well, I've always been a GDI... goddamnindependent... and never heard of Obama until 2007 or 8... but what heard did impress me.

And he has had to deal with circumstances that differ from Lincoln & FDR and some crucial points... and beyond the color of his skin.

For Lincoln, the biggest obstacle to moving bills forward was removed when the southern states left the union... imagine the tea party essentially out of office. Go ahead Texas, go home & sulk and don't let the door hit you in the ass. And take your elected a-holes with you. Then we can get some work done before you come grovelling back. OK, that will never happen, but a gal can dream.

As for FDR... the man was tied into the system and had the Washington clout & knew how to use it. And probably plenty of the dirt too. LBJ had the same kind of juice & it took every bit of it to get social reforms into law. Obama does not have the juice and he never will, even his own party is lukewarm and too busy looking out for themselves.

The Dixiecrats became the conservatives... and their goal is to return America to pre Civil War society.. with a ruling class of white men and subservient wage slaves and women back into near slavery.

The true test of a democracy is its ability to destroy itself... which is why the founding fathers set a republic with a system of checks & balances to overcome any temporary insanity of the nation that could destroy it. And power hungry politicians have been striving ever since to try and work around that to garner power & riches for themselves & their cronies.