Obama was a hope-mongering starry-eyed radical centrist socialist realist bipartisan FDR 2. At least in the fantasy worlds of his supporters! But it's hard to reconcile everyone's contradictory hopes, once they're invested in you.

As Obama faces the first real political failures of his term, with stimulus on the rocks in the Senate and cabinet nominees facing ridiculous tax problems, everyone who voted for Obama can express their disappointment in him for not being whatever they imagined he'd be.

There were some who were convinced that an old-fashioned liberal—or even radical!—hid behind the centrist posturing (those praying for that big reveal included both the disenfranchised left and the feverish right). His cabinet appointees killed that dream, especially the economic team.

And of course Obama acknowledged (and at times encouraged) his own blank slate qualities—he is justifiably proud of the "coalition" of people with entirely different and contradictory desires that all voted for him. It's demeaning strawman bullshit to pretend Obama supporters all thought he was THE MESSIAH, and most informed supporters recognized a politician who'd disappoint them, but they admired him nonetheless for his remarkable intelligence and lack of particularly disagreeable qualities.

But of course he ran, sort of, as an idealist, so when Hillary had her famous sarcastic "and then the clouds will part and all our problems will be solved" routine (she is one of those Bitters!), it was funny. But, yes, it was dumb to imply that that's why everyone was voting for him. Maybe some of us saw a hard-eyed realist hiding under those hopeful words!

And the appointment of Daschle and the hiring of Rahm Emanuel seemed to give hope to those imagining an LBJ in JFK's clothing. Rahm, a dickish Clintonite, was of course also a wonderful enforcer who'd run a tight ship. Daschle, a moderate former Democratic Senator, didn't support single-payer, but that was because he supported health care reform he knew he'd be able to get past the Senate. These dreamers hoping for a skilled parliamentarian didn't bemoan Obama his lack of executive experience, because an effective president needs to placate and bully Congress to effect real, immediate Change.

But Obama hasn't yet emerged as any of these completely contradictory fantasy presidents. In the mean time, everyone will keep complaining that he's not yet acting like the secret dream president they imagined he meant to promise to be, if only you didn't listen to what he actually promised and said. (Of course he'll be a Socialist, he just couldn't say so outright during the campaign! Sigh. We were all guilty of it.)