I agree with some of this, but not all of it

I think Obama could have and should have pushed harder for a climate bill. I think his administration shouldn’t have opened up Wyoming to a coal factory or the Arctic to oil drilling or stepped back on its smog standards. I think rather than try to reason with stubborn Republicans behind closed doors and gotten nothing for it, he should have put their feet to the public fire to get more done.

But I don’t expect him to be perfect. And I certainly think most of the blame lays on Congress and especially the GOP. And that needs more attention from everyone.

The right, in general, falls in step behind their politicians.

The left, IMHO, needs to find a way to be helpfully critical rather than destructively critical.

I’ve no doubt that President Obama would have signed a climate bill, a bill getting rid of DOMA, a bill to close Gitmo, and all other sorts of stuff that the left wants had Congress sent him any of those bills.

The left, rather than focusing their criticism on Congress for not creating legislation, is attacking PBO for not creating legislation out of clean air, something that our Constitution does not allow.

Friedman is blaming PBO for not making a ‘magic speech’ which would have caused Congress to write a climate bill. That’s some stupid bull shit.

If the left wants change then they have to change Congress.

My take on it is that if the left doesn’t hold its politicians accountable, the center constantly shifts to the right (as we’ve seen for a couple decades now in US politics)

These jerks are tripping their own ball carrier rather than blocking for him.

They need to be using their intelligence and public forum to solve problems, not create more….