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Michael J. Maloney, Pool / Getty Images
One year after Obama’s election night win, Garry Wills, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Walter Isaacson, and others assess whether the president has delivered on America’s soaring expectations.
Just Another Politician
By Monica Crowley
Once perceived as transformative, Obama now looks more and more like a regular politician, ensnared by petty squabbles, obsessed with politics instead of leadership, and often paralyzed by decision-making.
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Trillion Is the New Billion
By The Daily Beast Video
Bush was a disaster at cutting spending, but under Obama the U.S. deficit is $1.8 billion and the cost of health-care reform is $829 billion. These numbers are going to sink us, says Christopher Buckley. WATCH VIDEO.
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More Credit Deserved
By Walter Isaacson
Obama hasn’t put an end to the partisan vitriol, but he should get more recognition for preventing our financial system from going off a cliff.
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In his campaign for the presidency, Obama said he was not against war, just against dumb wars. Yet he is waging and expanding the dumbest kind of war—and creating his very own Vietnam.
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No Messiah, but a Good Swimmer
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Denouncing the Obama administration’s missteps or worse doesn’t get us far—it promotes exactly what the president’s adversaries seek: his political disempowerment.
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Dangers Come After Year One
By Larry Sabato
History has taught us not to take presidential first years too seriously: No one foresaw how Vietnam would doom LBJ or Watergate would unhorse Nixon.
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You Can't Ask for More
By Ted Widmer
For the vast middle of this country, and the even vaster populations that lie beyond it, it has been a relatively good year.
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If Only Obama's Performance Mattered More
By Rick Perlstein
The last year has taught a hard lesson in the power of a determined minority to keep the majority in check. Forty senators representing about 9 percent of Americans can filibuster Obama’s initiatives—and the media declares him a failure.
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Obama Needs a Left
By Michael Kazin
For the president to have a chance at becoming another FDR, he needs a big push from the left—or the conservative assumptions that have kept the nation in thrall for the past three decades will continue to hold sway..
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Airports From Hell
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Week in Political Cartoons
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Over 8000 Washington lobbyists have quit the biz since Obama was elected. The usual turnover is about 400.
We've never had a President who stood up to these rats like Obama has. Never.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa.
Stop.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHa You're killing me!
AMEN!!!
Why would Wall Street use lobbyist when they have Obama on their speed dial?
I guess you could say; "That's a significant UPGRADE, at least he's Separated the White House from being in Big Oil, Big Corp., Big Insurance & Wall Street's RIGHT POCKET!!!"
that's because the lobbyists are all working at the white house dumbass
They've quit their jobs as lobbyists to become government employees. Are you really that credulous?
they're called donors now fool. they're all over the place.
Are you stoned or just stupid?
Many people voted for him because they liked who he was. The poles make it clear that a huge number of those people are very nervous about his Leftist policies. It is possible that his decision to tack left after being elected willl doom his presidency. This is a shame, since he had the potential to truly unite the country, instead he picks battles with Fox.
Those who subscribe "Further Left" would take issue with you about the Direction the Administration is "Tacking." You must be "Directionally Challenged."
What relationship, if any does "Uniting the country" have to do with the subject matter??? In any event, "What would your recommendation be? I mean short of The President switching his Party Affiliation?"
With the outcome of the elections last evening, 0bama will have to begin his inelegant dance back toward the middle. If not, he will not get help from either side and we will have a 4 year lame duck who is tearing our country apart with indecision and his self important agendas. Boy did we make a grand mistake electing him!
