Obama's State of the Union to look back on accomplishments

I saw only the last part and regretted not seeing all. Obama confessed to failing to bridge the divide. In, was it 2007, Sen Obama gave an AIDs Day speech before a mega-church congregation in, think it was California. When I read the text of the speech, and about the response, I said to myself, "Here is the Moses who can build bridges, who can bring in conservatives and evangelicals." At that point until Oprah jumped onto the bandwagon, he was my candidate.

Well, didn't turn out that way. Impossible task, because as I think Obama mentioned in the speech, it's not just a matter of reasoning but of overcoming whole structures of mis-perception and fantasy. The degree to which conservatives and evangelicals live in an unreal world of their own making makes bridge-building an insuperable task.

And for Obama there was no month's honeymoon after inauguration; the attacks never ceased, on his religion, citizenship, ancestry and legitimacy [was the the son of that Chicago black poet and college prof?], politics ["communist!" "socialist!" "anti-American!"]. He was the most reviled president since Lincoln. Even from me, when I half-jokingly called him a Wall Street stooge and Republican mole.

Well, he's earned his white hair and deserves a rest. I feel bad for him because he will not be as widely respected in retirement as Bill Clinton, though he's a better man. Some of that has to do with personaility, some with race.