Lilo, Let's face it, Bill Clinton also suffered a bit from "I want everyone to like me" at the beginning of his first term. He learned, and hopefully so will President Obama.

Obama has been too nice. I am hoping this MA win, along with the obvious lack of cooperation from the Republican party, along with the public's view that Wall Street has gotten away with way too much, will be a wake-up call.

In a way, this win could work for Obama. If he didn't know before, he surely knows now, the discontent of the Democrats.


TIS

Isn't that what the Dems did when they were in the minority?
I can certainly recall a couple of filabusters between 1994-2006.

Oh, and by the way....





WAY TO GO, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW JERSEY, VIRGINIA...and all the other States where campaigning with the President will have little or no effect during the coming year.

Congratulations, Sen-elect Brown! Go get 'em...!!





Geez...I sure missed playing with those Smilies

Apple

I dunno, Tis. I worry. You know the old saying: "A house divided can not stand."

Lilo made a VERY astute point in an earlier post: The Republicans are MUCH better at sticking together than the Democrats. All of this infighting has to cease. The opportunity the Democrats earned one year ago cannot be overstated. The party's control in the House was unquestioned; their power in the Senate unstoppable. And now it appears that we've blown a golden opportunity that comes along once in a political lifetime.

I honestly don't want to be a doomsayer here, because like Lilo says, there's still plenty of time for Obama to turn this thing around. But unless he changes his attitude about the way he deals with adversity (like, you know, admitting that he actually has adversity in his life), then he's going to be one and out.

Why would the Republicans cooperate on something they KNOW the majority of Americans do not want?



Apple

What about the nation's kids? TIME FOR KIDS and KidsHealth wanted to know how things are going for you. To find out, we went straight to the source. We asked 1,000 kids, ages 9 to 13, about life at home, at school and in the U.S. What we learned surprised us, impressed us and reminded us that being a kid isn't always easy.

National Issues
Kids graded President Barack Obama on his first year in office.

Obama's Grades:
A: 19%
B: 30%
C: 24%
D: 10%
F: 16%

PB and TIS, you both make excellent points. Although I still have faith in his abilities, the time for "settling in" has past. The President needs to show strength in order to prove that he will not be deterred from his agenda.

Unfortunately, lies and fear-mongering have clouded this healthcare reform issue. Personally, I think it's something that the President might have wanted to tackle at a later time. I think people are frightened. They're losing their homes, their jobs, and they need to feel that they're future is in capable hands. Economic recovery and growth, and national security should have been the only two matters on his list for at least his first year.

You got that right Apple.

Welcome back Apple

The Scott Brown interview was on a local cable station during the Republican National Convention in 2008.

The following seems to make the case that the President was born out of wedlock:

"Barack’s Kansas-born mom Ann Dunham married his Kenyan father Barack Obama Sr. on Feb. 2, 1961. Since Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, he was conceived before his mother’s 18th birthday on Nov. 29, 1960.

Amanda Ripley reported in Time magazine: “On Feb. 2, 1961, several months after they met, Obama's parents got married in Maui, according to divorce records. It was a Thursday. At that point, Ann was three months pregnant with Barack Obama II . . "

This means he was conceived out of wedlock, not born out of wedlock.

Point well taken PB, and where Obama got it wrong was caving to Harry Reid et al. and allowing those lazy bastards to delay the vote as long as they did. At this point he needs to decide if he wants to be Harry Truman or Jimmy Carter. He should
knock heads in the House and make them pass the Senate bill as is, declare victory, and then wait for another chance to tweak it some time down the road. He needs to start talking up the economy and IMHO he needs to fire Geithner and Summers.
It has been a pleasure seeing a lot of sensible back and forth among the lefties and righties on this thread, and not shocking to see who came out of the woodwork after this set back.

In a private meeting in the Capitol just now, a dozen or more House liberals bluntly told Nancy Pelosi that there was no chance that they would vote to pass the Senate bill in its current form — making it all but certain that House Dems won’t opt for this approach, a top House liberal tells me.

