What is the Right Attitude?

I try to remain in the present. I realize the past is gone and the future is not promised. Only now is real. But still the past echoes into my consciousness and colors my feelings and perceptions of this very moment. This morning I am looking back at a lifetime of politicians and policies which have impacted me and everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
I was a kid when John F. Kennedy was President. I admired him. I was devastated when he was assassinated. And again when Robert Kennedy was murdered in that hotel kitchen. And again by the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr., who was not a politician but a man with tremendous political impact. He seemed to have seen into the future when he said, "I may not get there with you..." speaking of the promised land, and was shot down a few days later.
I suffered through th Viet Nam war years, and protested in our capital in front of the Washington Monument. Fortunately I was not drafted.
I instinctively liked Carter and he has turned out to be maybe the greatest ex-President.  I didn't get Reagan. I've come to understand how he completely changed the course of this country by setting us against our own government. Ever since then the middle class has been shrinking and the wealthiest have grown richer and more powerful. Notice I didn't say the wealthier amongst us. They are not amongst us. And they are not for "us."
Clinton was a breath of fresh air and had great promise which he fell short of, thanks in part to his own foibles and because of a conservative cabal to move the country further and further right, fueled by unlimited amounts of money and influence, media and rightwing religion.
The Bush years found us embroiled in an invasion and occupation of Iraq and the collapse of our economy.
Now we have Obama and the hate machine is out in full force, impeding virtually everything this President tries to do and propping up the etch-a-sketch candidate Romney.
Obama, accused by the right as being the most socialist of Presidents, is to me right of center. I'm on the horns or a dilemma. I will vote for Obama because he is a far better choice than the other. But he is also far short of moving forward the kinds of change we need to reinvigorate a prosperous and free country.

Consider this quote:

“Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes that’s hard.” 
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Having the right attitude is  hard. I'm not sure what the right attitude is.