One Year Along: freehopeandchange.com

It was maybe March of this year that I first said I thought the then-new President was in the process of making two major, perhaps historic, mistakes. That verdict stands.
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It was maybe March of this year that I first said to someone who asked what I thought of the then-new President that he was in the process of making two major, perhaps historic, mistakes: pretending that Afghanistan had patiently waited for seven years while the United States dithered with Iraq and pretending that the only man-made disaster New Orleans had suffered was at the hands of Bush's FEMA. Now, some months later, regrettably, that verdict stands.

The President put his thumb in New Orleans' eye, calling the federally-caused flooding a "natural disaster" in his first, delayed Presidential visit to the still-recovering city. And his early leak (or was it Biden's leak?) that ending the latest attempt by an outside big power to remake Afghanistan was off the table sent the unmistakable signal that fear of being called "soft" by Republican chicken hawks was pushing Obama's policy towards an historic blunder that would dwarf the Iraq adventure.

Right now, the US Army Corps of Engineers is making choices that may be setting in stone, and mud, the next New Orleans disaster. Right now, the high-level White House meetings are deciding how many American troops will be sacrificed so the administration can't be accused of "losing Afghanistan" before the 2012 election.

Would any of us have expected this one year ago? But don't blame politics; we experience the same disparity between the sales pitch and the actual product every day, don't we? Or haven't you signed up for your "free" credit report from freecreditreport.com?

So, one year after the election, what do you think Candidate Obama would think of President Obama? Tweet your response (our Twitter hashtag is #OneYearLater), or post it in the comments section.

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