This Is What Happens When Bloggers Are Interested In Nothing Outside Of The Blog-O-Sphere....

FACT:

Ronald Reagan's approval ratings were relatively poor for the majority of his early time in office, up to and including the 1982 mid-term election cycle. (The obvious exception to this is the brief period of time after he was shot and was recovering in the hospital.) Yet he went on to become a two-term president who today is admired by a majority of American citizens.

FACT:

Bill Clinton's first two years in the White House were wildly uneven, and his approval ratings were in the toilet up to, including, and just after the 1994 mid-term elections, which saw a Republican wave sweep into the U.S. congress. Yet he left office with high approval ratings, and is seen as a successful president by a majority of Americans today.

FACT:

Other than the period of time just after September 11, 2001--and around and just after the invasion of Iraq in 2003--George W. Bush's approval ratings were either fairly poor, poor, or so poor they threatened to re-write the definition of "poor U.S. presidential approval ratings." He left office to a worldwide sigh of relief.

OBSERVATION:

Despite the aforementioned historical context, internet blog-sites seem to be abuzz with one complaint after the next about President Obama's job performance. Take a stroll through the right-wing blogs and you would think that the president has caused all of America's problems single-handedly and with "liberal malice" in his heart. Take a stroll through the left-wing blogs and you would think that the president has joined the Bush dynasty and declared an all-out war on nearly every "important goal" of the Democratic party.

OPINION:

Settle down everyone (especially, but certainly not only, Glenn Beck-like, emotional tantrum-throwers on both sides of the political spectrum, all of whom might benefit from a bit of international travel and study, as well as a lot of historical perspective, in order to acquire what adult thinkers call "context"). This president inherited an enormous political mess, in both the domestic and international arenas--the latter arena being the one which I would argue is even more important than the former, since this is an increasingly international world more than a domestic and/or provincial one.

In two-and-a-half months in office, President Obama has begun to calmly and systematically steady our international relations (often using capable surrogates such as Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Envoy George Mitchell, amongst others). His administration has, for instance, begun in earnest the hard work necessary to renew old alliances (such as those with our European allies, as well as Australia, Canada, etc., etc.) in ways that tend to be both more flexible and more sustainably strategic than the often outdated geo-strategic models employed by the Bush administration.

The president has also worked to begin to repair relations with countries that could cause us and our allies headaches (such as Russia) and could tip the balance-of-power equation (Russia; India) in an increasingly multi-polar world. Far from working counter to U.S. interests, this mindset could eventually better position the U.S. to lead in both "new" and "old" ways in what is obviously an increasingly complicated global power structure. (And it would not hurt to have Russia and India, for example, as solid allies.)

He has extended "olive branches" that are incentive-laden (initially in a necessarily general sense, which over time will become increasingly specific, once talks commence in earnest) with adversaries of the U.S. with whom some diplomatic progress may make a difference in the long run (Iran; North Korea; very moderate Taliban groups). At the same time, he has renewed U.S. commitment to opposing vociferously those adversaries of the U.S. with whom diplomatic progress would be impossible and/or counter-productive (al Qaeda; hard-line Taliban groups; etc.).

In the midst of an enormous Western-world credit problem, due in large part to "affluenza" (the economic influenza, characterized by awful investment decisions, brought about by sudden and meteoric amounts of affluence purchased on credit), the president has vowed to work in both a national and international context to address the issue on a number of fronts. I may not agree with all of his stances insofar as this very complicated situation is concerned, but I do very much agree with him that outdated energy procurement, use, and security paradigms will have to be addressed (along with health care costs, etc.) in order to soften the economic drag when the U.S. and world economies begin to recover.

(For one example amongst many, just wait until the presently low petroleum prices shoot sky-ward again when the developed and developing worlds recover from this economic downturn and, say, India, which has recently been introduced to its new, cheap car, demands more and more and more oil each month...as does China, South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, etc., etc.... Drill, baby, drill all you want--that will not cover the difference in lost fuel resources for Westerners in a world in which billions more people demand transportation and fuel. As far as that's concerned, it's time for Americans, for instance, to think like Americans again and actually innovate in a creative manner by diversifying the energy portfolio so that petroleum is one of many different, equally-utilized fuel options.)

But very little of this seems to matter to a lot of "dedicated bloggers." To them, the president sucks, just like his predecessor sucked, just like his predecessor sucked, just like.... Hey, folks, this president is nowhere near perfect, and he is going to stumble from time to time, but he's a hell of a lot better than the myopic fellow who proceeded him in that office, which in and of itself is a reason to smile. Besides, this president actually seems to take the long-view on a fairly consistent basis (see my international comments, above). I consider this a good thing, though many bloggers--who seem to suffer acutely from a massive lack of attention-span capacity--don't think likewise.

They ought to turn their computers off (for once) and read a book in order to calm down and learn the art of strategic patience. It's what I try to do as often as possible, and what I will do once I'm done composing this message.

NOTE FOR TWITTER USERS:

For those who love to use Twitter, the above posting is condensed to the following:

"OMG! its gr8 2 put yer randum tweets away 4 a wile! no 1 cares much anyway! LOL!!!!!!!!"