Sounds like Gary Willis's heart is in the right place, but he -and apparently everyone who's taking this surge debate seriously- don't understand Obama's approach. The decision to add 44 thousand troops was made at least six months ago. The Pentagon embraced counterinsurgency some five years ago. Our government has been moving to reshape not just the military but our State Department into nation building more broadly. With that in mind, the 44 thousand troop surge is probably already happening and this "debate" is just cover. When both Bush's invaded Iraq, they used an ultimatum (in Bush Sr.s case, get out of Kuwait, Bush Jr.'s submit to full inspections and handover all WMD) to provide cover for the invasions that were going to happen no-matter-what and needed time to get the logistics in place. Bush Sr. also took the time to work up a real coalition while Bush Jr. simply lied to the UN to make it look like he respected international diplomacy.
It's frustrating to read Willis because he doesn't understand that counterinsurgency is fundamentally a policing action. And Vietnam was completely different because we were fighting the North Vietnamese; a standing, fairly well equipped army, and a proxy war with the Soviets. It would be nice if the UN could send INTERPOL over to slap the cuffs on al Qaeda, but guess what? INTERPOL doesn't have an enforcement arm. So, do we send UN troops? Uh, Pakistanis (who the UN has paid to act as peacekeepers in other parts of the world)? Hummm.
Look , it takes four to six months for the military to put troops on alert, pack up their gear, fly them abroad -from Iraq or where ever- and acclimate and orientate them to their new surroundings. At the end of the day, Obama's going to" sign off" on more troops and if he hasn't already sent them that six extra months to put them in country will appear to be more dithering. But guess what, they will have already landed. Immediately after Obama agrees to the increase, we're going to see an uptick in suicide bombings, attacks on US personal, and more casualties. It's sad, but it's expected. Once the new troop strength is able to provide better logistical support to the combat troops already there, which is the point to this surge, the counterinsurgency approach will create a stabile environment to allow the kind of police work liberals, like myself, are calling for. Let's remember that much of the Taliban is fighting for economic reasons, or because it's fun to fight Americans. They can be paid to stop fighting. The rest, the hardcore, are hated by average Afghans and Pakistanis for their abuse and suicide bombings.
Finally, I'd love for the US to restore Afghanistan to some kind of "1st World" notion of democratic living, but it may be too late because Cheney and Bush dropped the ball. But the United State's main interest in the Afgan/Pakistan region is to keep nukes out of extremist hands. And that means to keep Pakistan's fragile democratic government from falling. Not just to keep U.S. cities safe, but cities in India, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, etc.
I think your last paragraph states the best reason for staying in Afghanistan. If Pakistan didn't have nukes, I'd say get the hell out of that arena. This sandbox would not be worth another American soldier's life. (Maybe someone more knowledgable can tell me how Pakistan got the bomb in the first place.)
I think of Afghanistan as some wild and woolly frontier territory, impossible to control or impose our notion of "sivilization" upon it. Just ask the British or the Russians.
The greatest generations were asked to sacrifice for a common good. We are now asked to believe that self interest is the common good and that we can expect a redistribution of wealth and power as an election promise.
The politician without a national purpose is just another parasite sucking the nation's blood.
'Scuse me rightly, but wasn't that "greatest" generation the folks who came home to destroy public transit, pollute areas of this country into unliveable, and be the most self absorbed Ugly Americans the rest of the world had ever seen? Not to mention the harshest foot on the necks of women in a long time and slavery re-instituted in the South by kidnapping and literally chaining up black men.
Don't believe every book deal you read. Like most of the self proclaimed right you're mighty naive. The Party Bosses don't even consider you part of the club if you pay more than about 7% income tax, lol.
This President had a long list of common interests and common purposes, every one of them national. He walked into a mess unlike anything ever seen in this country, left by the most corrupt administration ever in our history. Good Swimmer is doing mighty well, I'd say.
Is it hard to read these articles- and respond- when you are so obviously blind?
The POTUS has done a good job, by stopping a FINANCIAL COLLAPSE, moved Congress to start working on Health Care Reform, signed the Lilly Ledbetter bill to ensure EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN, insured health care for 14M poor children, repaired our world standing by a willingness to listen and work with other nations, actually creates a strategy for Afganistan, moved to get us out of Iraq, closing GITMO. And now he is starting to focus on creating JOBS. Not bad for one year.
