Cheaper than a therapist ...

Well I certainly appreciate your optimism regarding the American appetite for Obama's various plans. I too see a general impatience growing with his course direction; and I looked into it- if you average out Barry's approval rating between TARP, cap and trade, and now health care its taken a roughly 16 point hit since January 20th (although given, that date's numbers are always artificially high).

I did think you were wrong about military spending. You can google "Obama to cut military spending" and within 1.2 seconds get back no less then 900,000 entries. And while he did cut R&D, and various other programs that say, I wouldn't of cut, the overall spending is essentially flat - last year $662 billion, the new budget $664 billion. So depending on which Admiral's or general's office you're standing in the budget may be called everything from a "gut" to a "boon."

At any rate your overall point may essentially be correct - when his rhetoric and plans actually hit the pavement of the congressional floor, town hall meetings, and approval ratings, he may find that "hope & change" was much easier to sell when it was undefined.

And yes, these times are nothing compared to 33' or the unrest of the late 60's when such turbulent events allowed the chief executive the latitude to pursue "fundamental transformations", and Obama doesn't "enjoy" that type of crisis for cover. I am concerned, however, that while people of our stripe are aware of that, our fellow citizens may actually think this IS as bad as those events in US history (for a myriad of reasons, the personal hubris of wanting to live in "important" times, media exposure, etc), and in the end allow Barak the latitude he will need for his "change" to become law. In other words he may pay for his public health care, cap & trade etc, with 1 term, losing majorities in congress, approval ratings, the whole crap shoot, but not before it becomes law. The anger and rejection we see starting to bubble may not boil over into "throw the bums out" until the plans are in place, & once done they will never be undone, at least in socialized medicine's case.

But I sincerely hope you're right, that this will all happen prior to passage, and that one day Obama's "hope & change" will be as much a historical punch line as "malaise", "read my lips" & the cadre of other gaffs that line history's street of one term presidents.