Donna Brazile is more than a Democrat; she is a true leftist, and without any argument, a thoroughly loyal supporter of Barack Obama. That is not an allegation; it is a fact, and anyone can review her writings and interview comments to see the proof. To her, Obama has no faults and does everything correctly.

Brazile was Al Gore’s presidential campaign manager in 2000. She is the vice chairwoman of the National Democratic Committee and a political analyst. She has earned an “A” in never-wavering tenacity.

Her recent syndicated commentary, “Obama finds his voice at the State of the Union,” offers an assessment of the speech that could make one think she had witnessed the Messiah.

She opined that in spite of the “dreadful midterm election,” Obama made “a decision to act on climate change and Cuba … and the public responded at times overwhelmingly, to the steps he took acting alone.” Yes, the public did respond – but not in the manner Brazile implies.

Brazile’s looking-back positives included Obama’s 50-percent popularity rating, a number bantered around recently but apparently quite debatable.

The Rasmussen Poll published Jan. 27 said that overall, 47 percent approve of Obama while 51 percent disapprove. Further and more specifically, 39 percent “strongly approve” and 51 percent “strongly disapprove,” which sums up as “a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14” i.e. a minus-14.

Obama’s State of the Union declaration, “The shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the union is strong,” was dumbfounding. Undoubtedly Obama loyalists choose to believe that, but listening to the masses, including a lot of Democrats – let alone military minds – that view is out in the stratosphere.

The Middle East is exploding, every terrorist group imaginable is rampaging and murdering thousands daily with Iran, among them, vowing to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and various radical Muslim terrorist groups declaring to overtake America – and yet, “the shadow of crisis has passed?”

That statement is an absolute, pure example of Obama’s thinking: If he says it, it is reality. That kind of mindset of the supposed leader of America is nothing less than perilously dangerous for our country and everyone in it.

Brazile’s commentary continues with a theme that Republicans are to blame and probably won’t work with Democrats in general or with Obama in particular. There’s nothing new in that whine.

In unintended contrast to Brazile’s message was in the L.A. Times’ “Democrats block Keystone bill.”

That article points out that Keystone failed earlier this week on a 53-39 Senate vote with some Democrats who were once for Keystone voting against it. It needed 67 votes to override a veto.

Democrats are pouting in accusing new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “strong-arm tactics” in shutting off debate on the bill. While that assertion rings of bullying, the facts are that the Keystone topic has been bantered about for at least five years of Obama’s six-year presidency and for the entire terms of most of the present U.S. Senate members.

Keystone has been the new Congress’ target since inception, just as it promised.

Democrats complained that McConnell shut down debate on the bill even though it was after three weeks of chatter and with an amazing 24 amendments being processed. In other words, Republicans got tired of the piece-meal yammering and called a halt to it.

A significant irony is that Harry Reid inserted the “nuclear option” during his last Senate leadership term, barring Republican input, yet Democrats now complain they’re not getting enough space to be heard.

Reid’s nuclear option died with the ending of his term, and the fact that the new Republican majority did not re-institute it shows they are trying to work with Democrats. If this childishness continues, McConnell needs to man-up and put that option it back to prominence.

It won’t make many national headlines, but McConnell has already vocalized that this new, three-week-old Senate has gotten down to business and voted on more amendments than the Democrat-led Senate did the entire last year.

Obama was publicly vocal through the holidays, when Congress was not in session, in saying he will veto several pieces of legislation that have neither been fully written nor presented yet. It’s pretty clear this president has no intention of working with this Congress.

Two analysts, Alison D. Howard and Donna R. Hoffman, from the Dominican University of California and the University of Northern Iowa, respectively, completed a study tracking State of the Union speeches and their attendant wish lists for legislation to get passed. The finding is that Barack Obama has the second-worst record of getting laws enacted in the past 50 years. He comes in only a tad above Gerald Ford, who was unelected, serving just two years after Nixon resigned.

Moreover, for a full two years of Obama’s presidency, Democrats wielded control of the House, the Senate and the White House.

Remember the truth and the facts when you hear Democrats continuing false grumbling and phony protests that Republicans are holding up a democracy from working.

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.