Agreed. What no one on the right ever explains is how McCain/Palin or a Republican Congress would have done better in the past year, when Bush and the latter were mostly responsible for these messes in the first place. Where was any evidence of sudden competence and awareness of Republicans of how to resolve these issues? They whine and complain about everything Obama and the Dems do now, as if there was not a track record of utter neglect and incompetence over the last 8 years. They will need to show some sort of positive contribution before anyone can forget their past negative record and believe their criticism in the future.
On the golf course. The only real change was changing of the guard. The role of our recent presidents has become reactive to world events, going with the bureaucratic flow. With Obama we turned the page on the pigment impediment. That is a plus, reflecting us. He is a winner, not a leader. The world is leaderless.
We are cursed to live in an interesting time.
michaelslevinson.com
birdfan
the problem is priorities. right after FINANCIAL COLLAPSE should have been creating JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What part of jobs being a lagging indicator do you not understand? You're worse than the brat in the backseat who keeps asking if we are we there yet. Will you shut the hell up before I pull over and slap you?! Sheeesh!!
therefore get all over it, make sure everyone knows that's what you are doing, that it is your priority. everything else looks like (even when it isn't) bull manure. further the thinking power and time spent on lower priorities do in fact take time from creative efforts to right the jobs situation.
because jobs are most often a lagging indicator of economic health it ought to put politicians on notice that their efforts need to be hyper in that arena because at the end of the day the unemployed are not patient and they will have their pound of flesh.
From the recent pictures in the paper, 0bama's so thin he looks like a cross between JJ Walker and the Olsen twins. Maybe the coke problem didn't end in his college days after all... Hangin' with Marion Barry much Barry? Looks like running the country into the ground is a little harder than being a community organizer.
Bad child, bad, bad, bad, child.
Not bad bad bad child. Troll troll troll troll troll troll.
Dum child, if that's the best he can come up with. At least the man works out AND WORKS, unlike the mess before him.
If you know so much baddchild, how would you clean up the disastrous mess Bush made and then ran off from?
Yea, the picture above shows how much he has been working and GW Bush was the most fit president in recent memory... helps not to puff 2 packs a day along with ingesting who knows what substances.
you want answers to fix this mess that started when the dems took over congress... ok here's a few.
1. instead of bailing out GM and Chrysler to buy off the unions I would let them sink or swim on their own - worked out great for Ford didn't it.
2. Instead of bailing out the banks directly like GWB did and 0bama voted for I would have used the money to reset all the home loans that are underwater due to the bad lending and the fannie and freddie fiascos. the banks would have gotten the cash by redoing the loans having more to loan and the home buyers would have much smaller payments and that extra money would go back into the economy. The govt caused their house to go upside down they govt should bail out the home owner - less forclosures.
3. intstead of hiring czars up the wazoo I would hire people to go through the govt. and eliminate all the waste top to bottom - clean it all out, wasteful spending, unneeded employees and staff. This would cut the overall budget in half or more.
4. All entry and mid level military will get a raise up to that of a college grad.
5. health care - tort reform and credits to allow people between poverty and middle class to get their own insurance. NO PUBLIC OPTION. No health bill would be signed that didn't give congress and unions the same coverage.
6. reform congress - the days of pork are done. since there is no line item veto I will veto the whole bill underlining what needs to go to get me to sign it. If you add pork to get people to sign on then it wasn't a good bill to begin with. Adding stuff to bills that have nothing to with the bill will get it vetoed also. i.e. adding health care to military spending bills.
7. work to elinminate voter fraud. no id no vote.... pretty simple.
8. A law to let liberals feel good about themselves - allow 110% tax deduction for all donations to approved charities up to a certain amonut (sorry acorn - not approved)
9. a tax. yes really, all movies, music, and sporting events/sales, will get a 1% tax to fund BASIC music, arts and sports in schools. the NEA as it is is history.
