Obama Vetoes Keystone Pipeline -Latest in "New" Obama Presidency

This is a little late, but I just wanted to give a thumbs up to President Obama for vetoing the Keystone Pipeline last week.

Since it could prove to have a very detrimental impact on the environment, and since it just seems like yet another thing that is all about corporate interests and profits at the expense of the rest of the American people, it was wise of Obama, and encouraging to those of us relegated to the sidelines.

I must say that I had largely written Obama off after that first term, and even the first year or two, possibly, of the second term, as well. I knew that much of that talk about "hope" and "change" was just the political rhetoric of hungry politicians with a false sense of entitlement trying to attain the office of their desire. So many people seemed to truly subscribe to the notion that he was truly different, and that he was going to lead the country in a very different, and better, direction.

After eight years of mishandling by George W. Bush and his cronies, you better believe that the country, and indeed the rest of the world, was ready for something new in the White House. A new direction, and certainly some new faces.

But the policies remained largely the same. It was getting ridiculous. He seemed almost to be a clone of George W. Bush. He was even starting to make the same, clumsy mistakes, with the very Bushesque "57 states" visited fiasco, as well as his disastrous debate showing. Suddenly, this guy that had seemed so brilliant and articulate for so long looked like he could hardly put together a full sentence without it being written for him. In other words, he looked a lot like his predecessor, once again.

Now, however, things are finally starting to look different in the White House. Obama, at last, is starting to make good on his promises, and is starting to look like he is a very different man, and president, than the man that he succeeded in the Oval Office.

There were a few things here and there in his first term that I could agree with, or even was impressed with - the biggest being, of course, his signature achievement: Obamacare. I have long believed it ridiculous that Americans are the only people in the industrialized world that do not have some form of universal, affordable health coverage. So, this seemed like a huge achievement, although the deductibles seem quite higher than I had hoped that they would be.

Other than that, however, there were far fewer things that I could agree with Obama on than I expected there to be, which was hugely disappointing. He also did not do many of the thing that he had promised, such as closing Gitmo.

Now, however, he seems to be more closely resembling the real change that so many expected him to be when first elected. He is delivering a little more closely on his promises to strengthen the environmental policies of the nation, and beginning to take a decidedly different path than his predecessor surely would have if in office, such as with opening relations with Cuba, and initiating immigration reform independently from Congress.

Things need to get done, after all. The business of the country, if you will, keeps going, even when the business of Congress is to actively prevent things from going - including government.

Yes, Obama is starting to more closely resemble a leader. It took a long time, yes. Six years into the White House, and with loud advertising already now from prospective candidates for the 2016 race beginning to cast a shadow over this administration.

But better late than never.

Republicans have long lambasted the president for not using his veto powers. When he finally did (as I understand it, this was actually the third time that he used it), it very much directly was in opposition to what they wanted.

Good for him.

Again, I do not know that this is a sign that Washington is working now, even a little better. For that matter, I do not know if this changes perceptions about the type of president Obama has been or, possibly, can still be. You cannot just dismiss those first six years as some sort of a fluke, and look to what he has done in recent months - after his concerns for elections are now done - and say that this is, somehow, the "true" Obama presidency.

What I will say is that this is refreshing to see. And, I hope that we see more of it.