President Obama has done some good things in office so far. He's also made some poor decisions and committed at least one catastrophic error in the form of his refusal to hold the prior administration accountable for war crimes. He has not turned out to be the president I had hoped he might be. But I recognize that this is more a function of my misplaced hope than on him changing in some way. He never was the progressive I wanted to lead America, and much of my disappointment comes from this fact.

As we near the 2010 mid-term elections, the Republican party will spin the elections as a referendum on President Obama. The Democratic party will deny this and continue to say that they are expecting losses because history shows that the incumbent party always loses seats in the mid-term elections. To some degree, both will be right.

The task for the Democrats heading into the midterms is one of energizing their base. This is not going to be an easy task. It isn't that Obama has not accomplished anything; he has. The problem is that his accomplishments are widely perceived as being much smaller than what his base wanted. It is also worth noting that some of Obama's policies have actually been to the right of George W. Bush.

The stimulus is a perfect example to consider first. It was a good idea. It was necessary. The problem was that Obama did not go nearly far enough, ignoring expert advice that he was not doing enough.

Take health care reform as another example. The left wanted a public option, and many of us became quite frustrated when Obama discarded this possibility before negotiations even started. The majority of the American people favored a public option (once they understood what it was). As it became clear that the administration was focused more on passing something they could call health care reform than on actually instituting meaningful reform, we began to lose confidence.

The same thing has happened with financial reform. Like health care reform, there are some genuinely good policies here. But also like health care reform, they do not go nearly far enough.

In this context, we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, spending more and more money there. So what is there to motivate the progressive base who elected President Obama? Not much. And this should be making Democrats nervous.

Subscribe to Red State Progressive