10. since govt spending will be cut in half, a straight across the board tax cut will put money back in the hands of the people not govt. you see, my govt is about the people and their freedom, not taxing and regulating to control the actions of the people as they see fit like the 0bama adnimistration....
I know.... what about the war. Simple we do everything to win the wars we do not let the press run the war, that means massive troop movement to secure the area, burn every opium field until the tribes give in, put the new goverment in charge and bring the boys and girls home safe. obama bin laden, if still alive, is by many in the intel community belkieved to be in Iran so until you are ready to go get him don't whine how we don't have him.
you don't get peace without victory first.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
after reading all of your entries, i see that you pride yourself as an intelligent chap or chappess... but "baddchild" indicates that you also think you are a bit of a rebel, maybe to the degree of being a bit immature you know, the parents don't know what to do with this kid - he's so bad sometimes, and the kid smiles as he wanders to another attention getting scheme... poor little badd child.
Lets list what he has NOT done first... Still in two wars with the 2nd one getting bigger... Still hiring paid mercenaries to fight for the US... Still has not recognized Cuba... Still have "don't ask don't tell...The earth still getting warmer by the day... The banks getting bigger & nothing about braking them up as the Brits are doing... Still allowing Wall street to run over every citizen... Still has two of the reasons for the bank & Wallstreet horror story to be employed by him, Timmy & Larry... Still nothing on re-writing all trade agreements that have killed this countries ability to make anything... Still backing the companies & not the unions... I could go on but I am getting tired & crying & my tears are jamming the keyboard becasue of what he has NOT DONE & what he has screwed up like the Health Care debate... We are now faced with a pubic option that by 2019 might have as many as 2 million people in it, wow what a great job Obama, I can't wait to see how much money YOU get from the whole health lobby in 2012.....
Why don't you give us the solutions to all the problems then, martyz? Why aren't you in charge and managing to keep the economy from imploding while trying to keep a corrupt lot of GOP criminals at bay and trying to hash out all the other problems?
The earth is getting warmer because you drive, nitwit. I've never owned a car - at 50 I still ride a bike at least 30 miles a day, ride buses, and frankly it's not on me. I keep the thermostat at 60 in the winter and put on a sweater. So don't be looking for somebody else to wave a magic wand. YOU do something.
I am a candidate for president. Here is one of my jobs programs.
"In December, 1995, Time Magazine's Richard Stengel gave Michael Stephen Levinson a one liner in his article, "Look Ma, I'm Running," a piece about unknown candidates for president in New Hampshire. "Lev" proposed building ten thousand clipper ships for a jobs program, but Stengel left out his concept of college students paying lesser tuition for crewing the ships, "sew" with or without a cargo, the clippers generate money, and pay for their building carrying cargo.
We build clipper ships, with semi-automatic computer controlled sails. College students crew the ships, get their undergraduate education via internet, and pay lessor tuition, so with or without a cargo the ships make money and pay for their building! Not complicated.
We could say to any country, we will take all of your goods without tariff, as long as the goods come to us on our clipper ships. The students could inspect the cargoes as they are loaded, with state of the art detectors, so weapons of mass destruction, or contraband, won't be coming in on our ships.
My shipbuilding program creates meaningful steady work on the East Coast, Gulf Coast, West Coast, and the shores of Lakes Huron, Michigan, Erie, Superior, and Ontario, perhaps three and a half millions jobs total wherever there is water and people need work.
Which is better for planet good ship mother earth, fleets of clippers with semi-automatic computer controlled sails, or giant container ships three stadiums long with thirty-four crewmen? Any sea mammal, napping on the sea top is dead meat for these mammoth ships and what matter, with lobbyists representing the owners stuffing the blubber down the throats of your district's I-must-be-reelected congressperson.
