>but this habit of completely defining
>obama strictly by his 'failures' (while dismissing context) is
>intellectually lazy/dishonest.

And I don't agree with it. That's what I meant by external factors that hamstrung him. This needs to be acknowledged because (besides the fact that it's true) the next Dem president is going to face the exact same thing. If you chalk it up exclusively to "Obama was weak, I will be strong," you're going to be sunk.