On the foreign policy front, Obama cannot be faulted: Iran, Israel, Palestine--thus far he's been pitch-perfect, talking tough without talking trash, being a motivator and cheerleader where appropriate. But here at home, it's time for him to step up to the plate and do what caused him to captivate all of us and catapult him into office. He's got the real "political capital" that W WISHES he could have had in 2004--and he can spend it far more freely and wisely than Dubya ever attempted to do. So here are my suggestions for his "Political Capital Budget:" 1. Quash all the kerfuffle that's brewing over his inability thus far to rescue the economy. Never mind it's been only five months. He needs to assert that first, he inherited a horrid bullet-ridden, kneecapped, slashed-beyond-recognition mess of a "patient" that was savaged by years of Republican-dominated deregulation and celebration of the philosophy that ennobled the concept of maximizing the making of money--even to the extent of conjuring it out of whole cloth, heck, thin air. He then needs to give us all that cold wet slap in the face that we are deep into terra incognita: that we know how we got into this mess but that NOBODY on either side of the aisle, not even the best and brightest, has a clue as to how to get us out of it. He has to be proactive and tell his critics to wake up and get real, and that whatever the eventual solution (if indeed one exists), it certainly isn't more of the unbridled laissez-faire that brought us to this point. And he needs to draw on his professorial skills and teach the nation a little Econ 101 instead of spouting the platitudes and clichéd indignancies that those on the right are yammering. 2. More political capital: a Senate majority of 59 (and, when Norm Coleman steps off the crazy train, 60), a still-record-high approval rating, and an overwhelming expressed desire from a lopsided majority of Americans for a public OPTION as part of a drastic repair and reform of a pathologically broken healthcare system. That's public OPTION (as in "choice," not "mandate"), not single-payor nor "socialized medicine," contrary to what the GOP-and-insurance-industry PR machine desperately and wildly inaccurately hopes we'll believe. (Note to the other side: Harry & Louise have switched over to OUR team now). 3. Time to deliver the goods on equal rights: order the military to deep-six "don't ask/don't tell" and stop jettisoning valuable personnel just for being "out." Even though we decried Bush's DOJ putsch and purge of Asst. U.S. Attorney's who wouldn't drink the neocon Kool-Aid (and we'd be extremely hypocritical to demand Obama do the same to all those DOJ who don't fully hew to the Democratic Party platform), it's time for him to call in Eric Holder and his top deputies at Justice for a "what-the-hell-were-you-thinking" moment regarding the Defense of Marriage Act. He won our hearts and minds in part because he correctly asserted that marriage may need to be defended but certainly not defended from gay couples; he has come out explicitly against DOMA; he needs to get DOJ to retract or revise that amicus brief; and he needs to extend gay couples (and unmarried but otherwise lifetime-committed domestic partners of any sexual orientation) in the Federal employ all the benefits that the law allows him....and to urge the states and the private employment sector to do the same. This Saturday, Bob and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. If the gay or lesbian couple down the street getting the eventual chance to do the same doesn't endanger our marriage, it doesn't endanger anyone else's. Obama has the clout to get that done now, with little legislative or judicial help. (That's what Executive Orders are for). 4. And here's where all that gets wrapped up: after giving his opponents and critics a thorough schooling, it's time to take off his academic gown (or Law Review jacket) and do a little old-fashioned "transactional negotiation." Anyone who's ever engineered a settlement, brokered a deal or even haggled at a bazaar knows you NEVER let 'em know at the outset what figure will be the magic number you're willing to accept. Demand more, call in your chits if you have to, and you'll end up with your objectives while making it look as if you've compromised. Even though I have the utmost admiration for the civil rights firm of Davis, Barnhill and Miner (and would have leaped at the chance to have been even a "go-fer" there), I wish Obama had had a little transactional or even trial-litigation experience (say, at a P.I. plaintiff or defense mill) to make him comfier with the escalated and magnified horse-trading that national political office demands. No more trying to be the Great Conciliator--the Loyal Opposition (and I use the term advisedly) eats conciliators for breakfast and spits out the seeds. We know Obama is human, not divine, and humans can do just so much. But as humans go, he's extraordinary and has the chance to bring the real change he promised. Ironically, that real change needs to be achieved by the adroit, expert, and larger-than-life exploitation of the political system as it currently exists: instead of "destroying the village in order to save it" (the bass-ackwards rationalization of the Vietnam war), one must game the system to its fullest extent in order to turn it inside out and renovate it.