In MSNBC’s pre-Super Bowl interview with President Obama, Matt Lauer had this exchange with him.

Lauer: Three years ago we sat for this interview on Super Bowl Sunday; you had been President for just 10 days, and we talked about the state of the economy, which was in dire straits, and you said this to me, quote, If I don’t have this done in three years, then it’s going to be a one-term proposition.  You got good news on Friday in terms of jobs, the unemployment rate went down to 8.3%.  But I think if you go out on the street, you ask Americans “is the recovery done?” Overwhelmingly they will tell you it is not.  So do you deserve a second term?

Obama: I deserve a second term, but we’re not done.

There’s also this from Obama’s State Department concerning the nearly year-long situation in Syria [emphasis added]:

“We’re going to work with countries around the world to call out those who are still sending him weapons, and expose that,” [State Department spokeswoman Victoria] Nuland said. The [contact group of countries] will look at helping Syria “plot a way forward and also to do what we can about the humanitarian situation.”

Still, she recognized the limitations of that strategy.

“It’s frankly not clear how much we’re going to be able to do, but we want to help.“

And that makes it all better.  We’re just trying to help.  We deserve a prize for effort.

Here are a couple of results from this Progressive focus on credit for “trying really hard” as opposed to actual results.  The outcomes indicate both their out of touch-ness and their lack of understanding of what’s important and where true value lies.  Obama speaking, again:

I think what Americans want to hear more than anything else is, “How are you going to help me right now.  If they’re hearing a persuasive argument about how we’re gonna recreate a solid path for middle-class success in this country then I think I’ll win….”

and

What’s frustrated people is that I have not been able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008.

The fact is, we aren’t asking, “How are you going to help me right now?”  We don’t want to hear “how you’re going to create anything for a particular class;” though we do notice that you’re only concerned about the middle class, to the exclusion of Lauer’s “underclass.”

We are asking, “When are you going to get out of our way so we can go back to helping ourselves and helping each other?”  We are asking, “How is your government going to get out of our way so all Americans can be successful–middle class, poor, and rich alike?”  We don’t care—in fact, we’re overjoyed—that you “haven’t been able to force the people’s representatives to roll over and be your lapdog.”

But Progressive self-esteem is so important.