I expect to vote for Barack Obama for re-election. He has not been everything I wanted in a president but I think that's the norm. When Republican friends tell me they were happy with just about everything George W. Bush did, I think they're fibbing to me and maybe to themselves. Matter of fact, I know they're putting up a front because I recall them telling me how Bush was going to seal off our borders, drag Bin Laden to justice and preside over the best economy this country had ever seen. You can't be a G.W.B. supporter and be thrilled with the guy if he didn't get those Missions Accomplished.
I'd be happy to vote for someone other than Obama if I saw a better choice on my ballot and thought that person had a chance of winning. So far, I don't see that happening.
I expect a lot of Americans feel as I do. The polls tell us his popularity is in decline. To me, that doesn't mean he's losing folks who now think he's a foreign-born Socialist who, like Rush tells us, is actively trying to destroy America. Obama never had those voters to lose. The decline is in people who hoped he'd do more to oppose the Republican agenda, do more to clean up Wall Street, do more to stop military excesses, etc.
I wish we had somewhere else to go, if only because competition for the left-of-center vote might make Obama move in that direction sooner than later. But as usual, we settle for what we can get. All Americans do when they get into the voting booth. I can't believe even my right-wing friends who'll vote Republican are going to think that Rick Perry or Mitt Romney or any of their leading prospects are the best-possible presidents out there.
And even if I have to settle for the same Obama…well, if he's the guy who got the Affordable Health Care Act passed and who repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and presided over the killing of Bin Laden and did all these other things, I can live with that.