I'd offer, as I did in my long comment above, that there are actually 3 paths, not 2. In addition to these two paths that you mentioned of either "excessive" activism (of which I think there can never be enough and which can therefore never be truly excessive) and actually excessive trust or passivity, I'd add the existance of a third path of destructively excessive mistrust, cynicism and rejectionism, of the sort displayed by those who claim that Obama's a complete fraud and little more than a smarter and more competent Bush, and that only the destruction of the two-party system (and of the two parties themselves) and some sort of spontaneous (or perhaps planned) revolution can bring about real improvement.

You're right that there is this group, and there are actually others, too. But I don't think there's any question that this group -- the one you've added -- is extremely small. After all, if only 21% disapprove of Obama in the transition, it's safe to assume that many of those are the hard-core right-wingers who will always hate Obama and still think he's a Muslim Communist Terrorist.

The group on the Left who are irrevocably convinced that there's no difference between him and McCain, that he's just a Manchurian right-wing shill, etc. is exceedingly small (I'm not saying they're therefore wrong, just small). Their presence might be a bit overrepresented online for a variety of reasons -- probably even more than a bit -- but I don't think that mentality is shaping perceptions of Obama very much at all.

Still, even if we re-define the extremes the way you have - excessive reverence and excessive contempt -- I still prefer the latter to the former. To be President of the U.S. these days is to wield vast power. That office is far more in need of checks and limits than added support and adulation. I'd rather have citizens err on the side of excess contempt for powerful political leaders than excess trust and reverence.

Obamabots: We've always wanted a pony, and now we have one, and his name is Obama!

LW Obama haters: We're still waiting for our pony, and it sure ain't Obama!

Reality-dwellers: There are no ponies, and never will be. Deal. With. It.

I don't care how many sock-puppets and political marionettes infest the comments sections, it's all worth it when I can have two updates, over easy, with my toast and coffee. If only life could be a series of updates, delineated by Roman Numerals, each upper-case L or X bringing with it a plangent whiff of the vomitorium. Crap, I think I meant pungent. Sorry.

BTW, I hope everyone has been enjoying themselves arguing with my manifold identities. I thought signing in as "Edelbrock Offenhauser" would give the game away, but nobody noticed.

I hear ya kovie

Merry X-mas everybody!

But I also agree with Glenn

We should always keep our eyes open

Not just a little bit now and then..

...that M. hayden is only staying for the transition period. By summer, he ought to be in some petroleum multinational's boardroom (figure Dubai or Kuwait City), cashing large checks for nothing even resembling work.

Off topic: many wingnuts are losing their water over BHO's birth certificate; they seem positively agog. I suppose the fact that his mom's from Kansas slipped by them. I know it's a cliche, but...

TEH STOOPID!! IT BURNS!!

here's what a Sadly No! post had to say about these wingnuts:

__________________________________________________

mikey said,

December 9, 2008 at 3:23

I’m TELLIN ya.

If there’s gonna be a bunch of cash “donations” flying around the intert00bz looking for someone who can use them to prove that Barack Obama cannot legally take the oath of office on 1/20, I’m pretty sure I can get in the way of some.

I mean, they’ve been buying low-hanging stupid up to this point. One of the problems with low-hanging stupid is it all begins to sound the same, kinda ho-hum, y’know? White noise idiocy.

What I can bring to the party is some air-it-out long-ball stupid, some stupid you not only never HEARD of before, but stupid you never even CONSIDERED. I have spent my whole life regretting that I never worked as a writer at a National Enquirer - type tabloid, but this could very well be my shot at redemption.

If I can give them weapons-grade stupid, a number of way out there storylines converging in a wildly improbable conclusion with myriad physical items of proof awaiting only their discovery or release. Adding to the story hourly, occasional and mysteriously going silent for days on end, confident, near arrogant statements of certainty complete with announcement schedules followed in short order by frantic cries for funds as life and limb are in immediate peril!!

Yeah. Let’s do this thing…

mikey

"I don't care how many sock-puppets and political marionettes infest the comments sections, it's all worth it when I can have two updates, over easy, with my toast and coffee. "

Try the coffee straight, without the alcohol. It's good that way, too.

Still, even if we re-define the extremes the way you have - excessive reverence and excessive contempt -- I still prefer the latter to the former.

Agreed. But one, I'm not complaining about potentially excessive contempt, so much as I am about actually and clearly excessive contempt. And two, as I've stated, I don't think that we're faced with only these two extreme choices. Criticism and activism that could, in retrospect, turn out to have been excessive, and excessively contemptuous (or not), so long as they're well-intentioned and arguably justified at the time, are never unwarranted, let alone excessive.

There is a world of difference, as I see it, between activism and criticism that is very aggressive and which COULD, in time, turn out to have been excessive and unfair, but which at the time seems quite warranted, and activism and criticism that is clearly, AT THE TIME, excessive and unfair, or at least unwarranted by the actual facts. As there is a world of difference between either of these, and unwarranted, excessive and mindless adulation.

We're obviously in substantive agreement here, with just a slight amount of semantic difference over words like "excessive", "contempt", "criticism" and "activism". I'm just trying to point out an important difference between productive criticism (that could be seen as contemptuous, either at the time or in retrospect), and unproductive criticism (that is clearly contemptuous). The former is perfectly acceptable and clearly necessary, and Obama needs and can take it (and has said so), while the latter is just self-gratifying nonsense that helps no one.

And as a side note, I find it to be quite odd to be arguing with at least three separate groups of people with respect to Obama. One, the aforementioned far right nutjobs who think that he's a Secret Muslim Commie out to destroy America. Two, his adulatory True Believer supporters, for whom He Can Do No Wrong and Who Must Not Be Criticized Ever. And three, the Obama-hating far left, who view him as Bush Perfected. I.e. the crazy right, the crazy left, and the silly center.

What's an Obama supporter/critic to do?

(Answer: understand and engage in this complex and imperfect thing called democracy.)