Obama’s New Election Strategy

Sean

Morons on the right continue to lie that the wealthy shoulder the highest tax burden in America…

http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/30/11958591-thousands-of-wealthy-earners-manage-to-zero-out-tax-bills?lite

Of course, consider ALL forms of taxes paid, and the poor and middle class pay 25-50 percent of income as tax.

All President Obama needs to do to get re-elected is stick to the truth: Republican policies are feeding 98% of Americans to the lying, stealing, scheming, immoral wealthiest 2%.

LJ

Thanks for the early morning laugh, I really appreciate it.

But if anyone actually believes that mindless gibberish you wrote, then I really feel sorry for them.

Ed

The plan against him is to make sure people know his unfailing support of abortion domestically and internationally, and his attack on the Catholic Church and all people of faith.

Brett

No one of reason would want to begrudge you your beliefs. One can even detect intelligence in looking at the sum of your comments over time. Your comment here, this morning, reflects the part of you that is prone to delusional thinking as well as extremes in perception.

Neither candidate poses any threat to organized religion, nor will there be any kind of Federal sea change in abortion laws, regardless of who becomes president.

State and local laws may (and probably will) continue to insidiously limit access to reproductive services, and this may very well affect the overall view of Roe v. Wade, which would be to your liking, one would imagine.

Even Romney’s Mormonism will not have any restricting effect on your beloved Catholicism. Catholics should probably look to themselves/the congregation/the Church’s power structure, in general, as doing more to weaken the Church’s strength than to fear any changes brought into play by either of the candidates…just be grateful your favorite institution is still tax exempt! Also, don’t the Catholic hospitals take Medicaid and Medicare? What about all of the Christian members of Congress? “The Family” is one such coalition of organized Christians sewn into our political/governmental fabric. What about the admonishment/veiled threats/threats over the years by various archdiocese toward Catholic politicians to show their disapproval of the way said politicians have voted/utilized their power?

One would think that religious organizations/religion in government is more to be concerned about than the other way ’round…
- Gregg
  
  I agree abortion is not a central issue. Roe v. Wade isn’t going anywhere. We will hear that Republicans want to cause back alley coat hanger abortions, or that partial-birth abortion is all about the health of the mother but it’s just the same ol’ same old.
  
  But you wrote: “Neither candidate poses any threat to organized religion…”
  
  Please reconcile that statement with the fact that 43 Catholic Institutions have filed suit against Obama. It’s unprecedented.
  - lodger
    
    Clearly a PR stunt. They should lose their tax-exempt status for such blatant politicking. There is no ‘threat’ to the catholic church. And you know it.
    - lodger
      
      Also, ’43 Catholic Institutions’ is a deliberate attempt to blow this out of proportion. It’s basically one institution: the catholic church, which stands to lose a lot of $$$ from its insurance business if it doesn’t follow the law.
      
      Why is it in the profitable business of healthcare finance to begin with?
    - Gregg
      
      You really should read up.
    - lodger
      
      I have read all about this non-issue. Just a lot of hot air intended to bring down a sitting president.
      
      No one’s religious freedoms are threatened. At all.
      
      Show me what I need to read that proves otherwise.
    - ana
      
      Definately a power play by small minded men.
  - J__o__h__n
    
    It is threatened. The recently elected Teabagger state legislatures have put forward a record number of bills to restrict reproductive rights. The Roberts Court shows little respect for precedent and is one vote away from overturning it if the opportunity presented itself.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Their lawsuit is a DIVERSION from the FAILURE of the Catholic church to PROSECUTE CRIMINALS!
    - J__o__h__n
      
      That isn’t fair. The Church is going after the Pope’s butler for leaking information that could embarrass them.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      INSTEAD of supplying ALL the Vatican archives, and ALL possible evidence against their Child-Molesting and Child-Abusing Clergy!�
      AS USUAL!
Ray

Obama is taking millions from the Hollywood movie industry and from pro-gay, anti-family groups like G.L.A.D. and the ultra-abortion lobbying group, N.O.W., so I’m not surprised at all that Obama has become the new paid spokesman for these anti-family, anti-Christian groups.

Obama is simply following the orders of his elitist, wealthy supporters who are writing big checks to his 2012 Pesidential campaign.
- Ray
  
  Don’t let Obama’s shallow political rhetoric get you down Ed, because in six months Obama will be back in Chicago working as a community organizer.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Whether he wins or loses the election in November I’m sure that he’ll still be serving out the remainder of his elected term in D.C. six months from now.
    
    Also, I’d rather have a president who is supported by groups such as G.L.A.D. and N.O.W., which I do not think are either “anti-family” or “ultra-abortion”, rather than a president who is supported by the bigoted anti pay rights, “pro-family” types from the American Family Association or such similar groups.
    - Ray in L.A.
      
      Being for a traditional family,
      
      one man, one woman doesn’t make you a bigot,
      
      perhaps in your off-balanced view of the world it does, but not in reality.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      It does if you seek to exclude other families.
    - Ray in VT
      
      If the churches don’t want to include gays and lesbians in their sacred services, then fine. That’s a doctrinal issue, but I think that it is blatant discrimination for the state to deny a civil contract to two otherwise eligible adults.
      
      Demographics would seem to be on my side on this. Younger people by and large don’t have a problem with gay marriage. Opposition to inter-racial marriage, which was once viewed as unnatural and had something like 10% public support in the late 1960s, died away over time, as will this. I’m sure that racists thought that proponents of miscegenation were also “off-balanced”.
      
      I think that my world view is pretty balanced, in part because I don’t suffer under the delusion that the marriage of my two lesbian friends somehow threatens or undermines mine.
      
      I think that advocating the view that gays and lesbians are somehow psychologically damaged or diseased and in need of a cure does, which some conservative groups do, is also another form of bigotry that is often accepted in religious circles.
  - Still Here
    
    That makes me feel bad for Chicago!
    - Ray in L.A.
      
      LOL!
ana

You, like the Conference of Bishops, consistently like to play the victim. This false indignation is absurd. You all know that the majority of Catholic women use contraception, yet hang onto this man-made dictum and use it as a power play.
Terry Tree Tree

Your church assigned a Monsignoir to PROTECT CHILDREN, and he FAILED miserably?
HOW does prosecuting the Monsignoir, who’s FAILURE to do his JOB, assigned by the Vatican, when his FAILURE resulted in FAR MORE VICTIMS, equal an attack on religion?
If your religion is Child-Molesting and Child-Abuse, why don’t you just say so?
- Ray in L.A.
  
  Let me remind you,
  
  it was the democratic front-group, A.C.O.R.N., that lost it’s federal funding from a Democratic controlled Congress because A.C.O.R.N. was involved in a child prostitution ring.
  
  Even after a Democratic controlled Congress voted to strip A.C.O.R.N. of ALL federal funds, President Obama tried to reverse the decision of his own Democratic controlled Congress, but failed.
  
  It’s funny how you never bring that up.
  
  So in your opinion, it’s OK for a Democratic front-group like A.C.O.R.N. to be involved in child prostitution?
  - lodger
    
    Stop lying. The ‘prostitution’ scandal with ACORN was a fake republican plant who said she was a hooker, and asked advice for finding a place to live, and where she could run her ‘business’ (WHICH NEVER EXISTED).
    
    There were NEVER real children involved. EVER. The whole thing was a setup to bring down ACORN, which it did.
    
    Again: Stop lying.
    - Ray in L.A.
      
      A.C.O.R.N. was involed in a child prostitution ring.
      
      A.C.O.R.N. lost all federal funding as a result.
      
      President Obama tried to block his own Democratic controlled Congress from cutting funds to A.C.O.R.N..
      
      Those are the facts, don’t blame me if you can’t handle the truth.
    - lodger
      
      No, ACORN was not involved. Are you even aware of what actually happened?
      
      There was no prostitution ring. It was a republican plant who lied and said she was a prostitute.
      
      Stop lying.
    - TFRX
      
      Stop lying.
      
      You’ve passed the test. We know you gorge yourself on low-information media.
    - Ray in VT
      
      If your evidence is based upon James O’Keefe’s videos, then I think that you’re being disingenuous. I believe that there were some investigations by law enforcement, including looking into the woman who told that circa 1970s pimp that she murdered her husband, and did not find any prosecutable evidence.
      
      If Congress wants to get in the game of defunding groups that facilitate or cover up child abuse, then perhaps the Catholic Church should find the spigot shut off due to it’s well documented issues. As a preemptive strike at Greyman, I would not do the same for public schools where employees abuse children unless it can be proved that officials with knowledge of these crimes acted to cover up the abuse.
  - ana
    
    What a bunch of outright lies. You should be ashamed.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    O’Keefe ADMITTED in an interview, that he ‘adjusted’ those videos, in MANY ways!
Still Here

His war on religion is unprecedented and definitely criminal.
- Ray in VT
  
  And also as bogus as the War on Christmas.
Terry Tree Tree

NEVER, in all the comments by Ed and William, who state support for the Catholic church, have I seen EITHER Ed or William say ANYTHING against the Catholic church Child-Molesting and Child-Abuse!�
Did I miss one?

Doesn’t this say they CONDONE the Abuses?

ToyYoda

Man more political coverage!!

After going through constant political coverage of the Republican primary, I just don’t know how everybody can stomach more. I can’t. Let’s take a vacation from political coverage/analysis. There’s more interesting things happening in the world right now. Syria seems more interesting right now…. hmm…. I guess I’ll skip this hour.

