What ... happened.? Last fall, I was out on the streets, campaigning for Barack Obama like I never have before for a presidential candidate--because I never before had campaigned at all for a presidential candidate. After a Bush regime that threatened to end democracy because the Decider decided he could, Obama was more than the better candidate, he was the person who could bring our freedoms back to the U.S.

So it was a bit disconcerting when Obama did straighten out the gay thing Clinton introduced to the military. It was a real piss-off when Obama didn't shut down Gitmo on the get-go. It was infuriating when Obama started pumping more resources into Afghanistan. But I could somehow live with all that because, you know, Barack might have his reasons. But now, this wimpy, nampy-pamby attitude he's taken about our health care system is ... well, it's from an alternate universe, where the President Obama is not the same President Obama we elected.

The President's lack of leadership is rivaled only by George W. Bush--who, despite a majority opposition in Congress, managed to get things down while he focused his attention of his golf swing and clearing brush. Obama had a ringing victory that could only be seen as a mandate to carry out his policies. And health care was the most far-reaching, overdue policy. Thank goodness he was in a position to make insurance reform through committees and Congress like a farm boy being taken behind the shed for a whuppin’.

But no. He's been giving away parts of health care reform like they were petals on a flower and he was dancing about a May pole. Every time the Republicans whine about the poor insurance companies being unable to compete or how out taxes will pay to kill unborn children, Obama hands them a cookie like he would a blubbering child.

It doesn't matter what concessions the Repubs get, they're still not going to vote for health care and insurance reform. Why? Because they are selfish, ignorant, greedy lackeys of the medical and insurance companies, who stand to lose a bundle if we adopt a health system as efficient, affordable, and, yes, as good as the rest of the world has.

And Obama lets them get away with it? He lets the conservatives stomp all over him like flamenco dancers performing a human sacrifice? Why? Because Obama doesn’t' want to be a scary Negro.

The president could twist the arms of Congress the way Lyndon Johnson did. He could easily make bad guys of the Congress the way Truman did. He could, like FDR, mount the bully pulpit and use his extraordinary speaking skills to rally the same people who joined to support him during the election and to pub a moral whammy on anyone who opposes a system that would save lives and money.

But he doesn't. And the only reason is that taking an aggressive stand -- to act like the "angry black man" talented fools like Rush Limbaugh accuse him of being -- might inflame the fears that smolder in the souls of those folks you see screaming the nonsensical at town hall meetings, Don't be fooled that they are screaming because they oppose changes in health care and how we pay for it. They could care less. They're there because they don't like seeing a black man in the White House. (After all this country didn't build a Black House. It's a White House, goddamit.)

One woman at a town hall was practically sobbing as she burbled, "I want our country back!" Country back? From whom? Who took your country and where do you think they're hiding it? What the woman really wants to say is that she wants to take the country back from the Negroes, and put it back into the hands of decent, god-fearing, hard-working white people who don't wear their pants below their assess and don't listen to music with no discernable melody.

And Obama is fucking letting them get away with it. More thank he wants to achieve the precious goals he campaigned for, Obama doesn't want the first black presidency to be one that causes a race riot--a white race riot. To Obama that is the way his presidency would fail because it carries the possibility that a second black man will not be elected for another 150 years.

Well, Mr. Obama, screw that! What you fear most is more likely to happen if you show you cannot lead. That is the most important job a president has. And if you continue to throw away your powers of leadership in the names of compromise and bipartisanship, race won't matter in future presidencies because you will have taught us all that opportunity for blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities is no longer one of our country's ideals.