When my clipper ships come across hundred acre wide swaths of sea top with garbage floating everywhere, the "stew dent" volunteers will lower long boats with electric motors and rake the sea, bring the garbage aboard and, supervised by the captain, weigh it up, because the kids will be paid $100 a pound for time and trouble. This is a great way for a stew dent to "sea" the world and work their way through college. Harvard, their fleet, forty ships, will have 1600 additional undergraduate seats to fill.
Mother Nature will shine on your good deeds as a seafaring people. Her dolphins will jump the long electric motor boat bows in unison, as wild dolphins have been known to playfully jump the bows of boats when their mood arises; the gentle Right whales and Sperms, in pods, will show off their kids, and let you hop on their backs for a sea top ride.
Whoops.
I left out all that required slush money for your corrupt leader bleeders. The filthy money these people require for their reelections was excluded from my bill of lading. Recollect lobbyist slush deregulated the financial industry, nearly sinking the world's financial house!
The handing over of billions to the banks' sinkholes shows your whole congress is on the take. They all need to go.
"Sew," regardless how many decent people are stuck between a rock and a hard place with bill that must be met and no job in sight, you won't be building any clipper ships because how to, you don't know, it's too creative an enterprise, and the container shipper's lobby won't allow it to be even talked about as they own all the committee chair persons.
Expect instead your hollow Congress' derision, their laughter and spittle in your innovative ship building face. Of course you could build fleets of clippers without the government, the investment from the university endowments. Not-for-profit corporations, run by the universities whose students are the crew, could manage sailing the ships regardless, underbidding for a steady cargo, except for all your elected on-the-take bleeders in office blocking your way.
Do not expect five million jobs to materialize up and down the coasts and Great Lakes waters without your Blagojevichite congress tithing your pay.
michaelslevinson.com
Obama's "driving" is way off course.
Obama may watch Hillary (and Bill) and weep. Obama will NEVER be their intellectual or political equal.
Deficits are sinking us. Borrowing and spending must cease.
Dems, let's right the wrong of the 2008 campaign debacle. Obama was not and remains unqualified to be President of the United States. He's simply not up to the task. His lack of experience and decision making skills are glaringly apparent.
Hillary 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
New leadership at the DNC, new House Speaker and New Senate Leader as well.
I voted for Obama, the first time in my life that I didn't vote GOP in the Presidential elections of my adult life.
While I don't regret doing so, as I can only imagine where we would be with McCain and Palin in charge of things, I do have a few regrets.
I regret that the man who inspired so many millions of new and established voters, has settled in, and no longer feels obligated to change the way Washington business is done.
It is much easier to keep people on your side, supporting you through thick and thin, than it is to win them back after losing them. It is much easier to keep people inspired and believing in you, than it is to re-inspire someone and regain their belief in you after it has been lost or shaken to it's core.
In David Plouffe's new book, he says of Obama, " He had run to challenge the bankrupt and conventional politics of Washington, not master it."
It is painfully clear to many of us now that the President has turned his attention towards mastering the conventional politics of Washington.
I swear, I voted for him, and given the same choice today, I would do the same, but I am feeling more and more like I just fell for the inspiring rhetoric of a savvy politician, and less like I was inspired by a man dedicated to changing the way politicians and special interests "wag the dog".
He gave us a look into a person, I have not seen that person. He gave us hope of significant change, I have not seen that change. He gave specific examples of what he would accomplish, not only have I not seen the manifestation of these accomplishments, I am seeing all of the same old, tired excuses and justifications for why these accomplishments have not come forward.
I continue to believe in our President, his message of hope, his promises of change and his pledges of reform, but my belief has been and continues to be shaken and tested more each day that the special interests thrive while the middle class flounders.
If I could say one thing to President Obama, it would again be, that it is much easier to keep peoples belief in you and to retain their faith in your message, than it is to win those things back after losing them.