AC

not to be a cynic but – i’m afraid to come in here today, chances are it’s going to get ugly…..

Terry Tree Tree

Politics has ALWAYS brought out the worst in some people?�
Some of the words of the Founding Fathers were VERY harsh!
- Ray in L.A.
  
  I’d take ANY of the Founding Fathers over Obama anyday of the week, they were for freedom and liberty.
  
  You can’t say that about Obama, especially after he signed the NDAA.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Would you be taking them just as they were in their own day? You do realize that many of them owned other people, right? There are also issues like the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which was signed into law by John Adams. That allowed the government to arrest people critical of it, including a Vermont Congressman. Were those founders who supported that also for freedom and liberty?
    
    Now, there are certainly things that I don’t like parts of the NDAA, but you can’t blame him entirely for it. He signed it, but it passed Congress with support from both parties, especially House Republicans.

Hidan

Obama has acted as a moderate republican in office and in some cases like F.P. and National Security an Neo-Con. His Election Strategy is to pretend that he’s a liberal while promoting moderate republican views. Even after OBL death civil liberty and civil rights are still being chipped away by the WH not given back, Obama has expanded the Executive Branch’s power not reduced it and instead of arresting people he just kills them(including alot of civilians). The thing is the republicans and right believe in such action so they chastise him as being an pinko liberal or socialist(even know his cabinet is flooded with people from Wall Street even Arne Duncan was part of WS)

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Meaning that if we want a Republican, we should vote for the genuine Republican? By the way, what does F.P. stand for?
- Hidan
  
  F.P. =Foreign Policy.
  
  As always you miss the point, Obama’s policy in a sense has been one of a moderate republican, the Genuine Republican’s have shifted so far to the right that republican policies are now labelled as part of the democrat’s.

Wm. James from Missouri

If I were advising the President on his reelection quest, I would suggest that he create a “Grand Challenge” to answer and solve “The top 1000 unsolved questions, needed solutions and inventions” , as formed by a (large) team of intellectuals and business leaders from all over the country. I would further suggest that he petition congress to create a “superfund” of prize monies, in the order of 300 billion dollars or more, to be paid to the winners.

( It wouldn’t cost the Country a cent, until the challenge was actually met. In the interim, the promise of all that money would generate a massive wave of economic activity ! )

The now famous X-Prize is a good start but the prize monies offered are far to small to get the needed results. (One million dollars for a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon of gasoline is way off the mark for a trillion dollar industry. Let’s try offering 1 billion dollars, if and only if production and sales targets are also met ! )
Some of my personal favorites are : 1. A solution to the “ABC conjecture”, 2. A solution ( in the affirmative) to the “ P = NP” problem. 3. A solution to the “Riemann Hypothesis”, 4. Completely mining an asteroid of appropriate size ( This one, could easily pay for the entire prize program ! ) 5. An actual “Android” that performs general task, (also based on sales targets).

You can continue to wallow in the mire if you want to but I choose to look forward.

Worried for the country(MA)

Obama’s campaign strategy this time is distort and distract. Anything to divert from the real issues.

It is really stunning for a sitting President to go so negative; so early. He really gave up on Governing long ago and shifted to full time campaigning. Zero vision for a second term.

So much for ‘hope and change’.

I believe his campaign made a huge tactical error because this has and will continue to erode one of Obama’s remaining strengths — his image. He now will be seen as just another Chicago politician — not the transcendent figure beat both Hillary and McCain.

Since I believe Mr. Romney has the skill set to turn the country around from our woes I am more optimistic now than at any point in this political season.

Hidan

“Since I believe Mr. Romney has the skill set to turn the country around
from our woes I am more optimistic now than at any point in this
political season.”

bhahaha thanks for the laugh, dude Romney a Joke and everyone knows it, Obama is going to win 2012 of course in an much closer race(not cause anyone believes in Romney but want Obama out) Maybe republicans can run someone in 2016 that’s not such a lying hack against Clinton who I rather vote republican than for her.

The day Romney gets backed by Trump and goes to do the little photo Op Trump brings up the racist birther debunked Issue.
Gregg

He certainly can’t run on his record, all he can do is go negative.
- Ray in L.A.
  
  That’s not completely true Gregg,
  
  President Obama did sign the NDAA which basically trashed the Constitutional rights of every Ameican.
  
  Obama could run on that, as well as Obamacare, which of course he and every democratic member of Congress who voted on it, made themselves exempt from.
  - Hidan
    
    But republicans agreed with NDAA.
  - Victor Vito
    
    What’s Obamacare?
  - denis
    
    and where is this exemption written in the law?
- TFRX
  
  Boohoo. All the reasonable righties are fretting over the conduct of a Democratic incumbent’s campaign.
  
  And on the full-blown right (which you may or may not be a part of) all we hear about the last go-around was that McCain was too nice.
- denis
  
  I assume by “he” you mean Romney.
Alan in NH

I’d sure like to know what you think that skill set is. I see a self-centered, ruthless, greedy, anchorless personality willing to do and/or say anything to get what he wants. That may be a great American tradition, but I fail to see it as a recommendation.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Yup. Your cartoon like description certainly describes a man who volunteers two years of his life (for no pay) to turn around a corrupt and bankrupt olympics.
  
  Mr. Romney is a turn around specialist. He has led successful turn arounds in every private and public enterprise he touched. By all accounts he has an incredible work ethic.
  
  His biggest weakness, by far, he isn’t a natural politician. To me, that is a good thing.
  
  This is the first Presidential election that I’ve invested personal time and energy into. Why?
  
  We are at a tipping point in our nation with our impending debt crisis. Mr. Romney has the unique turn around skills that fit our problems like no other candidate.
  
  I believe Romney has a chance to be a great President and we need one right now.
  - Hidan
    
    In a mocking tone, Santorum said that Romney “heroically bailed out the
    Salt Lake Olympic Games — by heroically going to Congress and asking
    them to bail out the Salt Lake Olympic Games. In an earmark!”
    
    http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/18/news/la-pn-santorum-mocks-romney-on-olympics-turnaround-20120218
    
    He also said Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, had encouraged his
    state’s congressional delegation to win a half-billion dollars in
    earmark spending for the state. ”Does the word ‘hypocrisy’ come to
    mind?” Santorum asked.
  - Hidan
    
    Did Romney really turn around the Olympics
    
    But is the credit deserved? And how much credit really goes to the
    federal government, which ended up paying nearly $600 million directly
    to support Olympic projects, much of it after Romney’s urging?
    
    People who worked on the games with Romney do give him credit while emphasizing he had help.
    
    “Did he save the games on his own, no,” said Lane Beattie, who was
    the president of the Utah state Senate at the time and was the state’s
    liaison with the committee Romney ran. But he “absolutely” made them
    more successful.
    
    One of the lessons he learned: “If you work at it long enough, there
    is always another way to get the help you need in Washington.”
    
    Democrats have already seized on Olympic spending under Romney’s
    tenure. They point to the federal accounting office report that said the
    government planned to spend upwards of $1.3 billion on the Salt Lake
    games, more than it had spent on previous American-hosted Olympics in
    Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996. In a web video released Friday,
    they dubbed the federal spending a “bailout” and pointed to scathing
    comments McCain made about the games.
    
    McCain eventually called the games “an incredible pork-barrel project for Salt Lake City and its environs.”
    
    http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/02/17/did-romney-really-turn-around-olympics
    
    lol, Romney Relied on government to turn around the olympics than claims success for it.
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      Mr. Romney LED a successful project. Of course he used all the tools in the toolbox.
      
      Remember, much of the federal money was used for enhanced security after the sept. 11th attacks so the raw numbers are inflated.
      
      It is interesting that you quote Romney’s political opponents making disingenuous POLITICAL comments during primary runs when EVERYONE touted the Olympics as a huge success at the time — when Romney was not a politician.
    - denis
      
      It is always interesting to me that conservatives find it totally acceptable for them to use all the tools in the toolbox including bailouts but not willing to grant the same options to the democrats
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    EVERY private and public enterprise he touched?�
    Where are all these stories of companies that FAILED, due to Bain Capital over-burdening them with debt, with Bain taking PROFIT from that debt, coming from?
  - jefe68
    
    Except the US is not a sporting event nor a company.
jefe68

The entire Romney campaign is based on these very tenants. The man lies and distorts every time he opens his mouth.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Please his campaign has even started yet what you see on tv is only a the tip of a giant ice.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

you should change your name to Worried for Being Senile.
I wonder who was the President that lead American with 2 wars for the past 10 years. Lied about the war, signed the Patriot Act so every god damn Americans and Immigrants has no more rights to protest on the streets of America.

Worried for the Country you should be more worried again for voting the Republican Parties who destroyed the American economy and did do anything about it when the still in office.

Instead leave the new problems to a black man and blame him for the screw up of the Bush administration for over 10 years.

I bet those people who voted for Bush lost their jobs, houses and 401ks.
Greyman

Obama’s not even a good politician by Chicago standards: if he were, why’s he in hot water with the Polish community right now?
- Still Here
  
  He seems to believe that the Polish set up death camps. His complete lack of comprehension of crucial historical facts is why this country is not moving forward. He has been a scourge on this nation and its global standing.
  - Ray in VT
    
    “Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that
    Jews were being murdered on a massive scale, and smuggled him into the
    Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan took that
    information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first
    accounts of the Holocaust and imploring to the world to take action,”
    Obama said.
    
