It's Now or Never

Chris Vance opines that Barack Obama is running out of time to be a catalyst for progressive change and is likely to become a diminishing-returns replica of Bill Clinton:

The Obama presidency won’t be doomed if the public option and cap-and-trade fail to pass. If the normal trends of the business cycle prevail and the economy recovers before 2012, Obama will probably be re-elected. But like Bill Clinton before him, Barack Obama will have lost his chance to become the historic liberal change-agent he aspires to be. Republicans will likely eat into the Democrats’ huge congressional majorities in 2010. Obama’s moment is now.