(Easy?) Change we expected with this president

Sure, Sarah "The Quitter" Palin can deride President Obama when she asks "How's that 'hopey-changey' thing going for you?" and I'd respond "Pretty darn well, thank you very much."

Not perfectly, by any means but we saved General Motors--the whole company and all those jobs, working directly for them and all the associated companies and jobs involved--the economy is turning around, we got SOME health care reform, anyway, and the very discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was done away with, along with a lot of other good reforms (for a long list of more, see:   http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/19/805925/-90-Accomplishments-of-Pres.-Obama-Which-The-Media-Fails-to-Report)

But, admittedly, there are a few things I thought we'd get and that, I must admit, I thought we'd get long before now.  They are:

--Closing Guantanamo.  First, he said he would (and yes, I believed him) and second, it just doesn't seem it would be that difficult to do.  There were--what?--267 inmates at this thing?  I never believed for a minute that the United States of America could not or cannot handle 267 inmates of one kind or another.  We have to be that strong;

--Returning habeus corpus back to our political system.  The previous--George W. Bush--administration handily did away with this cornerstone of our Republic and our laws and I think, strongly, we should get it back.  I thought, being the law student and professor he was, that President Obama would see to this poste haste.  Far from it.  I thought he would do this one evening on the way to putting Sasha and Malia to bed one night, it would be that easy.  (Definition, for those needing it:  Habeas Corpus, literally in Latin "you have the body" is a term that represents an important right granted to individuals in America. Basically, a writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate requiring that a prisoner be brought before the court to determine whether the government has the right to continue detaining them. The individual being held or their representative can petition the court for such a writ.
According to Article One of the Constitution, the right to a writ of habeas corpus can only be suspended "in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety." Habeas corpus was suspended during the Civil War and Reconstruction, in parts of South Carolina during the fight against the Ku Klux Klan, and during the War on Terror.)

--I thought we'd get back "due process of law" (the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law) fully restored, too, with this president, particularly as relates to the people held in Guantanamo, at minimum.  More than anything, what I mean here is, if we're going to hold the prisoners at Guantanamo, we should file charges.  If we're not going to file charges--or can't--then they should be released.  We either have something on them or we don't, it's simple as that.  Or it was, before that last president.  To date, no such reclamation;
 
--Finally, I thought we would have seen the end of "signing statements" like those created under, again, former President George W. Bush.  The whole idea that a president could, yes, sign legislation into law but then make these "statements", before, during or after the signing, making it clear he (or she, one day) was going to disallow some portions of the legislation just signed seems anti-thetical to our government.  It wrests far too much power away from at least one other branch of government--the legislative--if not two, with the judicial branch, too, unless and until they ruled against this procedure. 
 
According to The Daily Kos today, President Obama is, in fact, going to issue a "signing statement on Guantanamo restrictions." 
 
When "Dubya" issued "signing statements" originally, when signing laws, I was incensed, it was such a clear power grab.
 
That President Obama would continue the practice stuns and disappoints me greatly.
 
Hopefully this Right-wing, extremely conservative Supreme Court will rule on these statements and forever banish them from our government, if that's what's necessary to rid ourselves of them.
 
In the meantime, I still hope we get the above four issues handled.
 
And as soon as possible.
 
Links:  http://americanhistory.about.com/od/americanhistoryterms/g/d_habeascorpus.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_process
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/4/933248/-Obama-to-issue-signing-statement-on-Guantanamo-restrictions?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29