    Grammatically a bit off, although geographically correct. “Nazi death camp in Poland” would have been clearer, but I highly doubt, so you suggest, that the President believes that the Poles setup up, of their own volition, the concentration and extermination camps in their country during the War.
    - Greyman
      
      –which somewhat begs the question of how Obama could make such a goof, given that Chicago (his adopted homebase) has the highest concentration of people of Polish descent outside of Warsaw, I think I’ve heard. If he’s that tonedeaf, I hope he enjoys his downhill climb.
    - Still Here
      
      I think he really believes it.
    - Ray in VT
      
      And I think that people who believe that the President could be that ignorant regarding major historical facts are likely to be largely ignorant themselves. I mean, come on, it’s not like he’s Sarah Palin.
    - Terrybrewster
      
      Certainly NOT as bad as ‘W’!
    - ana
      
      You are so sad. Be against policy, but quit the absurd delusional thinking.
    - ana
      
      Of course he does not believe “Polish death camps” It was a unfortunate misspeak which only those with petty, limited minds such as Still Here would dwell on.
    - Greyman
      
      Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski are still waiting for a Presidential correction, which to this hour has not been forthcoming. His protection of his aloofness is complete.
    - Still Here
      
      You should try to keep up. Even your biased news sources have made reference to the diplomatic crisis created by this huge error. Go back to your game shows.
  - TFRX
    
    When someone like you says “he seems to believe”, that combination of words widely exceeds the margin of error for believability.
  - jefe68
    
    I suppose the murder of about 100,000 Jews who returned to Poland by Poles does not enter your warped world view.
    President Obama did make a huge mistake here, but the Poles are anything but innocent in terms collaborating with the extermination of the Eastern European Jews. The problem for the Poles, is that the nazis had them on the extermination list as well.
    
    My mothers family were German and Polish Jews and most of them left Poland due to the extreme Antisemitism that was rampant in Poland during the decades leading up to WW2. You can spin this to make a lot smoke, but the reality here is more complicated than you seem to be able to deal with.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Some, if not MANY of the death camps were LOCATED in Poland, operated by Nazis.�
  This was an easy mistake to make, and DOES NOT merit the over-blown attention.
  The Nazis put the death camps in Poland, for the purpose of obfustication, and it still works?
- denis
  
  Where is the polling that supports your contention about Polish support? And what was the support last time around?
  - Greyman
    
    You’d have to get poll numbers from David Axelrod or Hizzoner the Mayor. I’ve only seen this week’s online headlines from the Chicago papers.
Still Here

Negative is all he has, that and distortion/misinformation.
denis

why is it that everytime “worried” posts a comment I worry for our country. If the country is as poorly informed and as fully in Fox’s pocket we really have a sad situation.
- ana
  
  Well said.

Hidan

Obama song “Became” by atmosphere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGCpxOLIzZ8

It’s not that tragic, it’s not a shame.
You’re not the hunted, you’re not the aim.
You just another dog with hunger pangs
I was so afraid that you’d become the game.

I forgot to worry about what you became.
You’re not the hunted, you’re not the aim.
You just another dog with hunger pangs
I was so afraid that you’d become the game.

It’s not that tragic, it’s not a shame.
You’re not the hunted, you’re not the aim.
You just another dog with hunger pangs
I was so afraid that you’d become the game.

I forgot to worry about what you became.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/atmosphere/became.html

Markus

I’m hopeful that with all the smoke that will pore out of his campaign, one simple truth will sink in to those who are not true believers. He helped increase our debt by 5 trillion in 3 years (dwarfing anything by any other president) and got the worst recovery ever (or at least as long as we’ve measured them).

I’m sympathetic that he was given a lousy hand to play, but the fact that Bush was a lousy president and that Congress is worse than useless, doesn’t excuse his basic incompetence.

We picked a man with few relevant accomplishments to do one of the toughest jobs in the world. Time to recognize that he’s just in over his head.

TFRX

“Got the worst recovery ever (or at least as long as we’ve measured them)”

We’ll have to go back all the way to the last one to find a worse recovery. More jobs under 3 1/2 years of Obama (much in recession) than 8 years of Bush II (including a 5-year “expansion”).

Bush’s recovery included a median income doing pretty much squat, no balanced budgets submitted, and plenty of “hay” unmade while the sun shone.

jefe68

The stats are not in President Obama’s favor. Mind you GW Bush won a second term with about the same approval rating and a bad economy. However, the economy is worse now. It’s not getting better for most Americans. The folks who have jobs are worried about losing them, the unemployed are dealing with a situation were there is one job for every 4 or 5 people who want one. People’s homes have lost value, and wages are stagnant.
Health care cost keep going up and insurance companies keep finding ways to up the ante on what people pay out of pocket.

Romney, well he’s not someone I would vote for and I’m not sure I want to vote for President Obama. He’s a huge disappointment.
However, I think the GOP has become an extremist regressive right wing party and that’s something this voter is scared of.
The GOP gaining more power.

Terry Tree Tree

Therefore, your choice….?
- jefe68
  
  Move to Canada, or become less involved with this crap. Because in my view President Obama is just the better of the two running for President. As I said the GOP is beyond crazy and way off the rails in my view. So it’s vote for President Obama or just stay home.
  
  As to the GOP, I think in my life time they will either change, a lot, or lose due to not attracting minorities, women and people under 35. Which could mean that they start losing due to a shrinking base.
  
  Right now President Obama has Latinos favoring him by almost 80% or more. Women are half the work force and they seem to be moving towards President Obama in droves.
  
  It will be a tight race because the GOP and it’s super pacs are going to out spend the Democrats two too one or more. I doubt people, like the cashier from Ohio (who is in tea party and thinks people on food stamps get $1000 a month and buy sushi and crab legs) are even aware who they are being used by the GOP. It’s divide and conquer.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Hold on, Jefe. Only the Democrats seek to divide Americans on issues. Just ask any Republican.
    - jefe68
      
      Methinks you jest.
      As I said, both parties are awful in my view. The GOP is way to far to the right for me to even consider voting for a candidate for dog catcher. Romney is going to disappoint all the conservatives if he is elected. He will absolutely piss off the tea party extremist.
      
      Romney is by nature a slightly moderate corporatist Republican.
      Kind of similar to Gerald Ford.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Yeah, I was joking. I’m not a member of any party, but I’m left of center. I have issues with the Democrats, but I can’t stand the Republicans.
      
      I think that one problem that many have with Romney is how much his stances have changed, and people aren’t sure if that’s real or for political purposes. My boss likes to say that he’s not crazy, he’s just craven. I think that he is more moderate than his party, and that he would disappoint the Tea Party, but I’d rather not give him the chance to prove or disprove my notions about him.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      Barney Frank suggested the Democrats use this slogan, “We’re not perfect, but they’re nuts.”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

3 of my co-workers left my company to “Work” for companies. I wonder what so bad about the economy.
- jefe68
  
  Every time I get into anything with it’s like the movie Ground Hog Day. If you think the national economy is doing well you’re mistaken.
  
  The co-workers had jobs and moved to jobs.
  If they had been unemployed for more than 6 months I doubt they would have been hired.
J__o__h__n

The Supreme Court alone should make you think twice about not voting for Obama. Robert Bork is an advisor to Romney.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

iOnePoint:

Obama will win the 2012 Presidential election.

Hidan

Obama wins in 2012 in a close race and Hillary Clinton loses in 2016.

Ray in L.A.

Obama isn’t going to be fooling anyone this time around with all that Hopey-Changey nonsense like he did in 2008.

Victor Vito

What does your post MEAN?
J__o__h__n

At least he stopped believing it himself and realized that seeking bipartisanship with obstructionist Republicans was futile.
- TFRX
  
  Now if we can only keep half the gasbags on Sunday yak shows to stop fretting that “President Obama isn’t trying hard enough to play nice, and talks mean”.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Who is the Governor of California? A Republican.
Who has one the highest unemployment rate in USA? California.
Who has the most illegal Aliens in USA? California
Who has the most highest tax in America? California
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  Why is California broke? Becuase of the Republicans.
  
  Did you receive your refund yet?
- jefe68
  
  The Governor of California is Jerry Brown, he’s a Democrat. The former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was a Republican and a moderate one at that.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    It does not matter they all Republicans to me.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      Contrary to much evidence, Republican is not always synonymous with evil and incompetent.
    - jefe68
      
      Then why bother posting comments about it?
- J__o__h__n
  
  It went broke under several Republican governors but the current one is a Democrat. That state is ungovernable though as they have rule by ballot questions and have made it impossible to raise taxes.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    They can’t raise taxes when the unemployment is 15 percent
    - J__o__h__n
      
      Not now, but years of not beoing able to do so have resulted in current problems (not the sole factor).
  - Markus
    
    Took me 3 minutes to find this.�
    They have a graduated income tax (e.g. ~9% for 50 to 100K).
    They have a 7.25% sales tax (though there are also local ones). It’s proposed to go up dramatically.
    They have a 1.25% property tax.
    
    Imagine what it would be had they not found it impossible to raise taxes.
    
