Rewarding the GOP for preventing anything from getting anything done.

...or mocking his critics from the left? I do not know too many Presidents who have a major record of achievements 9 months into their first term!

Ah Yes! W. Less than 9 months in he ignored clear warnings of the preparation for an attack within the US and paved the way for 9-11...

I suppose he could've gone for the vacation days record... or reading "My Pet Goat" to kids record.

The right wingers will just say it was their own perseverance and passion that kept President Obama from enacting the "socialist agenda" that he really wanted.

Even if Obama never actually said he wanted to do socialist/fascist things they all know he really wanted to but was keeping it a secret.

Actually, now that I think of it, perhaps Fox and the GOP have a good strategy. Using throngs of irrational people, who will believe anything the right person says, to intimidate Obama and Democrats into not enacting real change might be effective.

If a "public option" is passed can anyone here guess how the Fox Fans and Beck followers will act once they are told that "the government has taken over healthcare" or "they'll be cutting your Medicare" or "stop them before they destroy America!"?

A little over eight months in office is hardly a year. and have we already forgotten the Lily Ledbetter legislation? The increase in the minimum wage? The credit card consumer protection act? If SNL wants to lampoon the President as a sop to the right wing, at least make sure it is fact based...

He's still running around, delivering campaign speeches short on specifics and long on the ol' Hopey Changey.

It's as if he thinks he can cause change through inspiration, totally by-passing the hard work of formulating policy and negotiating.

Which is not to say he hasn't been busy...just think about all those deals done behind closed doors, first with the Bailout, then the Stimulus, and then with the Drug and Insurance industries. Of course, Americans expected Obama would be busy looking out for their interests, and not the interests of his political contributors, but maybe, if they wait at the back of the bus long enough, he'll toss them a few crumbs.

Or doesn't that count as an accomplishment? Sure we're still in recession, but it's much better than the alternative, no?

Also, as so many have said, 9 months in office does not a year make.

We'l see how things look on Jan 20, 2010, and then we can make pronouncements about what's he's accomplished in a year.

Global warming bill written

Greenhouse gases listed as dangerous so EPA can regulate (if Congress sits on their asses with the global warming bill, which they are).

Stimulus bill

Healthcare bills in both House and Senate

Iraqi troops being drawn down (remember how many presidents it took to disengage from Vietnam?)

There might be a few others. Those seem pretty good for 9 months.

I know it's a journalist's highest and best use to rubber stamp half-assed comedy sketches, but a little bit of diligence would go a long way here, Alex.

than SNL without Poehler and Fey, too.

If anything the POTUS is paying for high expectations, as opposed to the venerable comedy show that I read about every two years or so and think "Huh...it's still on." and nothing else.

The only thing that will ever revive SNL is if the recession causes every American to turn off their cable on the same day and even then "Weekend Update" would never survive comparison to TDS and Colbert.

Is it just me, or is Fred Armisen not even trying to sound like Obama any more? The makeup job is pretty decent, but the guy sounds NOTHING like him. And his body language is completely wrong. As with Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford, there seems to be no connection between the portrayer and portrayed.

Cuz you need to wake up.

First, 8 months (he took office at the end of January) does not equal a year. Second, he's pulled America's international reputation out of the toilet and regained a measure of trust with many of our allies. Third, he passed a stimulus bill (it should have been bigger) which prevented the country from falling into the Great Abyss (what would we have accomplished with McCain's tax cuts and a spending freeze?). Fourth, he is jumpstarting the federal government through repealing all the damaging policies enacted by the bush administration. I could go on and on.

Obama has accomplished more positive achievements in eight months than bush did in eight years. Also, name one president who enacted MAJOR legislation within eight months of being elected.

I can't believe you bought into that bullshit.

I think he's experimenting with being more himself in an effort to get more laughs. When he mimicked Obama's measured, almost robotic delivery, it was hard to be funnier than Obama. Bush and Clinton actually had funny parts of their personality that could be exaggerated. Obama doesn't give impersonators much to work with.

Just in case anyone wants to do a point-by-point on Obama and another president - say. Bush - here's a list of what George W. Bush did in his first 6 months (please note: does not include illegal war, million dead or broken economy on his watch, nor ignoring warning of 9/11) - from Democratic Underground:

* Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

* Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.

* Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced paediatric training.

* Cut by 50% funding for research into renewable energy sources.

* Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic drinking water.

* Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.

* Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii. San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001

* Cut funding by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.

* Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.

* OK'd Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.

* Appointed John Negroponte - an un-indicted high level Iran Contra figure - to the post of United Nations ambassador.

* Abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.

* Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and providers of care for people without insurance.

* Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.

* Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands.

* Cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing.

* Proposed to eliminate a federal program designed to help communities (and successfully used in Seattle) prepare for natural disasters.

* Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.

* Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.

* Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.

* Cut program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work.

* Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra).

* Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.

* Appointed Otto Reich - an un-indicted high level Iran Contra figure-to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.

* Cut Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million.

* Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.

* Rescinded rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.

* Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.

* Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2), the waste gas that contributes to global warming.

* Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counselling with other independent funds.

* Closed White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.

* Nominated David Lauriski - ex-mining company executive-to post of Assistant Secretary of Labour for Mine Safety and Health.

* O.K.'d Interior Secretary Gale Norton to go forth with a controversial plan to auction oil and gas development tracts off the coast eastern of Florida.

* Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.

* Proposes to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.

* Gutted White House AIDS Office.

* Renegotiating free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate safeguards for the environment and workers' rights.

* Will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.

* Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.

* Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

* Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.

* Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.

* Continues to hold up federal funding for stem cell research projects.

* Makes sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.

* Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.

* Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.

* Proposed a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% will go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

* Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.

* Appointed a Vice President quoted as saying "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants."Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press."

* Appointed Diana "There is no gender gap in pay" Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers. Boston Globe, March 28, 2001

* Appointed Kay Cole James - an opponent of affirmative action-to direct the Office of Personnel Management.

* Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect.

* Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.

* Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.

* Is pushing for development of small nuclear weapons to attack deeply buried targets-weapons, which would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

* Proposes to nominate Jeffrey Sutton-attorney responsible for the recent case weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act-to federal appeals court judgeship.

* Proposes to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.

* Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program which taught schoolchildren about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship.