By their enemies...

The Beltway -- wrong about everything since 1992 -- is so happy with everything Obama does that I'm getting a little concerned. They fought Clinton tooth and nail, and he ran a highly successful presidency. They bowed down to George Bush for six years, and he ran the country into the ground.

Sometimes I think that politics is like a play. You need some tension -- some conflicting motives, unease, suspense, some drama -- to bring out the best in the actors. And the audience. The Republicans in Congress aren't going to be the lap dogs in opposition the Democrats were, so I imagine there will be some fireworks here and there, but I feel we would be better served if Obama was being challenged by something more than an intellectually bankrupt political movement led by the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. The Washington press corps is at least as intellectually bankrupt as the Republican Party is, but maybe this would be a case of quantity making do for quality.