    No show government jobs, huge pension liability, massive illegal immigration, earners leaving state, etc. Why Ca is becoming a mess is not difficult to see.
- Still Here
  
  A Democrat legislature is California’s curse. As you note their taxes are the highest and only going higher. This will push more earners and businesses away, leaving only the morally and financially bankrupt.
  - Ray in VT
    
    The citizens of California would probably be in a better financial situation if so many of their federal tax dollars weren’t going to support states like Alabama and Mississippi. Typical blue state picking up the tab for red states.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    right on the money.
  - Prufer
    
    1. Schwarzenegger had the right of VETO.
    2. Tax cuts created deficit spending — only now are taxes being raised.
    3. Now Democratic Governor cleaning up mess after Schwarzenegger.�
    4. Reagan caused most of the problem when he was Governor – he privatized the prisons and created a war on drugs — filling the prisons in California with pot smokers.
    Look at San Francisco — they are doing fine — Democratic Mayor and city council for decades.
lodger

Obama has lowered your taxes, shrunk the deficit, and shrunk the government.

He has accomplished what republicans always crow about but never seem to pull off.
- Ray in L.A.
  
  Obama shrunk the deficit?
  
  According to usdebtclock.org, Obama has added nearly six trillion dollars to the federal debt.
  
  My taxes haven’t been lowered.
  
  In addition, Obamacare increases the size of the federal goverment significantly.
  - lodger
    
    Since this URL is fact-based, I’m sure you’ll dismiss it as “liberal”.
    
    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/15/484767/obama-budget-chart/
    - StopSpendingNow
      
      From Factcheck.org: The nation’s total debt stood at $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office, and it had increased to nearly $15.4 trillion by the end of January 2012 — a rise of more than $4.7 trillion in just over three years. That’s a huge increase to be sure — 44.5 percent. And the Congressional Budget Office now projects that it will grow to more than $16 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. At that point, the debt will have increased by more dollars in Obama’s first four years than it did in George W. Bush’s entire eight-year tenure, when it rose by $4.9 trillion. The rise under Obama would then be the biggest dollar increase for any president in U.S. history.
    - TFRX
      
      Do we have to put up the chart abou the sources of the deficit again?
    - TFRX
      
      And while we’re at it, hyour use of plain dollar amounts instead of percentages, and ignoring the business cycle, is the kind of thing that tips people off to scare language.
    - StopSpendingNow
      
      It’s humorous that when liberals talk about the debt and deficit, it’s always change this, add that, subtract this, consider that but not this, and divide by the number of brown-haired voters, then the chart looks different. Sure it does. And *I’M* the one manipulating the numbers, right?
    - TFRX
      
      Let me see, you were the one voice in the wilderness in the ’00s screaming about the deficit.
      
      Yes, I believe that. And that the mass of righties give a crap about reining in spending when they’re in power.
      
      Your beef isn’t with me, it’s with all the wastrels in the GOP. Unless you’re just a dishonest hack.
    - Ray in L.A.
      
      Excellent post.
      
      That would also explain why U.S. 10 year Treasury bonds are at the lowest point ever.
      
      1.55% yield for a ten year U.S. Treasury note.
    - lodger
      
      You cleverly and conveniently omitted the full URL
      
      http://www.factcheck.org/2012/02/dueling-debt-deceptions/
      
      and completely misrepresented the point of the article (Dueling Debt Deceptions)
      which shows how both sides manipulate debt data.
      
      Nice try.
    - StopSpendingNow
      
      My post was taken directly (almost verbatim) from Factcheck.org. Spin it however you would like, but as Factcheck.org points out, if you had looked at the debt clock on 1/20/2009, the day President Obama took office, it stood at $10.6 trillion, and is projected to be more than $16 trillion by 09/30/2012. The simple question and answer on Factcheck’s “Dueling Debt Deceptions” is “Q: How much has the federal debt gone up under Obama? A: During his first three years in office, it rose $4.7 trillion, an increase of 45 percent. Partisan graphics circulating via email and Facebook are both incorrect.”
    - lodger
      
      I acknowledged that you took it from FactCheck, but you misrepresented the point of the story.
      
      And then you used the exact same tactic — using partial quotes to misrepresent the point — to try to refute my point.
      
      I urge everyone to read the full story at the link I provided (and you omitted).
    - lodger
      
      Notice your quote ends with “would then be” because it’s not a fact, it’s based on a PROJECTION.
      
      You forgot to include the part of the article that said Obama should have killed the Bush tax cuts for the rich to help the budget deficit.
Still Here

Americans were easily fooled in 2008. Most have woken up to the reality that this guy is incompetent and out of his league. They will probably stay home.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Romney does not care about the Republicans Party. His own party because if he lose the 2012 Presidential election life goes on for this rich white mormon man from Massachusetts.
Life is good for Romney win or lose it.

but when he wins my god bless America and mormon church.

Terry Tree Tree

Although President Obama has made mistakes, I can’t recall a President that hasn’t, for a President that has had the majority of Congress campaigning against him, from his election, I think he has done a better than average job.
He can positively campaign, while pointing out the FAILURES and INCONSISTENCIES of his opponent!

Still Here

Setting aside general questions about his legitimacy, the Obama administration is the most criminal by far. It is remarkable that there are no special prosecutor or Justice Dept. investigations or indictments yet, we can only hope they are coming. Obama has been a complete and utter failure as a president, so predictable given his complete lack of leadership experience. He has made so many Americans lose their pride in this great country. I’m hoping for real change in November.

J__o__h__n

There are no general questions about his legitimacy.
- Ray in VT
  
  I figured that that was a birther comment. Is that your take on it?
  - J__o__h__n
    
    That was my guess. That still trumps all issues for some people.
jefe68

Nixon, Warren G Harding and U.S Grant were the worst. And GW Bush is up there.

President Obama does not even come close.

But you’re not interested in historical facts, only in your right wing agenda.
- Alan in NH
  
  I think I’d add Buchanan and Taft to that list before Obama. Made so many Americans losing pride? What is he talking about? There are plenty of things of which we might well not be proud going back over one hundred and fifty years. I don’t see anything Obama has done, and I don’t agree with a lot of it, that measures up to the presidents who initiated Vietnam, the Second Iraq War, Afghanistan…Amazing to me how SH can see the world so differently.
  - http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
    
    Taft was actually more progressive than Teddy Roosevelt. He just didn’t promote himself as well.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      In what ways? I haven’t read enough about him but he was very conservative when he was on the Court.
- http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
  
  Minus the legal problems, which were certainly not unique, Nixon wasn’t actually that bad.
  - jefe68
    
    I’m sure the people of Cambodia would disagree. Minus the legal problems…
    do you mean the ones that almost brought this nation to it’s knees in a Constitutional crisis. Nixon was going to be impeached for very serious crimes against the state and the abuse of his office. To shrug it off as some small legal problem is a sign that you do not know the entire history or that if you do you did not think it mattered.
    
    It was enough of a crisis to form how Dick Cheney viewed the idea of the Presidency and it’s powers. All of which came into defining how he ran his Vice Presidency.
    - http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
      
      I’m talking about Nixon’s policies. He was corrupt in ways that many others have been, but his policies were actually realistic and centrist.
Alan in NH

I’m always intrigued by these questions about Obama’s legitimacy. The constitution speaks of presidential candidates being natural born citizens. There have been a number of interpretations and lists for what that means, compiled over the years. One of them reads that if a candidate has one parent that was a citizen of the United States when the candidate was born – it says nothing about the candidate’s PLACE of birth, just the one parent’s citizenship – then that person is a legitimate candidate for president because that person is automatically a citizen due to the parental citizenship. End of story on legitimacy. Yet people persist…I don’t get it.
Gregg

Sad but true.
TFRX

What “general questions about his legitimacy”?

We’re not all right-wingers here, so you’re going to have to spell it out rather than use dogwhistles.
Terry Tree Tree

Romney’s father was born in MEXICO! Going to HAMMER ON THAT?
- J__o__h__n
  
  Why is Anchor Baby Mitt trying to take a job away from an American?
denis

“Still Here” another victim of 24/7 Fox News, Glenn Beck and the rest of the Rush disciples.

Ellen Dibble

It seems to me the pollsters have figured out — not from me, though they try — exactly what a Massachusetts voter is looking for, and they tell us tell us now, 5 months in advance, all day long on network news that they, the Republican incumbent candidate for senator, do provide exactly that. I’d like to vote yes, I want all those things, so I’ll vote for that guy. �
What If the other party had the same money, it would be saying the same thing. What is wrong with this picture?�
The other party is pulling together the same money. And I as voter can only reasonably vote for the candidate who has no money, no ads, and apparently a similar platform. So far the process has not eliminated the unfunded choice. That’s the local issue. �
As far as Obama is concerned, he will need a flood of little pickup trucks going door to door from sea to shining sea, each with a bearer of the perfect Hopeful Message, enough to offset the flood of poll-attuned paid-for media messages.

Ellen Dibble

It took me about 30 minutes to get that message posted, first the page not letting me type more than a sentence or so, repeatedly, then not letting me log in, and then not letting the thing post. My cynical suspicion? Some internet polling/worm has determined that I am not helpful to this campaign or that, and creates a barrage when I try to speak up at sites that are political. Unleash the campaign-wave against people like that; slow them down; no happy net-working for them. (No, I’m not crazy, but I come up with far-out hypotheses from time to time.) Did you hear about the Flame malware out there, sort of all-purpose malware? It’s thought to be able to target anybody, inclusive of the Iranian administration.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

The 2 ads by Obama were very intriguing. a continuation of Change to Moving forward. Forget about the past face the future.

I will not vote for him nor Romney for I am anti-politics.