I believe he has changed the way business is being done in Washington. I believe he is going further and further into the political and corruptible abyss like no other president has ever done. Just because he gives a great speech doesn't mean he is a great communicator. For instance, people around the country are losing jobs and this is the number one thing on people's minds. The white house will proclaim that the economy is on the uptick. When asked about the unemployment numbers, the white house response is "unemployment numbers are alway a lagging indicator". What kind of response is this? How much hope does this really give people? How about "the economy seems to be doing better but it won't truly be any better until jobs are created"?
Having been in South Korea as a teacher for the last two years, I note that they (having a newer, thus less corrupt democracy) handled the recession by
1. decreasing the value of their currency, which allowed their export items to sell better.
2. decreasing the working hours of their employees, rather than laying them off...which works much better for both working harder and feeling OK about it, and saving unemployment payments.
What is wrong with the US in not following these simple rules?
Additionally, their car companies, like Europe have 50-60mpg cars which somehow the US car companies don't seem to be able to comprehend would save their ass. The US public seems to know more than the US car companies, who must mostly be run by paid off stooges of the oil industry.
Since the US is a country with large distances bridged by cars, we cannot prosper without cheaper gas...considering that the oil company actual costs for gasoline are about 14cents per gallon, it seems vital for our government to regulate our oil companies to max the gas cost to consumers (like China does) to say $1/gal. This would still allow them to make a profit of 6x their cost...still huge profits.
The medical industry is of course trying to bleed us dry of all our savings and home costs and should also be regulated..in Korea it cost me $60/mo for insurance and a flu antibiotic pill set with doctor's visit was $6...without insurance it cost me $16. Heart surgery was $10,000. So one of the major reasons the US is in recession is very obviously that the medical, oil and war-monger companies are making a killing and need to be regulated!!!
The South Korean won is not a reserve currency, oil is not denominated in won, the world doesn't own a planet-load of Korean treasury securities - Korea can do whatever it wants with its currency. The US has been allowing the dollar to stay weak, but the world is already pretty nervous at these levels.
If a company could stay profitable by keeping its employees on part-time, it would do it. The federal government can't tell a private company it should keep on employees even if it doesn't have the money to pay them.
I think the cost for refining a gallon of gasoline is much higher than what you've stated, but even so, you've also forgotten the cost of the crude oil (which is about 50% of the price of gasoline), the added federal and state taxes (about 20%), the cost to distribute it and market it, and then come the profits. If the federal government decided to cap the price of gas at $1, that wouldn't even cover the cost of the crude oil, they'd have to subsidize the gas producers (like China does). And if people could get gasoline at artificially low prices, why would they bother to buy the 50-60mpg cars which you say they need to save their asses?
At the end of the day Obama/Emmanuel will be remembered for bringing ACORN voter fraud and SEIU thugs to the national level.
Saw pictures of Obama on Drudge, is he on crack again or got aids or something? perhaps girl disease anorexia nervosa
Whats wrong with him?
Wow where were all these folks concerned about our national debt when W was still around? Nowhere is the answer...they were getting theirs and that's all that mattered. Obama was left a nahful of s&%T and is dealing with each and every item. He is also trying to deal with issues that have gone unadressed in some cases for decades (Health Care?) (National infrastructure?) The R's may very well nominate a governor who watched a major bridge in his state collapse because of benign neglect...he certainlt wouldn't raise taxes to repair it. Give the Pres. a little time and we will be far better off for it.
They were probably sitting right next to the Democrats who were also not doing a thing about the national debt.
who were sitting right next to the republicans who got us into 2 stupid pointless wars that led to their friends getting richer while america footed the bill we are still paying for today.
when you pull your head out of your ass, let us know and we'll spray you off - it's the least we can do.
andrew, unfortunately, you and i have vision...
If he distances himself from the SEIu and that crowd, and tacks towards the middle, I think he will do okay. But, right now, he is heading for a fall and bringing the US down with him.
