrastructure spending and fewer tax cuts.

Sooooo, how did that 11 dimensional chess work out? Next assignment for Herbert - explaining how Obama's following President Bush's lead on the "state secrets" privilege is just 11 dimensional chess that we can not possibly understand.

Speaking for me only

Ann Althouse on the Obama press conference:

8:00: He ends exactly on the button. We hear a stomp as he steps off the podium, and his walk back into the White House is noticeably different from Bush's. How can I describe the different feeling I get from that walk? You can object to this if you want. It's just my feeling. I think Bush would walk away in a ritual fashion that said: I am the President and I have accomplished what the President must do. Obama's walk said: I'm a man who has this job and now I've done it and I'm out of here.

I read this over a few times and my interpretation is that Althouse thinks Bush was more "Presidential" than Obama. [UPDATE - It turns out Teresa was right and I was wrong on what Althouse meant. My apologies to Ms. Althouse.] A pretty remarkable reaction in my opinion. I thought, whatever else we might disagree on, we could all agree that President Bush was as awful a President as we have ever seen perform at press conferences. I guess not all of us then.

Speaking for me only

Yankees star Alex Rodriguez admitted to ESPN today he used steroids from 2001 to 2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers.

The news tonight reports this is very sad and will adversely impact his career forever. It's not deterring the University of Miami from naming a baseball complex after him: [More...]

I made fun of Forbes' list of "the 25 most influential liberals in the Media," mostly because Fred Hiatt was on the list. But they got the #1 on the list right - Paul Krugman. Krugman has taken his Times Op Ed perch, added a Nobel prize in economics and forced the progressive view into the Media conversation. He certainly did so on the stimulus bill. Via Jane Hamsher, Speaker Pelosi uses Krugman's words to fight for the House stimulus bill:

Kudos to Speaker Pelosi. And kudos to Paul Krugman for changing the debate.

Speaking for me only

What else would I watch tonight but the Grammy's?

They begin now on the East coast and an hour later here and on the west coast. Here's the list of nominees.

Kid Rock is going to perform my vote for feel-good song of the year -- "All Summer Long." (No, that's not a real category, it's up for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. His album, Rock 'n Roll Jesus is up for Best Rock Album.) The Eagles "Long Road Out of Eden" is up for a few awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album. The title song "Long Road Out of Eden" is up for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals, while "Waiting in the Weeds" is up for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. And the album's "I Dreamed There Was No War" is up for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

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So Media Matters pointed out that when Mike Barnicle complained about a cap on compensation for bank executives, he failed to disclose that his wife is an executive with Bank of America. Barnicle, who in the past has been brazen enough to lecture on journalism to bloggers, did not appreciate having his most recent journalistic lapse discussed:

Barnicle responds to Media Matters: "[P]eople out there with time on their hands who send me e-mails saying, you've gotta come clean ... because your wife works at Bank of America. ... I'm not getting divorced over this"

Not the point Mike. Though I do think NBC should seriously consider a journalistic divorce from Mike Barnicle. But that would require NBC to actually care about its journalism. They never have before.

Speaking for me only

They are still operating under the grudge expectations of the past . . . Obama clearly seems to want none of this. He really seems to mean it when he says that this bill is not “his” bill, but everyone seems to be skeptical. . . . Change will not come in two weeks. It will be a long process that requires building trust first. He seems right now to be committed to this process and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Obama today:

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future," he said. "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."

Maybe not such a "long process" after all, ay? After all, trust Obama, right?

Speaking for me only

It was 50 years ago today that Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

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Visa has joined Speedo, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega and sports and Human Performance Labs in saying it will not drop Michael Phelps because he smoked marijuana.

"We have spoken with Michael, and he has expressed regret for the situation, has committed to being accountable and improving his judgment in the future," Visa said. "We intend to support him as he looks to move forward."

Still undecided: Kellogg Cereal. As to why it's not viewed as a big deal with sponsors, perhaps as Olympic historian Bill Mallon says:

It's marijuana. Our president smoked it. Clinton smoked it. It's not the worst drug in the world by any means."

As BTD noted earlier, South Carolina says its examining whether to file criminal charges. For what? What a waste of resources.

Valentine's Day is around the corner and another season of The Bachelor is underway on ABC. Last season's Bachelorette coincided with the end of the Democratic primary, and probably as a refuge from cable news, I started watching it, rooting for the hometown guy Colorado snowboarder Jesse Csincsak.

Jesse won, he and Deanna got engaged and as I reported here they were happy for a while, but then Deanna ended it,which I was sorry to see happen. A petition drive is now underway to make Jesse the next Bachelor. More than 4,000 signatures have been collected.

This year's Bachelor season hasn't been very exciting, but I've kept up with Jesse, via Facebook, My Space and telephone. I interviewed him recently (he was so patient, it took an hour and a half) and the results are below: Twenty Five Things You Might Not Know About Jesse Csincsak (starting, of course, with who he voted for in November): [More...]