For all the Obama apologists on today: Wake up. Since being elected after campaigning as a semi-progressive/populist, Obama has goverened as a "moderate" neoliberal economically and a fairly strong neoconservative in foreign affairs, the military, and the "war on terror" security state. He knew what he was doing when he appointed Geithner and Summers right after his election; how could he not have known that they were two architects and/or enablers of the great Wall St. rip off/? I've called him two-faced, and I can't understand how anyone progressive could look at his weak reforms doing little to reign in the greed and corruption of the big corps. and his alligiance to the 1%, and not be disgusted and almost utterly let down. Of course, as the system always rigs it, consciosly or un-, he will be the LOTE in November '12, since the Republicans have gone regressive-crazy and want to turn the clock back to 1888.
I don't think there is that much idealization of Elizabeth Warren, because I think she has integrity through and through and can't be bought. I think Obama created his own overidealization with his campaign performances. Big difference.

Chris, you're right about how big finance (mostly the big 6 bankster/investment houses) (the six of shame) gets the lions share of attentjion from Congress and the White House; next is probably BigCarbon (Big Oil&Gas) and they don't compete with the Banks; they both want to continue to shrink government and increase privatization and liberty to pollute financially and/or carbon(ically).
Nancy Pelosi wans't featured on covers of TIME, etc., as Boehner has been, not only because of any lingering sexism, but mainly because the establishment doesn't want to highlight anyone more liberal than triangulating, neolibs Clinton and Obama, i.e., a true corporatism-"slayer" for the public good/people, in however much a degree she has been.

Lastly, I would note that not only has Addington not had to pay a social price for his criminal actions, President Obama has declined to look into prosecutions of him and other Bush era criminals, saying "we must move forward." Glenn Greenwald has had a lot to say about this scandalous lack of accountability, and what it's doing/done to our increasingly two-tiered society.

The white elephant in the room when discussing citizen's discontent with our President and Congress, past and present, is the fact re-election interferes with meaningful governing. At a time when the country needs it’s leaders to focus all energy on job creation, keeping families in their homes, reduce debt and deficit spending, and getting the economy back on track, their focus is on collecting donations and supporting policies that cater to their base, not necessarily for the good of the people.

From down here it looks like the position of Leader of the Free World has been degraded, by past and present Presidents, to Chief Fundraiser. It is so sad and extremely frustrating to watch President Obama deliver a speech about the inequality of wealth distribution then board Air Force One to speak at a 36k a plate dinner sponsored by a financial institution. Which ideals does he really endorse?

It has been confirmed by many analysts that the Congressional Super Committee would have produced a compromised solution had they not been running for re-election. We will all pay for their failure in years to come. Establishment reforms must be implemented to take politics out of the system and reinstate governing By and For the people of this great country.

Re Addington: The lack of accountability, the refusal to prosecute, underlies, I believe, all the other dissatisfaction with Obama from the Left. It's shameful, and their policies have now become precedent. Rebecca's a great addition. Thanks to all.

Thank-you Chris for shutting down that contemptible meme that Mr Lake was trying to sell about Addington, Yoo "doing what they thought was right" after 911. Ten years later and that guy still doesn't get it. He may me a good natiional security reporter but Glenn Greenwald would have destroyed him.

When are you going to have Marcy Wheeler, aka Emptywheel, on.

When I saw Addington and Wolfowitz my first thought was "Why are they still walking around free?".

As for "liberal discontent", my view is that the authoritarian Right is one style, and the collaborative Left is another. One appears to be tidy, one does not. I don't see any harm in having two different styles.

I am discomfited to learn that the Head of the D Party, or at least his staff, is confused by this. I think it says more about their ability/inability to collaborate than it reflects any negative aspect of the Left. The tendency to authoritarianism is not surprising in conservative Democrats, but they'd better quit alienating the rest of us. Liberals are a bunch of outspoken critical thinkers after all.

In my view, the Occupy Movement is the needed catalyst to corporate and traditional Democrats to up their Game. I hope they'll do it. The issues highlighted by OWS are the issues of the day after all.

It's not like it matters all that much which of our failing political parties puts its candidate in office, we know who calls the shots in this society and it certainly isn't the people. The power elite has two choices left to it after 30 years of massive theft, murder, environmental destruction and oppression - improve the lives of the masses or face the fact that they will have to increase the use of violence against the humanity. We've seen their choice, they want to preserve their wealth and power and it is now being threatened. It isn't going to take much to collapse the system, with $600 trillion in unsecured debt in the form of credit default swaps and derivatives floating around the world just waiting to land on some sucker's lap, and we know who that sucker is going to be. The world wide economic system is falling, liberal representative democracy as a governmental system is failing, capitalism as an economic theory has failed miserably, the consumer society cannot function without consumers, and even with the world population exploding, consumers are rapidly disappearing.

I have no illusions about Barack Obama, he is not going to transform anything, his only accomplishment will be that he is America's first black president, other than that he will go down in history as another mediocre leader in a long line of mediocrities. I have a sneaky suspicion we are looking at the Democratic Party's version of Herbert Hoover in Obama, he'll be known for what he didn't do, rather than what he did.

The sad part is that there is probably no place in the world that is safe from the criminals running the governments and financial institutions of the world. The only real weapon the masses have is non-cooperation, taking to the streets and protesting. Forcing the power elite to use violence to suppress them and to keep forcing them to escalate the violence until it reaches a point that those guarding the power elite turn on them. And as the power elite keeps screwing their guards, there is less and less reason for their guards to remain loyal. Obama is one of the guards, he didn't hire Geitner and Summers, they hired him.

Interesting how incredibly easy it is for presidents to buck public opinion and political consequences to dismantle government and regulation, cut taxes, start wars, or pour trillions into bailing out the banking system. But getting a Democratic president to govern like a Democrat, on any issue, for even a second--well, that's hopeless idealism. A political realist (who "knows how politics work," like those brilliantly subtle minds in the Fourth Estate) would betray their supporters and run, not walk, back to the status quo.

The panel's use of the 10 agonizing years of pointless DADT incrementalism to show how "change really happens" is a hilariously illustrative example.