Why I despair of The Nation

Yes, Eric Alterman is right in that Obama has faced a ton of GOP obstructionism. But, even with that, he could have done better, even a lot better, than she has.

Barbara Ehrenreich DOES get it. In one of the pieces in response to Alterman's subscription-only "Kabuki Democracy," she says:

Alterman acknowledges the problem only tentatively, observing that "one might argue that this [Democratic] faith in government's ability to improve people's lives is misplaced." You betcha. The role of the left should not be to uphold or defend the government, meaning, for now, the corpo-Obama-Geithner-Petraeus state, but to change it, drastically and from the ground up. That may sound overly radical to Alterman, who seems to want "progressives who think of themselves as left of liberal" to abandon even that tiny distinction. But as the Tea Partyers keep reminding us in their nasty and demented ways, these are revolutionary times.

Beyond that, what's with Norm Ornstein getting to write in The Nation? Is it going to become The New Republic five years from now?

Of course, without considering third-party progressive alternatives, we already know that, after a modicum of hand-wringing for show, The Nation will endorse Obama for re-election in 2012.