Quote of the day: on Obama's presidency

If Obama’s politics leads to a Republican takeover of one or both houses of Congress, and even to a Republican president in 2012, then much of what Obama has accomplished could be undone. It’s unlikely that a new Republican president and Congress would actually repeal the health care or the financial reform bill. But the former could be starved of public funds and deprived of regulatory oversight; and the latter could be neutered by a hostile treasury secretary and by weak or hostile presidential appointees to the Securities and Exchange Commission or the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Reform legislation needs administrations and congresses committed to reform. That is where politics has to come in; and that’s where the Obama administration, with its aversion to populism, has fallen short.

John B. Judis writing about Obama's (and the Democrats') "Unnecessary Fall"

A similar take on the President, all the way from Germany where Candidate Obama had a phenomenal summer (how do you say "Obamania" in Deutsch?) ... just two years ago:

Even a year ago, I don't think I would have imagined the 2010 midterm elections to become this important ... and setting up one hell of a 2012 election season ... crazy!

There is still one thing, if happens, which will be the mother of all game-changers: the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.