Even with expectations lowered to an acceptable level,reality rears its ugly head. I now recognize that at the end of January the unfamiliar emotion I experienced was perhaps a species of optimism .Not unqualified optimism(can’t,wouldn’t admit to that)but a practical brand, “cautious optimism ” or maybe it was only the utter relief that eight years of the Bush regime had ended.Yes,that’s all it was.

That was six months ago and the papers today are not exactly a breading ground of hope.

Healthcare appears headed if not for failure at least to a severe watering down to the point of meaninglessness.

The health system overhaul largely rests on six senators who have tossed aside core Democratic priorities like a government-run plan

And this

As Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut assumes a central role in the debate over health care, the pharmaceutical industry has helped finance efforts to bolster his image back home as he braces for a potentially bruising re-election contest.

Big-time Wall Street banks have happily and with little new oversight taken up their high risk trading again.Goldman Sachs earlier was granted a change in official status by the feds that allows it access to Federal Reserve funds then ……

Goldman then applied to the Federal Reserve for an exemption to the rules, saying that it takes time to alter a business model. The exemption was granted in February — and Goldman went on to take even greater risks

Guantanamo is still sitting there almost as before.

The delays – involving those who cannot be tried – raise questions about whether the White House can close the prison by January, as President Obama pledged when he took office.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07…