But wait a minute. There is another, far smaller part of that coalition that has yet to turn on or abandon him at all, a group that may have the perfect mindset for hanging in there.
Call these people The Savvy & The Cynical, liberals who understood from the outset what they'd be getting with Obama: an ethical Liberal who believes in consensus building and the accumulative power of incremental change, whose career was built in large part with the cash and clout of Chicago's corporate and political power elites - a microcosm of the web of national and multi-national elites that the Obama administration has been so careful to push a little, but not to push too far as President.
While there was cynicism about how much a politician like that could actually accomplish, there was also the savvy sense that Obama's heart is in the right place; that he would quickly enact important smaller and medium-sized reforms, as he has; and that he would remain a willing agent of change on The Big Reforms, if surrounded with overwhelming grassroots support and cover.
There were no grand illusions about the dawn of a new Progressive Age - just a bite-the-bullet, clear-eyed political calculation: Help the Liberal who's too willing to compromise with the elites to beat the Conservative who has already been compromised, badly compromised, by those same elites. If victorious, the plan was to keep constant moral/ethical/political/grassroots pressure on the compromising Liberal, to risk more, to do more, and to compromise less.
Bless The Savvy & The Cynical, for they stuck to their plan. Disappointed as they knew they would be and are by the compromises and some of the decisions that Obama makes -Â disagreeing loudly and publicly whenever necessary - they still remain focused on trying to strengthen Obama rather than weaken him, committed first and foremost to combating the real enemy: the right wing-dominated Republican Party and the corporate interests that rule them.
All credit and blessings too, to those among The Fired Up who have kept the faith. They share many fine traits with The Savvy & The Cynical - including full awareness that it is primarily the Republicans' lockstep, no holds barred, pedal-to-the-metal strategy of obstruction and obfuscation that has kept Obama and the Democrats from getting more done on The Big Issues - an awareness that escapes or doesn't matter enough to the members of the President's original coalition who are no longer fired up or are now fed up with him.
Place most of the blame for creating this politically dicey situation on the inability and/or unwillingness of the national Democratic Party and The White House to mount an eye-popping, attention-grabbing, multi-platform preventive communications campaign - something so compelling that it might have actually had a shot at inoculating the general public against the obstructionist corporate-Republican onslaught to come.
Regardless of the mainstream corporate media effort to keep a suspenseful storyline going - tay tuned for the latest on the President's plunging poll numbers: what will a frustrated, edgy electorate do? - The reality is that this game has only just begun.
To run with the sports clichà ©s a bit - We're only in the final minutes of the first quarter of Obama's first term. With a new, improved playbook, he and his team can score some big points for America's unemployed, dispossessed and working families. In the process, they may well get four more quarters added to their presidential game clock.
Whether the kinds of strategic adjustments needed can be made in time to save the Democratic Party from embarrassment in the 2010 midterm elections - that's more of a long-shot right now, though not an unattainable goal. And it sure as hell is a worthy one.
Moving forward, one can only hope that lessons are being learned all around, and that The Savvy & The Cynical can help stiffen what's left of the coalition's collective resolve for the long, tough road ahead.
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