Don’t you hate it when you meet someone, and they say all sorts of hopeful things with a genuineness that makes you kind of like them, things about changing the world and making it better, and then over time you get to know them, and you find out they really were just “saying hopeful things with a genuineness”? Well, that’s how I feel about Barack Obama right now. Before all you Obamaphiles and Obama-defilers start in, let me say that the fact that I voted for the guy doesn’t tell you much about me. I’m a little bit republican, in the old-school sense. I believe that when reasonable people do business in a socially conscious manner, the government doesn’t need to get very involved. I’m also a little bit democrat, in the sense that I know that reasonable people don’t go into business, so social programs, regulation, and taxation are a must. I’m almost libertarian, except I don’t think the world has ever really benefited much from a bunch of Americans owning a gun. But I DID vote for the guy, because I believed him a little bit when he said things. I’m continuing to wonder if I should have. He let me down in a big way before I even voted for him, with the FISA bill. His staff is way more Clintonian than I would have liked to see, and although he’s doing fairly well over on the Obamameter, he has repeatedly supported Bush era policy , he was far less transparent than promised on the health bill process, and his track record on transparency in general has been even worse than the Bush administration. Even HE thinks it could be better. My last hope for the guy at this point will almost certainly be dashed; I’d love to see him continue to go after the banking industry with gusto, but I don’t think he wants to go down in history as the guy that collapsed the global economy, even if it would be the right thing to do. I fear he has little hope of bringing real change, given the insurmountable mess he inherited and the depth of the festering rot that is Washington in 2010, but I would admire him for the rest of my life if he went down swinging with his intelligence and oratory genius intact.