I hope everyone’s doing well. I’m still incredibly too busy to come back – though I still plan to do so towards the election – But PBO’s Iraq announcement today is just too big and too moving to skip.

Please take a moment and drop this great great president a loving note.

love you and miss you.

I’m sorry to announce that this is the last post on this blog for the foreseeable future. My time is getting more and more limited, the next few months going to be very busy for me, and honestly, at this point, I just don’t have the energy needed to force it. I’m sorry about the bad timing, when a lot of things look so gloom, but I’ve reached my limit.

I’m still going to be around on Twitter and other blogs in our wonderful family, but unless something very surprising happens, it’ll take a few months before I can post here again. I have every intention to come back well before the election and I hope to see you all.

Take care, keep the faith in Barack Obama. No matter what, we’re on the side of good. I love you, I’ll miss you and I’m sure we’ll meet again.

BWD.

Have a good day.

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On the specific issue of the debt ceiling, the obvious thing Obama could have done differently was to insist that it be included as part of the lame duck deal last year. But for all the grief he’s gotten over this, it’s worth keeping in mind that Obama got a helluva lot out of that deal. In the end, he got a food safety bill, passage of the START treaty, a stimulus package, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and a 9/11 first responders bill. Maybe it would have been worth risking all that over inclusion of a debt ceiling increase, but that’s hardly an open-and-shut case.

What’s more, Obama also won passage during his first two years of a stimulus bill, a landmark healthcare bill that Democrats had been trying to pass for the better part of a century, a financial reform bill, and much needed reform of student loans. And more: a firm end to the Bush torture regime, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a hate crimes bill, a successful rescue of the American car industry, and resuscitation of the NLRB. Oh, and he killed Osama bin Laden too.

Sure, we all could have wished for more. Everyone has different hot buttons, and I particularly wish that financial reform had been stronger and that Obama had somehow managed to get cap-and-trade across the finish line. I’m also unhappy with the extension of the Afghanistan war and Obama’s Bush-like policies regarding national security and civil liberties. Still and all, 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.

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Benen goes even further:

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I might also throw in new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices.

This isn’t to say there weren’t plenty of missteps, and I haven’t agreed with every decision. For that matter, there’s a lengthy to-do list in need of attention, and unless the electoral winds shift over the next year, Obama’s list of meaningful accomplishments may be frozen indefinitely.

But as Kevin concluded, “[I]n 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.”

I’d go just a little further and say Obama is the most effective politician since Reagan, and depending on the day, perhaps even the most effective politician since LBJ.

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Speaking of how Liberals really feels about PBO, here’s a new PPP poll from Vermont. Vermont!

If there’s any state where you could imagine there being a serious desire among Democratic voters to replace Barack Obama with someone further to the left next year it would probably be Vermont. Not only is it one of the most liberal states in the country it’s also the home of 2 liberal icons, Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean, who if there was going to be a viable primary challenger seem like plausible candidates. But our polling there finds neither of them would come all that close to Obama, an indicator that the likelihood of Obama facing any serious contest next year is pretty minuscule.

Sanders would pose the more serious challenge to Obama but still trails 52-33. He actually would edge the President 50-38 with voters describing themselves as ‘very liberal’ but would face a 39 point disadvantage with ‘somewhat liberal’ voters at 62-23 and a 32 point deficit with moderates at 57-25.

That the margin between Obama and Sanders is as close as it is probably has more to do with Sanders’ popularity than unhappiness with the President. Obama’s approval rating with Democratic primary voters in the state is 81/11 and his numbers with the far left are even better than that at 86/6.

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And, even more real change:

Healthcare law has saved seniors $460M on drugs

Seniors have saved more than $460 million on prescription drugs because of healthcare reform, the Health and Human Services Department said Thursday.

As part of the reform law, the pharmaceutical industry agreed to offer a 50 percent discount for brand-name prescription drugs in the Medicare “doughnut hole” — the coverage gap in which seniors pay for their drugs out of pocket.
early 900,000 seniors have received that discount, at a total savings of $461 million, according to HHS.
The department also said premiums for prescription drug coverage will decrease slightly next year. The average premium will fall roughly $1, holding steady at around $30, according to an HHS release.

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And, if you didn’t see the great birthday party in Chicago last night, the video is here.

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WASHINGTON — While Iraq’s government dithers over whether to American troops should stay beyond the end of this year, the accelerating pace of the drawdown is making it increasingly difficult for the United States to reverse course if called on to maintain operations in the country.

“There’s a momentum in the process once you start closing sites down … and you start moving troops and contractors out of Iraq,” Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Richardson, who oversees logistics for U.S. Forces Iraq, told reporters Wednesday.

About half of 94 U.S. military sites slated for closure at the start of Operation New Dawn in September 2010 have already been shut down, while another seven will be closed this month, he said. The site closures schedule isn’t designed to preserve bases needed if the U.S. stays. The mission now is simply to be out of the country by the year-end deadline.

“We’re on a glide path based on drawing everything down to zero, because that’s the orders we’ve been given,” he said.

The pace of equipment disposal is also picking up, Richardson said. Prior to September 2010, the military had given Iraq $157 million dollars of excess materiel — commercial equipment like desks, vehicles and electrical generators. In the 11 months since then, $247 million worth of equipment has been handed over to Iraqi authorities.

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It took us few hours to break our $8000 target last night, because you guys are just awesome.

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Our birthday boy is going back home tonight and I hope to see the good people of Chicago showering him with some love.

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10:35 AM PBO receives the presidential daily briefing.

12:00 PM Carney briefs the press.

2:00 PM PBO holds a Cabinet meeting.

3:15 PM PBO meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

3:45 PM PBO meets with Attorney General Eric Holder.

5:00 PM PBO departs the South Lawn en route Joint Base Andrews.

5:15 PM PBO departs Joint Base Andrews en route Chicago, Illinois.

7:00 PM PBO arrives in Chicago, Illinois.

8:00 PM PBO participates in a DNC video teleconference.

8:15 PM PBO delivers remarks at a DNC event.

9:25 PM PBO delivers remarks at a DNC event.

11:05 PM PBO departs Chicago, Illinois en route to Joint Base Andrews.

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Honestly, I can’t read or hear even one more word about that deal, but here’s a good, positive take on it:
The devil is in the details

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*This*, on the other hand, is simply a must read. Just an amazing account of the night that “weak” president did what no one even came close to: Killing Bin Laden.
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Pete Souza has a new debt ceiling set of photos. This one, especially PBO’s eyes, made tear up a little bit.