Alan in NH

I can understand from a certain perspective being anti-politics. Politics is a blood sport where anything goes if one can get away with it. Float any lie out there and see if it finds traction, etc. However, one is then stuck with what others decide, yes? What alternatives to the blood sport are there? Think about what having Republicans in charge has done to the Supreme Court makeup and what that in turn has done to the political tenor of the times (e.g., Citizens United decision).

Paolo

And the two-party charade continues…..

MONEY and POWER are the real parties, and they control the media that deliberately creates the usual HORSE-RACE for every election. Is it any coincidence that every race comes down to a wavering 50/50 final photo finish ??? EVERY election !!! Even the local elections.

When one candidate gets ahead, the media comes out with some little scandal to bring it back down to the neck to neck finish which never fails to CAPTIVATE the AMERICAN PUBLIC like a two-card monte game.

The media distracts you with the little issues, like same sex marriage and cherokee indians, while the bankers and warmongers keep rolling in the dough.

MrNutso

Your comment goes right to the heart of the title of the program. What a candidate proposes, what their policies will be is immaterial. To quote Vince Lombardi, “winning is the only thing”. What a candidate will do if elected will be driven by the events of the day and/or the political calculus to get reelected, or in the case of the President to benefit their party.

Greyman

I have my own reason for opposing Obama, a matter of seeing his genius at work up close and personal: barely a month into his Presidency, he funneled $35 million in “stimulus funds” to a school district in South Carolina (run by the local Democratic Party machine) that does not even permit elections of the very school boards (county and local) that have mismanaged the schools! (All school board seats remain appointed positions, courtesy of the state legislative delegation [also all Democrats--one of whom is even employed by the school district!].) Obama’s decision to reward bureaucratic incompetence AND shameless anti-democratic practice with Federal funds, apparently as payback for shooting some 2008 campaign footage in a derelict school building the locals had left standing, is behavior I saw modeled again (mutatis mutandis) in his Solyndra decision. Obama is not famous for political corruption, but his practice of it has not earned him my vote.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Please!!!! If Senator Edwards is being prosecuted for “funneling” money to his mistress. Do you think Obama will get away with $35 Million. He is not responsible for distributing stimulus money to people it has to be approved by a committe.
- Greyman
  
  The political corruption I speak is exactly that: local policy and practice that is anti-democratic because it suppresses voting and breeds lack of accountability in the management of public affairs. Obama’s actions (and he did in fact personally intervene to get that $35 million sent, he worked on that with Rep. John Spratt [D], who has since been removed from office) in this case are an offense against democracy itself.

Still Here

Given we’ve moved the country at least 10 steps back over the last 3 years, I don’t trust Obama sense of direction when he talks about forward.

J__o__h__n

You advocate moving the country hundreds of steps back. The Republicans want to repeal the New Deal.
Wingswork

We know that Mitt wants to continue the failed policies of the Bush & company years.

Still Here

In addition to the war on religion, Obama just declared war on Poland while re-writing history. Why all the hate?

J__o__h__n

You are correct that he declared war on Poland to the same extent he did on religion.
- Wingswork
  
  Silliness. Only fools think that he “declared war on Poland”, right?
- Still Here
  
  The Poles and Catholics seem to think he did.
  - J__o__h__n
    
    Does that include the 82% of American Catholics who believe birth control is morally acceptable? http://www.gallup.com/poll/154799/Americans-Including-Catholics-Say-Birth-Control-Morally.aspx
lodger

Wow!?! Obama declared war on Poland? You mean like Hitler did? Thanks for divulging this!
- Still Here
  
  Poland seems to think so, try to keep up.
  - lodger
    
    I credit the Poles with enough intelligence to differentiate between a military invasion and a slight diplomatic gaffe.
    
    Other people, several of them here, sadly lack these powers of discernment.
    - Still Here
      
      It’s clear you don’t discern the import of this huge error to the Poles. The supposed leader of the free world just denigrated the most painful period of their history, equating them with the crimes of their amoral invaders. I’m not sure whether it’s lack of intelligence or empathy on your part.
    - lodger
      
      He did no such thing. There was no ‘huge error’; it was a slight gaffe. The ‘equating’ is yours, clearly for political reasons.
      
      He referred to ‘Polish camps’. There were camps in Poland. He is factually correct. It was a stupid thing to say for diplomatic reasons.
      
      Amazing how certain people are grasping at the most ridiculous things. Doesn’t help the challenges we face, not one bit.
    - Still Here
      
      Wow, you really don’t get it!
    - Ray in VT
      
      I don’t think that lodger does get it. He probably doesn’t realize the pathetic lengths that some will go to to attempt to criticize or denigrate the President.
      
      By the way, what was your reference to the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency? Are you a birther?
    - TFRX
      
      That’s the beauty of it: Still Here don’t have to be a birther, just a birther-enabler.
      
      The most popular example are all those respectable GOP pols in Congress and state houses across the country who have been quoted: “If President Obama says he’s a Christian / born in Hawaii, I guess I believe him.”
    - J__o__h__n
      
      A right-wing Jewish blogger disagrees: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/50114/poles-were-complicit-in-holocaust-outrage-over-obama-gaffe-is-fraudulent-ignorant/
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      You must have been ‘outraged’ several times a day, for over 8 years of ‘W’!
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Me Too!
  - Alan in NH
    
    Poland has some reason to feel touchy about this. Something like 3 million Jews perished there, many Polish, many put in camps by Nazi collaborators, neighbors denouncing and revealing neighbors. There was a significant Polish underground resistance and also many rescuers as well but the overall picture is not a pretty one.
- Alan in NH
  
  another sin…he declared war with congressional approval
Terry Tree Tree

MANY Nazi death camps WERE located in Poland, so the Nazis could deny!�
MANY politicians, and ‘business people’ have made WORSE mistakes?
ana

You are so sad.

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Here’s the effect that all this spending is having on me: I’m voting for a third party candidate.

J__o__h__n

You should vote for Obama as Romney made a typo: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/romney-campaign-app-carries-typo-word-america-16465845

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1816544 Dan Trindade

Can’t wait for President Obama’s campaign to break out the fact that Romney was a pretty mediocore governor and how Romney’s campaign responds to the mountain of evidence to support it.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

Obama has basically carried on the tenets of the Bush administration (debt spending, tax cuts, wars, security initiatives). And, barring the unavoidable crash somewhere down the road,whether Obama or Romney is elected, I expect to see 4 more years of business as usual in Washington.

Redcounter

Would hope they highlight all of the excellent populace supported proposals and ideas that Obama administration has proposed and the obstructionists in congress who have made it their priority not to want to help this country recover but instead have stated often and publicly that their main objective is to make him a one term president. Also, show all of the bills passed by gop that do nothing to address real issues, but instead are reflective of far right wing agenda, as well as gop extreme effort to protect tax cuts for super wealthy and corporations, while refusing to tie those cuts to specific living wage job creation and retention here in the states.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Cyndi-Armstrong/704124574 Cyndi Armstrong

Last year saw my husband lose his job and us move to a different state. It was a little crazy. When we got here we found that we couldn’t afford internet or cable. When all the hoopla started in January with the primaries, I looked at my husband and said, “I think I’ll enjoy not having TV in the house” and we just laughed and then talked seriously about not adding that to our budget until after November.�
It’s been nice

Adks12020

I think it would be a great idea for the vast majority of Americans to eliminate cable or at least cable “news”. Those channels are echo chambers for extremely partisan rhetoric on both sides that people then take as fact. If ideas get repeated enough people believe them, whether or not they are even remotely based in fact.

There have been numerous studies that show people that watch no tv news at all are more informed about current events than those that watch cable news…probably because the news they read in the paper isn’t the opinion of some pundit with an agenda.
JGC

I hope you are still able to have access to your local public library (even though they are probably also suffering from budget cuts). But you do have the right positive idea, that these advertisements are poison and are to be avoided. Enjoy your summer, and wish your family the best…

Wingswork

Romney represents NO hope, Oligarchy, and a vanishing middle class. Most of the chatter from the right about Obama is pure fiction and fantasy. Money can’t buy my vote.

Bob from Vermont

What a shameful commentary it is that super pacs may influence the outcome of the election.

Prufer

“May” — Will
- http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
  
  They don’t influence me.

TFRX

So, who’s gonna tell us if these ads are lying?

I mean, I see Karl Rove’s lips moving, but where are the real fact-checkers?

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

When watching an ad, ask what the motivation is behind it. On that basis, I’m suspicious of both sides.
- Prufer
  
  I think one has to be most suspicious of the adds that end in something like “A New America” — those are the ones that super pacs are behind and that super PAC more lies and fear in per second than a mushroom cloud on the horizon line.
- Alan in NH
  
  Not a bad stance to tale in general with both clubs. Their actions tend to be based on loyalty rather than fact or ethical motivation
Ellen Dibble

See Moyers and Company’s show with Kathleen Hall Jamieson at�
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-fair-play-on-tv-and-taxes/.
- Ellen Dibble
  
  To quote from that site: “Jamieson, who runs the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, including the sites FactCheck.org andFlackCheck.org, discusses the sharp increase in deceptive advertising in the 2012 race, and equally-alarming new obstacles to campaign ad transparency.”
  - Ellen Dibble
    
    You can click on the left at Campaign Ad watch, and along with a new menu of places to track on the right, you have: �
    http://billmoyers.com/spotlight/campaign-ad-watch/

Chris

2 Parties, 1 Master
The Criminal Elite

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

The Federal Reserve Bank and Wall Street!!!!

