So much is happening right now politically, it’s really hard to keep up with it. But several of the big fronts include the health care battle on capitol hill (I spelled “hell” by mistake when I first typed it, and thought, ‘yeah, that would be better’), Afghanistan, Global warming and the milktoast Copenhagen meeting, Iran and their steps toward becoming a nuclear power, the economy and the debt, Iraq. Whew, I get tired just thinking about it. And what about the important issues that aren’t even included in that list?

Obama is a young, energetic leader who is overall well liked, although the U.S. media is trying to beat him down a bit. He has decided to tackle all of these issues at once, and has, according to the media, staked his career on getting at least some of it done. But, as I wrote for my Washington Post pundit contest column, Obama isn’t above failing, and I am amazed at the efforts to defeat him instead of work with him.

But Obama was put in to change things, and if he accepts too little change as change, he won’t necessarily be able to convince enough people that he really does represent change. So he’s really in a tough place. But it would be the same for anyone that tried to do something in that office.

Take the health care issue for example. If it gets watered down too much and still becomes law out of supposed political necessity but doesn’t help people enough, I’m not sure that Obama can ride that kind of “success” forward too far. He may have to suck in his agenda, go the American people and say that things aren’t going as fast as he thought they could, which most people will understand, but stand firm in his resolve to not give up, if he wants to really impress people. Let’s see if he can do it.

He already showed with his Afghanistan decision that he is susceptible to political pressure, and can be boxed in by events. That isn’t any negative comment on him, but just the reality that anyone would be facing. It does show that Obama is only human.