Obama the Ющенко?

Desultory Eclecticism was in Ukraine on November 7, 2006, the day Democrats retook the U.S. House and Senate in that year's midterm elections.  On November 8, 2006, nearly two months before the 110th Congress was to convene, he was asked by a politically aware Kievan, "Well, what have they done so far?"

Victor Yushchenko lost popular support within months of assuming office in January 2005, having failed to fulfill inflated expectations immediately.  A lame duck for the bulk of his term, his main accomplishment remains overcoming Russian propaganda and poison to lead a peaceful revolution, ensuring at the very least that his successor will be freely and fairly elected on February 7th.  Yushchenko was a sub par president; at 56, he may live long enough to die a hero.  

Traveling through Ukraine over the holidays, Desultory Eclecticism was frequently asked about American attitudes toward Barack Obama.  He generally responded that expectations for Obama were very high, that many supporters were already disillusioned with the President's performance, and that many vocal detractors still harbored irrational fears about the President's Marxist-Pacifist allegiances.  His Ukrainian interlocutors were generally surprised to learn that delusional propaganda exists outside the Kremlin's sphere of influence (Yushchenko is still compelled to deny allegations that his American-born wife is an FBI agent) and that after 221 years of democracy, Americans still do not appreciate the inability of politicians to accomplish just about anything.

Obama, like Yushchenko, has an immortal place in his country's history for symbolic reasons alone.  Realistically--even looking ahead to shrinking Congressional majorities after the 2010 midterms--Scott Brown is probably the nadir of Obama's first term.  With a Republican Party still fractured between the David Frum center-right and Glenn Beck's minutemen, it's hard to imagine a Republican nominee capable of going 2 for 3 in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida in 2012, Nader or no.  Here's to the unlikely hope that the Left can separate the perfect from the possible, a moderate Republican or two can call a Tea-Bagger a tea-bagger, and a President who's likely headed for two terms anyway can win more than just symbolic victories.