Okay, it's been two months since the inauguration, and this seems as good a time as any for a reality check... an assessment of the good, the bad, and the ugly, if you will.

Let's start with the good, just to get off on the right foot. I'm vibing with Obama right now. Stem cell research in, Guantanamo Bay out, fair pay in, global gag rule out. Call me crazy, but that sounds like my kind of government.

And, while I am a bit hesitant about Obama's whole "let's do it all at the same time and see what happens" approach, it certainly is ambitious and probably necessary in the long-run. If he gets everything passed now and lays out his plans all in one shot, then things can actually start moving along before all the discontent and weariness starts to set in.

Oh, and did I mention the International Women's Issues position? Awesomeness. And the White House Council on Women and Girls? Double awesomeness.

The bad is that conservatives are still being a wee bit difficult with this whole transitioning thing. Nobody expected them to come out holding hands with the Democrats or anything, but their resistance sure isn't going to help anything.

It's also probably not helping that Obama doesn't even have a full team working on all of the issues yet. This is especially true for the treasury department, which is a bummer, to say the least, considering the shape the economy is in.

The ugly is really rather clear, isn't it? The economy sucks. There just isn't any way to sugarcoat that, unfortunately. (Well, unless you're one of those people having pink slip parties... really?!) People are losing their jobs in record numbers, it seems everyone but the regular folks are getting bailed out, and I don't know about you, but the debt-to-cash flow ratio on my budget tracker gets sadder every day. There's really no way around the fact that we're going to be complaining about the economy for at least another year or so, since things get worse before they get better. Plus, it can't be easy to fix eight years in one.

But for now, I'll stay hopeful and positive and keep pushing the new administration to make the changes I want them to make. The alternative, curling into a ball and crying, just doesn't seem as much fun.