Uninformed ummmm people(?) love hussein and his"Obama money",they dont have any clue where it would come from if they got it and damn sure would'nt ponder it as they smoked it up.Ooops,did I just type that?
I'm done with dumb!
good, perhaps you will say something intelligent next time.
you must have had a crack attack!
you are a thinker!!!! wow. but if you want anyone to consider what you say, you may want to refrain from(stop) calling him by his middle name, unless you really think it makes a difference. and if so, then you are the idiot you portray.
We should all stop taking the political whims of these political cowards serious... on both sides of the aisle.
Some claim the administration is "POLITICAL", while simultaneously pushing and IN-directly lobbying for political treats/ capital.
Its still astounding to the vast majority of people in this country how YOU so openly hate the vessel of an idea(s)... even if those ideas propose relief for most Americans. I HATE this country sometimes... because I HATE the lop-sided agendas of its power structure.
The intentional effort to mis-inform/ take for granted people you depend on for political purposes... Then act as if this is a good thing and just part of our 'democracy'. While never trying to change or even alter it.
Align yourselves with those who seek to punish you for hurting economically... because you look forward to one day joining the ranks of those with no capacity or interest in retro-spective discourse or civility.
The president, because of his very disciplined campaign is somehow expected to put a 200Million dollar band-aid on a TRILLION dollar problem??
ATLEAST he's moving to SOLVE somethings... perhaps. He might fail/ win.
I believe this is partly up to us and I dare say it BADASS and some of the people on this board.
WE MUST BRING EVERYBODY to the table. Maybe we can disagree with each other at times... but not for the sake of the next election.
NOBODY in Washington has all the answers.. but i'll trust these idiots who NEED my vote than some C.E.O. Whi by the way HAVE brought this economy damn near to its knees. So much for private sector faith.
You seriously believe that the Private sector would do a better job ruining, (running) health care? Let's look at what they've already done. You sicken me at times with your talking points based rhetoric. I can under-stand Beck.. he's paid to distort/ keep you watching.
But most of you here would be worse off if the government froze spending.
Do you seriously think Dick Armey or any of these clowns listen to you... if not to determine if you've fully digested his talking points?
Some people are disgusting... EVEN in AMERICA.
You hate the NEW agenda because the old one worked so well, huh?
The President said "The u.s. economy is a Ocean-liner".. You don't turn the corner as fast as you would a "speed boat".
This is the closest you're going to come to "CHANGE".. real change. I don't necessarily agree with that change... but NO President is going to ALTER events as fast as Chris Mathews or Bill O'reilley wants.
I have no respect for hussein or you,you fucking puke!!!
You all were fooled...
by bush?
Once again, the conservative right is in denial of its contribution to the "status quo" of the past eight (8) yrs. Once again, the primary strategy is to create chaos its efforts to limit America's problems by "shifting the blame." Where were all the critics when Iraq was invaded on a "political sham of
pretense." Where was the conservative right when Wall Street was deregulated and allowed to fleece the American peoples 401k's. Where were the critics from the conservative right when Afghanastan's notorious Taliban was being trained and supported by elements of the several Republican administrations with right-wing ideologies which serve only to distort the truth by confusing the real issues; as in the case of healthcare reform. This president has done an outstanding job, especially considering the full magnitude of this country's problems that were indeed inherited by this president. As patriotic Americans, we will not be led into absurdities regarding crucial and pending matters that are important to all of us. If you think that the healthcare debate brings out anger, then wait until you witness immigration and social security debates which are surely waiting in the wings, hopefully not the "right wing.?
I voted for Obama, I think is doing a great job. People seem to forget what is walk into. People also seem to forget the shape Bush left this country in. It took all of 8 years to bring us to where we are and now you want Obama to change everything in one years time. Maybe some of you deserve and McCain and Palin. A war is easy to get into but not so easy to get out of. Just give him a chance to do his job for this country Roman was not built in a day. We cannot rebuild this United States in 1 year, maybe not even 2 years, but I believe that President Obama will prevail.
