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Naomi Klein wrote this commentary on Huffington Post:

For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big to Blow

I didn't agree with her and responded thusly:

Naomi,

I am sorry that you are so disappointed by President Obama's actions or lack thereof. I am sorry that so many liberal Americans, including many of those commenting on your page, share your disappointment. I find much of this sentiment short sighted and self centered.

Many of us worked hard, donated, argued and voted for Obama/Biden. When our dream came true and he was elected many of us thought that happy days were here again. Well Naomi, reality has now set in. Obama is struggling to work in a warped political system that is soaked with lobbyist money and full of people that don't agree with us. He is confronted by a plethora of serious issues that will have deep and long term repercussions no matter what actions are taken. He is surrounded by a large majority party that contains conservatives, liberals and every flavor in between. The current Senate requires 60 votes to take any action at all. He is being derided and maligned from the right, from the left and from the moderate center.

Obama is a brilliant man and has excellent communication skills. Although nobody is perfect, his heart is in the right place on most issues. But he can't just dictate law from the bully pulpit. He can't just give a speech and declare what he will accept and what he will not accept. He can't just issue orders to a party that has significant differences within its own ranks. This is all going to have to be done the hard way, step by step, issue by issue and statute by statute. It is going to be painful and slow (see the last five months of the health care battle). If we are going to give birth to a new era we are going to have to struggle with the labor pains.

It does not help to jump up and down and complain and attack Obama. His numbers are dropping across the board and that drop is occurring among liberals too. That costs Obama political capital and the ability to increase his influence where it matters. If he is below 50% in the polls and he calls a Senator to the White House "woodshed" it will be a weak and meaningless act. If he is seen as a weak president who has lost his base it will keep people away from the polls and help to elect Republican Governors, Congressmen, Senators and eventually a President who doesn't share any of our goals. We can and always should fight for what we believe in but we cannot remove our support from Obama because the alternatives are far worse.

What we need in our struggle in this democracy is a methodical dedication to slowly making progress in the right direction. Obama is absolutely correct when he says that the ship of state turns very slowly. And that is actually a good thing. We don't want our ship to flounder or run aground.

We don’t need to help the Republicans send Obama to his “Waterloo”. We don’t need people to split off and vote for a Nader the way they did in 2000. 8 years of Bush was a very painful lesson.

So Naomi, jump up and down and scream about what you perceive Obama's failures to be. Encourage as many people as you can to withhold their support from this talented and gifted man whom we elected to face this once in a century hurricane of huge problems and issues. Gale force winds are blasting him where he stands but abandon ship if you wish.

I refuse to attack the captain when we have just set out on our journey. That will never get us to our destination. The "Change We Believe In" could never have happened overnight in any case. That is simply an unreasonable expectation. It is a long journey across the ocean of human endeavor and we must work together to ever have a chance to achieve our destination.