Visualize the youngster of Norman Rockwell's era who has just been given an hour alone in the neighborhood candy store.  First, he can hardly believe his good fortune.  Then he can hardly decide what to do first, which piece of candy to down first, how much to eat, what to sample in this case and that case.  Before too long, the hour in the candy store has taken a toll on the youngster.  He has a tummy ache and can't eat any more candy; worse yet, he can't avoid purging the candy that he rushed to eat.  He has become the victim of his own good fortune.

Our president runs the decided risk of becoming that youngster.  He walked into his "candy store" upon being sworn in to office.  Everywhere he looked, he saw something he just had to have and do, something broken that he just had to change.  He became that boy in the candy store.

President Obama has tackled too much in these early days in office.  He is frittering away his political capital not by doing too little but by over-reaching in too many areas all at once.  He has initiated enough major initiatives to last any president a full four years of a first term, and maybe some years into a second term.  He has, it seems, known all along that he didn't have a detailed plan for any of the grandiose ideas.  He seems to have determined that his job is simply to set the stage through grandiloquent speeches so that the pent-up "needs" of his party can be fulfilled almost simultaneously.

There is one small problem, however.  The people who put him in office need substance and not simply cheer leading.  They want to understand what each initiative means to them as individuals.  They want to understand that more good than bad will flow from the various initiatives.  They want to believe that this "great movement" is more than just a "great movement".  They want to believe that this man isn't simply about politics, that he isn't affected by a messianic self-vision, and that he can really be trusted to do what he claims is his goal.

As with the kid in the candy store, there comes a time of reckoning.  President Obama's polling numbers have slipped more than many thought would happen to this president.

He seems to have over-reached in his zeal to accomplish too much too quickly.  He could've taken on climate change.  Or, he could've taken on the economy.  Or, he could've taken on health care.  Or, he could've mounted a world tour to restore confidence in America.  But he didn't do any of these things; instead he is trying to do all of these things.

The Democrat steamroller that is Congress is also becoming a problem for this president.  It is burning up some of his good will and political capital by the way it is acting.  Nancy Pelosi is aristocratic and aloof and seemingly not to be trusted.  Harry Reid is like the rat scurrying around in the dark up to no good.  And, they are driving the president's initiatives and trying to effect all this massive change in the first year of his presidency. 

It is as if they all know they are part of a house of cards and they're hell-bent on getting this all finished before the house collapses around them.

Maybe we are coming to our collective senses.