(Photo: Pete Souza/White House)
The White House scored a big legislative victory yesterday: its sweeping bill to reform the nation's financial regulatory system passed the Senate, and is now well on the way to becoming law. It had bipartisan creds too: several Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it, including Ted Kennedy's Republican successor, Scott Brown. This isn't quite as big has health care, but it's an accomplishment of comparable scale, and prompts the usually cautious commentator Ben Smith to declare:
In the space of four months, President Obama has gone from being a president whose legacy might have been limited to the financial stabilization of the beginning of his term to one whose strength, and broad policy legacy, seems difficult to question.
I sometimes think that because he's generally well-regarded anyway (at least over here) people lose sight of what an extraordinarily accomplished president Obama has become. In case you need any more persuading, see David Brooks here (on Obama's ability to deal with several crises at once without panicking) or Ambinder on his evolving approach to foreign policy.
His approval ratings are ticking upwards, though whether they recover strongly enough to help prevent a November massacre depends largely on the economic situation.
UPDATE: The brilliant David Leonhardt has made the same point as Ben Smith, at column length.
Meanwhile, Melanie Phillips (the British Anne Coulter) declares the Obama adminstration to be "evil".
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