As President Barack Obama began his first State of the Union address Wednesday night, Kevin Fischer glanced at the television above him and compared his 2008 vote for the president to ordering from an infomercial. "You listen to the sales pitch and you're so excited and then it arrives and you open the box and it just crumbles," Mr. Fischer said. "It turns out you didn't get what you thought you were going to."
Exactly how I feel. He can give a good speech, but, where's the beef?
Mr. Fischer, 30 years old, is among many voters here who spoke Wednesday of a creeping unease with Mr. Obama that has supplanted the enthusiasm they once felt. At the same time, many of those same Obama voters said that, given the dire condition of the U.S. when he was sworn into office, not enough time has passed to judge him fairly.
It is only a year, indeed, and he has stanched the economic bleeding, yet I feel a deep unease. The health care reform debacle demolished my confidence, both in the President and the Democratic party. It has also left me angry.
Regret for supporting a Democratic presidential candidate is an unusual sensation in this quiet, snow-covered prairie city. That's because heading into the 2008 election, no Democratic presidential candidate had won here since 1964. Nebraska was second only to Utah in its red-state reliability.
Well, for me the Republicans are none the better, and, in fact, worse: all they have done, down to the very last Republican Senator, is say no. No to everything.
Mr. Fischer said when he voted he believed Mr. Obama would draw down U.S. troops abroad, close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and help get the economy back on track.
"None of that has happened," he said. "I feel duped."
It's a good way of putting it, and duped is a powerful word.
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