Remember that Tom's looking at things in an entirely political light, and in context, it's hard to deny that Obama's lost any chance of being remembered for his accomplishments, and that the game has shifted to being judged on his ability to recover from failure.

Not acknowledging that reality also means turning a blind eye to the success of the far right's smear campaign against Obama. He not only was dealt the worst opening hand of any President since FDR, he faced a fanatic 24x7 campaign to obstruct his administration at any cost to the country.

To my mind, Obama's greatest failure is to cling to the delusion that the right will ever stop hating him. He'll run through his entire list of concessions and still come up short in their eyes. I'm waiting for him to grow a pair, but I'm not hopeful. I'll be watching tonight's SOTU with more than a little dread to see what else he's going to offer up as a pointless sacrifice to the enraged right.