'Don't Underestimate Barack Obama'

Charles Krauthammer has a warning for his colleagues on the right who have all but declared this presidency to be politically dead: "Don't underestimate Barack Obama." He's already achieved a "historic" presidency through Obamacare alone, not to mention financial reform, and the stimulus. In short, he's finished all the heavy lifting he's going to do in his first term, and the coming midterms won't affect him that much. In fact, Republican gains this year may help him get re-elected in 2012 (just ask Bill Clinton).

"Obama is down, but it's very early in the play," writes Krauthammer in the Washington Post. "Like Reagan, he came here to do things. And he's done much in his first 500 days. What he has left to do he knows must await his next 500 days—those that come after reelection. The real prize is 2012. Obama sees far, farther than even his own partisans. Republicans underestimate him at their peril." (More Barack Obama stories.)