John in Amherst

Apparently both parties now realize that fear motivates more voters than reason, especially when virtually unlimited propaganda from anonymous sources has been OK’ed by the SCOTUS.�
Fear has Always been used as a political motivator, especially by those who would institute rigid social control (eg: fascists). Unfortunately for Democrats, fear works best for conservatives, as people who gravitate toward that end of the political spectrum are naturally more suspicious of and worried by change. The GOP realized this from the minute Obama was elected, which is why they have sought to block every appointment and legislative change put forward by the administration, thereby fueling the perception that “change” is not just ineffectual, but downright dangerous.
The big money interests that run the GOP realize they have nothing to lose by forming an alliance with social conservatives and playing on their fears like a musical instrument, because the uber-rich and large corporations have the money & lawyers to circumvent laws they don’t want to live by.�
It really is time for the average voter to wake up…. “When fascism comes to America, it will be carrying a cross and wrapped in the flag….”

Greyman

You were almost doing well until your last two lines, when you succumbed to the very problem you illustrate. Maybe reason is overrated when it comes to politics . . . .
- TFRX
  
  Anyone who wants to quote Sinclair Lewis from the 1930s, a time of economic despair and social turmoil, seems to have trumped you.
  - John in Amherst
    
    When FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!”
    - TFRX
      
      That, too.
  - Greyman
    
    Well, if you like, I can quote Hayek from 1944: “even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality”. This echoes his earlier quote in The Road to Serfdom of de Toqueville from a century earlier (another time of economic despair and social turmoil): “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”
    - TFRX
      
      Whenever we have to worry about socialism at the hand of a centrist bi-racial Democrat, I’ll remember that.
    - Greyman
      
      The clock ticks . . . .
    - John in Amherst
      
      And Plutocracy denies the very principles of liberty, equality and democracy, by enforcing a regime in which money is the measure of all things, especially how much power it can buy…… You may believe we are headed that way regardless. I don’t, but if you are correct, I will grant you this: Mitt is certainly more up front about it.
Beez

Beautiful

Prufer

We are fighting a Civil Civil War — a bloodless (hopefully) re-litigation of Minority Rights and the fight of the working class vs Plutocratic Tendencies. This time the civil war will be televised.

Jordan Davies

How large a role will debates have on the election?

Ray in VT

Probably not much. A lot of people have already made up their minds. Those who are out there to be persuaded will probably be swayed by campaign events or ads.
- TFRX
  
  Plus Nate Silver has pretty much put the post-debate spin flappers out of business. Now the impressionable Beltway Inbreds may have to come up with their own opinions immmediately after the debate instead of listening to Harold Ford from the left (sic) and Roger Ailes from the right.

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

The reaction to healthcare reform shows what a bad idea being wishy-washy is. Obama should have pushed a public option that would have appealed to his base, since he ought to have known that he’d win no Republican support. Instead, he tried to compromise and concede.

TFRX

Did we know they’d all be WATB’s at that point?

I mean, the chart about holds and filibusters is easy to read, now that it’s 2012.
- http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
  
  WATB? I don’t speak Text.
  - TFRX
    
    It’s an acronym which may be not suitable to spell out on this board, and is often used to describe how GOP is dedicated to making the government absolutely not work. Then they get to rail about how “government doesn’t work”.
    
    Of course, for the Senate, “60 is the new 51″ has been parroted unthinkingly by our media. That centrist fellow Norm Ornstein wrote at length about how the GOP is gobstopping everything the government tries to do, all the ordinary business, and now he can’t get on TV for some reason.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      It is only an acronym if it pronounced as a word.
    - TFRX
      
      Abbrev, then.
    - http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
      
      Abbrev? That’s even worse.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      I forgot that.
    - http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
      
      Commenters here use far too many abbreviations. Those are only helpful when everyone understands what they represent.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      The time saved typing is disproportionate to the time the reader spends trying to decipher them.
    - http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp
      
      You and I should do a language program.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      LOL (just joking)
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Could you come up with a term, or acronym that CAN be explained, to use instead?
    - TFRX
      
      I’ll go with: Tantrum-throwing obstructionists, enabled by a mainstream press which was chanting “up or down vote” when a Republican was in the White House.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Thanks!

Prufer

IS it that the President did a poor job of selling the ACA or did the right do a goo job at making people fearful of it?

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Yes.

Ellen Dibble

The right thinks that Democrats are to blame for the national debt because of Social Security and Medicare, and forget that the debt exploded during a Republican administration. They think the growth needed to juice our economy needs to come from the top, forgetting how much the top is depending on expanding markets overseas. Anything profit-oriented in our economy is poised to ship their jobs overseas. If you are doing research or editing or whatever, there is probably someone elsewhere who can do that job in a way that profits the elites better than what you require. The elites would rather warehouse you, hopefully getting tax breaks for doing so, and continue to extract maximum profits overseas. What you’ve got to do is own lots of stocks in order to share in that largesse.
Economists, insinuate that kind of thinking into the campaign. I think neither side dares address it. Globalism, Protectionism.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

i believe in the power of women.
Prairie_W

Ellen — in case you missed this. I think you’d enjoy it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/lets-be-less-productive.html?hpw

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

We 99% don’t care about the 2 parties. Whoever we vote, whatever they do, We the American people are not satisfied until there is a system that will eradicate greed and poverty.

The American middle class the back bone of the American economy are suffering tremendously. We had been robbed.
cheated and mazed all over America because we want our nation to succeed economically and democratically.

When we need help from the banks to give us loan to make it for another day in this troubled economy but what do we get from those banks that almost collapsed but we saved you guys but you betrayed us to the bitter end.

Roy-in-Boise

It’s hard to miss the meat of the GOP message thinly veiled as it is: Romney is marketed as the great white hope who will take back America … It’s all about racism almost 146 years after the Civil War.

Naomi in Vermont

I hope that President Obama’s campaign will remind everyone of the Republican leadership’s pledge to make Obama “fail” even at the price of keeping the country in recession. It is THEY who are responsible for creating the “economic mess” (i.e. disaster) and they who have been obstructionist at every attempt to remedy the situation.

Lost Cat 00

Oh mine, I already hear the Gopers crying foul against the electoral college! I am waiting to hear in which way is the electoral college unconstitutional and why it took them so long to find out.

Now, the important thing is to understand why the Rove-Bush strategy to lure Latino/Hispanics voters did not have musc succeess so far. Latino/Hispanics voters are between the the rock of Republican anti-immigrant where the Tea Party stands and the hard place of unfulfilled expectations characterizing the administration Obama.

I still hope that, if the Europe does not drown in the economic toilet of their own making, the Democrats may win in spite of Obama’s ‘bipartisan’ follies. However, if the GOP wins the 2012 elections, we need to get prepared for the most intense four years of economic austerity, social privilege, and political polarization.

Redcounter

Obama should not necessarily attack Romney, but the GOP party and their platform

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

What an interesting idea that Romney has to run as a Massachusetts liberal to win the middle.

Prufer

Can’t tell that by his strategy thus far?
Roy Mac

Mass liberals are severely conservative?

Aranphor

I am a moderate and the ONLY reason Romney does not get my vote for is tricky the Republicans digging their feet and trying to destroy Obama. It was their do nothing approach which sickened me.

Prufer

John Heilemann – On the contrary, those Dems were in the pocket of Private Equity!

Bonnie

My biggest disappointment in Obama has been that he didn’t go after the Wall Street crooks. The healthcare plan was only part of a real solution to our health crisis, the second part being cost containment. The amazing thing to me is that blue-collar voters in swing states cannot be convinced the Republican agenda will hurt them more. Reverse Robin Hood, give to the rich and take from the poor.

David Zuckerman

A previous caller indicated that Obama has not been positive or been able to work with Congress to get things done. The reality is that our American electorate thinks the President can do whatever they want, but the reality is that Congress can bring everything to a halt. Particularly with the arcane cloture rule in the Senate where the Minority party (Republicans) can block everything in concert with the Majority Republicans in the House. I am a lefty. Obama has been far from satifactory for me. But if Ronmey is elected, regardless of whether he is moderate or not, the Republican Party which is primarily Right wing, will rule the agenda.

How does someone like Obama win when the electorate is so easily fooled by the simple soundbites of the Republicans? Fear rules.

Jaki Reis

I feel like a person on a bus that was driven by a president who followed the GOP GPS right to edge of a cliff. Obama came along and those of us who were watching Bush and his administration noticed that his GPS must have been programmed by businesses to pass routes that increase their profits and we sighed in extreme relief to see the bus backing up. The businesses, safely outside of the bus, have been yelling “Follow the GPS, we’re not doing anything that goes against the GPS! We’re putting our money on the GPS!” The people who are in the back of the bus, and therefore not as close to the edge, are crowding closer to the back, holding onto their money, which makes it look like the bus isn’t teetering on the edge. And they are joining in the chant “Follow the GPS!” Those of us in the front, though, are more fully aware of the still present danger of the whole bus going over the edge.

Ya know that feeling you get, just before you lose your balance? Scary as hell!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

I thought your point was when the Republican bus was using a GPS and took the wrong turn and fell over the cliff and not far behind tailing them were the Democrats
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  When the nation fell off that cliff, everyone that wasn’t outside, fell with it?

masaccio

This horse-race coverage is silly. All it does is remind people that in most states their votes and their participation is utterly irrelevant. I live in Tennessee. Neither party cares what I think, because there are so many people ready to vote for whatever candidate wears the Republican colors.

