Magical Thinking About Barack the Magic _________________ (Fill in the blank as you see fit.)

Scanning the comments submitted to a Time.com article on the Massachusetts special election I came across the following, which I think speaks to some of the difficulties President Obama and the Democratic Party are facing as the mid-term elections loom:

All my friends voted for Obama. A lot of them were like me. It was the first time we voted. Even older people in my family, it was the first time they voted. Everybody thought things would get better. But they haven't. I know a lot of people who have lost their houses this year. It's sad. All my friends are saying Obama promised a lot but he's doing nothing. I don't know if that's true. But that's what my friends are saying.

With his talk of “Change You Can Believe In,” Candidate Obama captured the imagination of a large coalition of first-time voters and less engaged independents, and in 365 days, he has failed to deliver. Of course, not even the most optimistic of more politically experience voters believed he could accomplish his goals in a single term let alone a single year. We understand that the United States is a huge ship that, unlike a speed boat, cannot turn quickly.

Unfortunately many of the new voters Candidate Obama brought into the process expected him to be magic and most of these voters are not following the news closely enough to know how much President Obama has actually done.

The St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact fact checking site, which received a Pulitzer Prize in 2009, identifies 503 verifiable promises President Obama made during his presidential campaign. Of those, he has kept 91 during his first year in office and an additional 275 are in the works (87 are stalled because a President does not have the power to do everything he wants. Many campaign promises depend on congress for action. He has broken only 33 promises.) That is a substantial body of accomplishment for a President’s first year.

I have appended a list of the promises Politifact has listed as “kept: at the end of this post. Some are a much bigger deal than others, but many, such as “#58 Expanding the eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)” and “#507: Extend unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits” have a direct impact on the lives of many Americans. As I look down the list, I think most Obama voters would find one or more of their priorities have been addressed by one or more of these accomplishments.

Unfortunately few will look at the bulk of Obama’s accomplishments. Most will be blinded by their unmet expectations and new challenges Obama faced upon taking office. Obama himself is, in part, responsible for this. He campaigned as if he could change the country overnight. Given the entrenched Republican opposition to many of his policies, he will be magic if he can effect meaningful change in 7 years and 11 months. President Obama needs to find a way to focus his new voters with unrealistic expectations on what he has done and mobilize them behind the Democratic Party.

Here’s Politifact’s list of Obama’s promises kept:

#6: Create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes

#58: Expand eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)

#76: Expand funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners

#77: Increase funding to expand community based prevention programs

#88: Sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

#110: Assure that the Veterans Administration budget is prepared as 'must-pass' legislation

#119: Appoint a special adviser to the president on violence against women

#125: Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq

#132: No permanent bases in Iraq

#134: Send two additional brigades to Afghanistan

#154: Strengthen and expand military exchange programs with other countries

#156: Make greater investment in advanced military air technology

#16: Increase minority access to capital

#167: Make U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional on anti-terror efforts

#174: Give a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administration

#182: Allocate Homeland Security funding according to risk

#184: Create a real National Infrastructure Protection Plan

#188: Increase funding for local emergency planning

#197: Stand down nuclear forces to be reduced under the Moscow Treaty

#200: Appoint a White House Coordinator for Nuclear Security

#204: Initiate a grant and training program for law enforcement to deter cyber crime

#208: Improve relations with Turkey, and its relations with Iraqi Kurds

#212: Launch an international Add Value to Agriculture Initiative (AVTA)

#215: Create a rapid response fund for emerging democracies

#222: Grant Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba

#224: Restore funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program

#225: Establish an Energy Partnership for the Americas

#239: Release presidential records

#241: Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.

#244: Provide affordable, high-quality child care

#247: Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession

#266: Encourage water-conservation efforts in the West

#269: Increase funding for national parks and forests

#270: Increase funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund

#272: Encourage farmers to use more renewable energy and be more energy efficient

#277: Pursue a wildfire management plan

#278: Remove more brush, small trees and vegetation that fuel wildfires

#279: More controlled burns to reduce wildfires

#284: Expand access to places to hunt and fish

#290: Push for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation and other factors

#297: Restore funding to the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

#300: Reform mandatory minimum sentences

#307: Create a White House Office on Urban Policy

#310: Establish program to convert manufacturing centers into clean technology leaders

#325: Create an artist corps for schools

#326: Champion the importance of arts education

#327: Support increased funding for the NEA

#33: Establish a credit card bill of rights

#332: Add another Space Shuttle flight

#334: Use the private sector to improve spaceflight

#336: Partner to enhance the potential of the International Space Station

#337: Use the International Space Station for fundamental biological and physical research

#338: Explore whether International Space Station can operate after 2016

#342: Work toward deploying a global climate change research and monitoring system

#345: Enhance earth mapping

#346: Appoint an assistant to the president for science and technology policy

#356: Establish special crime programs for the New Orleans area

#359: Rebuild schools in New Orleans

#36: Expand loan programs for small businesses

#371: Fund a major expansion of AmeriCorps

#377: Create a Social Investment Fund Network

#380: Bolster the military's ability to speak different languages

#391: Appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer

#394: Provide grants to early-career researchers

#40: Extend and index the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch

#411: Work to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear

#420: Create a national declassification center

#421: Appoint an American Indian policy adviser

#425: Increase funding for land-grant colleges

#427: Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees

#435: Create new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud

#452: Weatherize 1 million homes per year

#458: Invest in all types of alternative energy

#459: Enact tax credit for consumers for plug-in hybrid cars

#460: Ask people and businesses to conserve electricity

#466: Create a 'Green Vet Initiative' to promote environmental jobs for veterans

#467: Create job training programs for clean technologies

#475: Require states to provide incentives for utilities to reduce energy consumption

#480: Support high-speed rail

#483: Invest in public transportation

#484: Equalize tax breaks for driving and public transit

#494: Share enviromental technology with other countries

#495: Double federal spending for research on clean fuels

#498: Provide grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes

#50: Expand the Senior Corps volunteer program

#500: Increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency

#502: Get his daughters a puppy

#503: Appoint at least one Republican to the cabinet

#506: Raise the small business investment expensing limit to $250,000 through the end of 2009

#507: Extend unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits

#513: Reverse restrictions on stem cell research.