“We cannot support the Senate bill — period,” is the message that liberals delivered to the Speaker, Dem Rep Raul Grijalva told me in an interview just now.

Tellingly, House liberals also urged Pelosi to consider passing individual pieces of reform through the House as individual bills, and sending them to the Senate to challenge the upper chamber to reject them, Grijalva tells me. Liberals said this approach would be preferable to passing the Senate bill.

For instance, Grijalva said, why not send the Senate individual bills that would, among other things, nix the “Cadillac” tax or close the donut hole, pressuring the Senate to deal with each provision separately?

“If the Senate chooses not to close the donut hole, that’s their damn problem,” Grijalva said. “They’ve had it too easy. One vote controls everything. Collectively, we’re tired of that.”

Nope, we're done

Pelosi has balls even pushing the issue. She's one of the biggest culprits where all of the party infighting is concerned. I can't stand her.

Amen, Brother. Sam Rayburn in spinning in his grave. And Harry Reid is not much better.

She is noting but a pure evil BITCH.

A little humor

Here's Jon Stewart talking about Fox News and their "Scott Brown erection." It's not a YouTube and I couldn't figure out how to get it so you can just click it.


TIS


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/jon-stewart-destroys-fox_n_431084.html

TIS, that reminds me so much of Emily Litella on SNL:


"What’s all this fuss I’ve been hearing about the presidential erection? Now, I know they erected a monument for Mr. Lincoln and President Washington, but that’s because they’re DEAD! Hopefully, the President won’t be DEAD! So he won’t NEED an erection! If Americans are going to spend money to erect anything, why don’t we tear down those nasty slums and erect luxury high rises for poor people and senior citizens! Not for presidents who can afford to pay for their OWN erections!"

The town hall meeting that he went to today was at my hometown where I grew up in Elyria, Ohio. I am really hurt. My ticket must've got lost in the mail

Oli, I have a question for you. Is it normal protocol for the schools to close for the day cuz the President comes to town?

Only if it's President Obama!! Just messin' with you Mig.


I'm not Oli, but I'm sure it is NOT normal. Why? Did they close all schools???

When I was 12 years old and in Catholic School, JFK was campaigning and drove right by the area of the school. They DID close the school down and we all went to the corner to see him. Of course that was a Catholic school (first Catholic President)and I think the total students enrolled was about 100.

TIS

That's what my Mother-in-Law told me today that Elyria Public schools were closed today. I don't know about the private schools. That's what I was wondering why they would close?

I am not aware of any such protocol. But American public schools operate through school districts each governed by an elected school board. It sets policy for school attendance as long it conforms with state law.

Make sure you listen to the President's State of the Union message on Wednesday night. He will propose increases in the child care credit, child care generally, a cap on student loan interest, employer matching of retirement savings, and credits for elderly care.

I intend to listen. I know nothing about taxes/deductions, that's why I have a tax guy do it. BUT I remember getting what they referred to as "earned income credit" when my kids were little. Once I couldn't use that anymore, my refund went down several hundred. So hopefully these things will help people who really need help.


TIS

Like all politicians what he says and what he does is two different things.

The State of the Union address was an absolute travesty of vacuous buzz-phrase bullshit.

Two-party bourgeois social democracy must end. Obama's a fucking hack, an absolute fucking hack [BadWord] tosser. "Hope"? "Change"? Give me a fucking break; take your fucking head out of your arse and stop licking your own shit.

Socialism or barbarism. In the words of Alex DeLarge, "What's it going to be then, eh?"

Here's to the next inevitable economic crisis, which will be even worse than this one.

People are drowning. They're afraid, costs are spiraling out of control. Everyday essentials - food, housing, heat, electricity, gasoline, medicine - are taking such a huge chunk out of everyone's paycheck. And the economy is still so frozen that you don't know how long that paycheck is going to keep coming in.

Washington needs to wake up and realize that we need to replace politics with leadership.

I hope that happens sooner than later.

Don't hold your breath. Power plays are all that matter, and the hell with their constituents.

Capo, you may appreciate this. I still think it is too early to call it a day. In recent history there's not been a truly liberal or radical President, especially not since movements died.