If I lived in California, it would be the same, because there are so many people ready to vote for the candidate in the Democratic silks.

Most of us don’t count. Why should we participate or care?

J__o__h__n

How does not covering it improve things?
- masaccio
  
  It’s like talking about the weather. It barely matters to the lives of almost everyone in the country.
Terry Tree Tree

If you don’t care, and don’t participate, don’t cry, don’t whine, and DON’T take any good results?
IF you are female, the Democrats have, and will do more for your autonomy, and therefore your sucess.
IF you are a racial minority, the Democrats have, and will do more for your sucess. Republicans want the cheap labor, because they can abuse them, and use them to bring down everyone else’s wages, by ‘competition’. WHAT has the Republican party done FOR minorities?
IF you are for the HYPOCRICY of ‘Family Values’, of Rush Limbaugh, who couldn’t keep THREE families, who committed FRAUD, by doctor-shopping for drugs, TAKES away survival for the children from those ‘unborn’ fetuses he fights so loud about, vote Republican.
- notafeminista
  
  The Democrats haven’t done a thing for me. Having said that, neither have the Republicans. Please stay off women’s side 3T.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    WHY would I stay off women’s side? I like and respect women! Women make the world better for me! I’d like to make it better for them! I have seen some competent women lose out ONLY by gender-bias!�
    Without women, where would ANY of us males be? We wouldn’t be!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

Romney’s challenge is that the right has moved so far away from the center – which leaves him the choice of pandering to the middle and alienating his party or pandering to his party and scaring away moderates.

The left has shifted right over the years and is much closer to the center, I think, leaving Obama with a a much smaller gap to bridge between his party and the center.

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Obama is Carter with good rhetorical skills.

Still Here

Except when he’s talking about history…
- Ray in VT
  
  Yeah, that gaff makes him sound as historically clueless as some half term Alaska governor.
Ellen Dibble

In my view, Romney comes across as a used car salesman, with a deal you don’t want to miss, grab it now; it’s your last chance. To me, it’s a scam artist at work, like the mortgage brokers and real estate sellers of the 2000s. Will we ever learn? Actually, I see the same scam artist, “this offer is a win-win, how can you turn it down, don’t you want America the Beautiful in your own back yard?” – I saw that in Bush Two, and in the algorithm-wielding campaign designers such as Rove, and the algorithm-wielding cohorts on Wall Street who also had deals you don’t want to turn down, grab it now, not two seconds later. And never mind the little man behind the curtain (wizard of Oz); you don’t want to know how sausage is made, do you.
It seems to me Obama is a great orator, probably excellent in discussions where he needs certain information, but I don’t think he knows how to stand up to that blind certainty that “the sausage will be super tasty, and never mind how we make it. Just buy the car now.” The recipe is sufficiently complicated that a 3-minute answer in a debate would seem of necessity a blunt soundbite, no more. Ronald Reagan debunked all Carter’s smarts with an offhand remark. What can Obama do? We will see.
- J__o__h__n
  
  He is worse than that. Romney would buy a used car, take out loans against it, run it into the ground, declare bankruptcy, and then sell it for scrap.
- JGC
  
  Romney’s huge ambition is at odds with his go-along to-get-along character. Anytime his ambition runs headlong into controversy, instead of confronting it firmly with his moral opinion, he dismisses it weakly in a Harvey Milquetoast fashion so he doesn’t offend any votes in the middle. This really bothers me. We know he has a moral compass, why doesn’t he just use it?
  
  Maybe he is still evolving.
TomK in Boston

Carter didn’t rescue the hostages, BHO nailed bin Laden.

We’d be a hell of a lot better off if carter beat reagan. Reaganomics was the beginning of the end of the middle class.

BHA in Vermont

The “rich white guys” in venture capital/private equity firms invest OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. They take ZERO personal financial risk. They invest it with the intent of making money for the investors, no matter how it is done. They do not care if that means selling off all the assets or having a company that increases in value. They don’t care if they create jobs or destroy them. The investors aren’t looking for dividend income, they are looking for capital gains – you know the 15% tax rate income.

TomK in Boston

Right. Playing the no-risk LBO game is not being a Henry Ford or Steve Jobs!!! We are in a mess because of the financial schemers and it is absolutely relevant to bring up Etchasketch’s background as a financial schemer. Etcha is “businessman” who’s only contact with real business is in destroying it.

It’s crystal clear that the GoP playbook is go on the offensive re their weaknesses. Etcha is a job-destroyign con man, so what do they do? They yell “solyndra” and say BHO is even worse. It’s a lie. Funding new business that is too far from a profit to be supported by the private sector, without making a penny for yourself, has absolutely nothing to do with squeezing every penny out of an existing company.

Like Suzvt said, do we really not remember the Bush disaster, and that what is currently written on the Etchasketch are identical Geez!

Suzvt

Please, why do Obama opponents cling to their amnesia when it comes to what this president inherited?Obama,as well as McCain and everyone else, including the economic experts underestimated to what extent this economy was in before Obama was elected.Even Bush himself, along with his administration probably had little knowledge of the state of the economy.Now the tea party and other shortsighted, paranoid Obama haters want to dump all blame on him of anything that happened,as a matter of absolute consequence of Geo.W. Bush’s eight years of excess and irresponsibility.�
These insecure “Anybody but Obama” racists drive me crazy! Selective memory…you never gave him a chance. And to those that voted for him and are so disappointed, did you really expect the economy to turn around in a year,two or three? If I got myself in to financial trouble to that extent,relatively speaking, I would hope it to begin to turn around in a decade. Some Americans are so spoiled, as well as Greeks, French and anyone that wants instant results. And I would venture to say that the Obama haters that want a robust economy are the same people that don’t want tax increases, preferring to borrow from China to pay for two wars. �
Obama has made mistakes, such as trying so hard for too long to work with the party of no – republicans. What a joke that was, they will not let him succeed at anything if they can stop it. We pay them for that?�
The other mistake Obama made was explaining his stand on various issues. You would think in an administration full of well
educated and often charismatic people, collectively, could come up with an articulate explanation and compelling argument for their stand on the economic, medical, and other issues.�
Of course then there’s Bush whose argument was as”simple” as “I’m the decider.”which actually worked with his followers! Unbelievable.
I love Obama for being an intelligent decent man. I’m afraid he may not win, because the republican machine can’t campaign for a presidential election without stooping to lies and smearing someone’s good name. If a democrat simply states the facts, the republicans can’t stop whining, just as with their liberal media rant. I don’t trust Romney to be above much of anything, and when it comes down to the final weeks, he may do anything to grab that nomination.
I’m sorry this is so long, but I’m a moderate afraid where the extreme radical right is trying to take us.
Four More Years Forward!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Whatever you explain whatever reasoning you will produce. These people will never come to their senses because their goal is to continue the politics of unreasonable pathetic dogmatic way to destroy another opponent and forget about the American people and the bleeding economy

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

I always wondered all the supports that the Republicans and Democratic parties had been getting but did we ever support the American people during thr Occupy movement that lasted almost a year.

Instead you bashed the people that were sick and tired of waiting at home, posting comments on On Point or CNN.

We did something so the the 2 parties could hear our cries, frustrations and angers.

The Occupy movement and the 99% will be continue our civil disobedience.

AndyF

For God’s sake America, well… For our sake… If you liked Bush, if you liked being totally lied to, if you liked having Wall Street run amok, if you like the ultra rich getting ultra richer – then by all means, vote for Romney and you will get more than what you asked for and then some.

But if you have a working brain cell left in your head, think about a vote for Romney – Massachusetts is a mess, (I know, I lived there under the idiot…), Romney has NO idea what it is like to HAVE to work for a living – he’s a TOTAL silver spooner (like Bush), Romney has changed positions so many times even he cant remember all his ‘stances’, and worst of all, Romney has NEVER been a leader – he is a FOLLOWER and always has been.

…so, no matter how much you hate Obama, if you want to flush whats left of America down the toilet, then please, vote for Romney. We will lose the middle class, the rich will get richer under the usual lie of ‘job creator’, and Wall Street can finish what they began – the complete unravelling of America.

What a bright future we once had – now, you ignorant Romney supporters – vote your man in and then, will the last American left please be sure to turn out the lights on this great failure of an experiment.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

If you turned off the light the experiment will not be finish but if you leave the lights on the experiment might fail or succeed.

John C

I honestly am not sure who I’m going to vote for.

Typically in the past I’ve typically voted conservative, but I don’t think the Republicans are willing (or perhaps able?) to impose stricter oversight and enforcement on the financial sector which seems to have mismanaged our economy. I think it’s too much out of control and needs to be reeled in, and tightly.

But I think that really only is about half the major negative impact we’ve seen. The other half I feel is the predatory trading practices engaged in by China.
After being misled by H.W. Bush, then Clinton about getting touch with the Chinese, I don’t know who to believe anymore. I am slightly inclined that the edge might go to Obama on that, but I’m not confident at all.

My main reason I don’t like Obama is that I think the ACA (ObamaCare) is too much, too soon, and while it may become a necessity eventually, I don’t believe its time has come (yet).

Forget about major tax cuts to the rich, I think the main policy issue perpetrated during the Bush years to damage our budget surplus (aside from Iraq/Afghanistan) was the Medicare Prescription Plan, a very popular entitlement program.