For 8 years people quietly let Bush do whatever he wanted. He said War and there was war. He said spend and they spent, the foreign leaders did not like him and torn down our country and you want President Obama to overturn 8 years of mess up in one year. If people would just stop looking at the negatives and work toward more positive. "United We Stand Divided We Fall". The Change will come, but just now in your time table, you have to tear down before you can rebuild, you have to clean up before you put new furniture in your house. Barack is still in the cleaning process, the new United States of America is coming.
Oh and i always under-stood and felt Obama's pride in his country. This country he loves not because he was told he had to love it.. but his love was/ is born out of RESPECT for this country.
So yeah.. Candidate Obama took some time to read us poetry.
I hope WE succeed... don't you!
be ceein u spellin like u thinkin,RONG
What happened to no earmarks?
What happend to transparency?
What happened to honesty?
The healthcase bill is a debacle - read it - it is a tradegy of more government largess. There is no chance this bill will help anything.
What happened to change you can believe in?
The doublespeak is worst than ever.
We are living Atlas Shrugged and it happened so fast.
Shame on this Congress and this Administration.
We've had Presidents murdered in this country. DO YOU really THINK that YOU were going to continuously define 'transparency' as we went along...?
Somethings HAVE to be left secret. Thats why you should THINK about the CHARACTER of the person you elect to ANY office.
Or get up and run for the guys job.. I'll be looking for you. I promise to give you a serious look.
Obama has been in office for less than a year. Americans are very impatient and when their 'dreams' and expectations are not fulfilled they blame others. Check the dreams and expectations, therein lies the problem
i am a white female and ivy league educated. what it comes down to is this. the problem, the base of the problem is that pres obama looks black, he looks like a ni-----. the mindless, greedy, less intelligent morons in this country that have NO vision will make up whatever they can and speak it as truth, and continue to speak it as truth, and continue to speak it as truth, and continue to speak it as truth, until the mindless cattle that wish not to think for themselves say, "Yeah, that's right!!!" and feel like they are part of something big. 1984??? anyway, no need to go on. picture people listening to rush on the radio, then picture a redneck leading cattle across a busy highway - same picture.
I agree.. on the merits.
Is your name ELSIE?
What an ivy league analogy,get the cross out your pussy we's havin company tonight.....Richard Pryor 1975 you fucking moron.
From the beginning of the new deal all the the way to Pres. Carter, with the exception of Ford, all presidents left office with a reduction of national debt as expressed as a percentage of the GDP. Regan and H.W. Bush increased that number by 33.6% with their three terms combined, bringing it to 66.2% from 32.6% at the end of Carters term. Clinton reduced the debt by 8.8% back to 57.4%. Last G.W. Bush adds an increase of 18.6% in his two combined terms to 75.5%, the highest it's been since the beginning of 1949. Having said all that we cannot use the national debt as a measurement of President Obama's progress toward his goals. Although I will agree he has faltered, I believe that he can achieve great change in this nation. We need to focus on all of us working toward the same goals one people not just a government or a presidential administration, or even a political party. We all share the problems of the present and the future. We all have to work to strengthen the union and make this country strong once more.
..."I will agree he has faltered". I agree he has/ faces more than what's immediately apparent.
This president faces incremental; challenges like no other President, since Lincoln.
The best way to stop insurgency in Afghanistan from Pakistan is to get all of the rough Mountian Population between Afganistan and Pakistan Out from there, half of them already left, get a Curfew and drive all of them all out. No Public entry
except the Army.
The illegal Arms,the Opioum Trade and the extremism will all vanish with it, let the Refugees make home to cities and sent their chlidren to Schools, Colleges and Univesities, give the working men jobs.
Give them some incentive of Free Trade, cultural exchange, show them what the Educated world is about.
Thank you.
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