With all of this front and center in my mind, I am not sure honestly who to vote for. The both have significant cons that must be contended with.

ana

Presidents have been trying to reform health care for generations, so rather than too soon, it is much too late as we have system that is out of control. We are so far behind other civilized nations in this regard. Single payer would solve so many economic issues for employers and employees, though it must be eased in. ACA is a start.
- John C
  
  I am not so sure about that and think the idea needs to be explored more fully before we get into it.
J__o__h__n

Don’t forget about who Romney would appoint to the Supreme Court. His appointees could impair governmental regulations on the financial sector for decades.
- John C
  
  This is certainly true, but I am equally concerned from a libertarian standpoint as to what Obama might put up there. I am not fond of judicial activism at all.
  - J__o__h__n
    
    The Roberts Court has overturned a record number of laws passed by Congress.
  - lodger
    
    The most egregious example of judicial activism in the history of the republic was preventing the vote count in 2000.
    - John C
      
      I am sorry but that’s still got me in stitches laughing.
      
      Al Gore was the least believable candidate I had ever seen until John Edwards came along. Romney is only slightly more believable than Gore as far as I am concerned.
      
      The union-driven democratic vote machine has been shot through with so many holes on how they operate, that when 2000 happened, I chalked it up as comeuppance for the unions and their well documented (but conveniently hard to prove) vote fraud efforts.
      
      This is one of the things that make it hard for me to trust the democratic party, which is on par with the republicans being in bed with big finance.
      
      It’s a zero-sum game to me, trying to use that argument.
    - lodger
      
      My point wasn’t to root for Al Gore (I am not a fan), but to point out that the republicans complain about judicial activism the loudest, and yet they benefited the most from the worst example of it ever in our history.
      
      I am in complete agreement of your assessment of the democrats being lapdogs of big finance, sadly. I hope Obama would get more FDR-esque in a second term but I’m not holding my breath.
    - TFRX
      
      The “don’t quote us on this, ever!” ruling from the Supreme Court of the Land is comeuppance?
      
      That’s really too cute.
      
      I hope the Brooks Brothers Riot never shows up in your polling place.

brettearle

I’m an Obama supporter–and a firm one–but if the Supreme Court votes, fully, against the Affordable Health Care Act, that may be “all she wrote”, for President Obama.

If they only reject parts of it, it will hurt him, noticeably–but, in that case, such a partial defeat would have to work synergistically with other factors, such as the Economy, for the President to lose the election.

Such a partial decision, by the Supreme Court, could well be too much for the President to overcome.

Let’s hope that unemployment decreases even more, by November–for the sake of the country and for the sake of a second term.

Ray in L.A.

If Obamacare is so great and wonderful,

then why did President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and every Democratic member of Congress who voted for Obamacare, make themselves EXEMPT from Obamacare?

Alan in NH

Haven’t elected officials generally exempted themselves from the kinds of health care most of us have and can afford, long before the ACA came along? Isn’t that their standard operating procedure? Wouldn’t that also be true of their pensions and other perks?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  ACA is not fully implemented yet. ACA is only 3% implemented or not even close but if 100% passed it will helped alot of disabled people veterans and uninsured.
jimino

They are not exempt. But they, like a large number of people, have insurance paid for by their employer (which is subsidized by the rest of us as the employer can take its value as a deduction but the employer does not need to count it as income).

One might wonder where you get your information since you are so misinformed. Or are you being intentionally deceitful?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  Foxnews.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Obama and other politicians will be covered if they return to public life for now the Feds are those paying the medical bills of Obama and others. Because they are employed by the Federal government just like what jimino explained.
J__o__h__n

Why is Scott Brown’s adult daughter on his government funded health plan?

Jim

I don’t understand why republican/conservative TV kept stating that Obama is using scared tactics to win this election.

Look, the republicans started their scared tactics in 2011. it has intensified recently with Romney camp providing falsified and demeaning information of Obama being a muslim and Obama was not bornt in the United States.

From my point of view, republicans cannot win without scared tactics. Just look at what happen when they disgrace a respected War Veteran and well liked senator, Max Cleveland in 2002.

To the conservatives: be civil and respect YOUR President.

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

It was Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential campaign that first raised the issue in regards to Obama’s eligibility to be President.
- J__o__h__n
  
  Unlike some rubes, she has moved on.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    Yeah, Hillary got her big payday.
- Still Here
  
  We should have listened to her, and would have, had the media not played favorites.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Yes, if only the media had reported that Obama was some sort of Kenyan-born, Muslim socialist way back in 2008, then all of the kooks could have gotten out in front of the issue and warned everyone!
    - J__o__h__n
      
      If we had, we could now listen to the right wing nuts whine about the cover-up of Vince Foster’s murder and all the other conspiracies they were pushing in the 90s.
    - Ray in VT
      
      The Clintons knew how to hide a body farm. 20 years of searching and their political enemies still can’t find them!
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Like they have?
      They ignore that McCain was born in Panama, and Romney’s dad was born in Mexico?
      Their fear factor ran low? OR are they just badly disguised racists?
    - JGC
      
      Yes, yes, this is such a bizarre coincidence that Obama’s 2008 opponent (McCain) was born outside the U.S., and his 2012 presumptive opponent (Romney) has a father born in Mexico. But the Birthers have never been concerned by this, (not that anyone should be). It just means my only conclusion is that their objection is racial in nature.
      
      Hey, Trump, what is your take on this subject?

Marya_Pyrek

I just came in from q walk and just caught the end of the show, Even though your broadcast regarding this subjectis finished I still would like to comment. I am one of the poor who relies on SSDI( social security disability) I also rely on foodstamps as well. My concern is this. If Romney gets in as president, I question if he has any idea shat it is like to be poor. I sincerely do not think so beccause he is a billionaire. I do no believe that he has any idea about the poor, and the hardships this involves.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Do not worry about your SSDI checks or foodstamps.
It is protected by the constitution and it is an Act.
It will never go away but I hope you will pray for Universal Healthcare Act.

This healthcare reform will surely help you with your disability and if you are going to a doctors office. Your physician will surely benefit from Obama care. He/She will get more fundings and will get reimburse properly by the government even though reimbursement rate is low. Your Physician(s) will still have some money to compensate the expense he/she incurred during your visit to your physician.

Take Care.

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

Under Obama: 30 worst months of employment in 25 years

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/under-obama-30-worst-months-employment-past-25-years_645771.html

Who wouldn’t want to see a second Obama term?

TFRX

Under Obama, more jobs created in 3 1/2 years (many in recession) than the conservative who drove us into the weeds in the first place.

I’d ask you to try better, but I think we’ve seen your best.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
  
  Lies and distortions of fact are the absolute best the “keep the change bot” can do.
  
  He/she (or it) is either a mental midget, a complete fool, or a programmed Republican propaganda mouthpiece. Nothing is gained to further a decent political process from this “bot’s” phony posts.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    “a mental midget, a complete fool”
    
    Try and show a little respect for President Obama if you would please.
    
    Barack is trying, but being President is a lot more difficult than being a community organizer.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      I read his book and didn’t think he accomplished much as a community organizer but as president he passed health care which Clinton had been unable to do, killed Osama bin Laden which Bush failed to do, and saved the automotive industry which Romney wouldn’t have done.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      “saved the automotive industry”?
      
      It’s still up to it’s neck in debt. The automotive industry is far from saved.
      
      P.S. Osama bin Laden has been dead for years.
      
      You can go to Youtube and find a interview that Benazir Bhutto gave in 2007 where she claimed that bin Laden was already dead.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTEEXG3ge8
    - J__o__h__n
      
      If she was such an expert on terrorism, why is she dead?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      Because she spoke the truth that bin Laden was already dead as of 2007.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Her death was just another liberal lie, of course.
    - TFRX
      
      Why didn’t you lead with “OBL has been dead for years”?
      
      We would have (per Groucho) dismissed you instantly, because it would save a lot of time.
    - JGC
      
      Alcoa stock down today, but I think they could improve their position with bulk sales of tinfoil hats to folks like Y_C_K_T_C…
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      If you think your silly out of context lies makes you somehow clever…it doesn’t.
      
      Twisting other people’s words into blatant lies, hardly supports your lame efforts. Obviously, you cannot support your flase claims with your own words, so you have to resort to stealing the words of others. What a farce and fool you are.
      
      You are more pathetic than anything else.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      I agree that your incoherent rants are pathetic.
    - Ray in VT
      
      I know you are, but what am I?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      Wow. What a zinger!
    - Ray in VT
      
      It’s at least as intellectual as most of your drivel. You went grade school, so I just followed. How about this one. Why don’t you keep the change and use it to buy a clue? Another middle school classic.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      Good one.
    - ana
      
      You are so sad, really. Your comments are of the lowest mentality-cheap shots that add nothing.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      You’re right, your comments add absolutely nothing.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      Can you take a hint dude? Your adolescent tactics are unwelcome here with the rational adults. Dirty tricks, and empty slogans are loved by ya’ll right wing nuts, but they are meaningless. Please go to Fox New, Rush Windbag, or any other nut site and bother them for a change.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      You learned to believe everything Obama tells you.
      
      Aren’t you special.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A

I do. Your phony “facts” are a result of the CRIMES AND INCOMPETENCE of George Bush & Co. You are a complete AMNESIAC, and a stooge of the Republican liars and propagandists. How does anyone with a brain, and a MEMORY, support the fraud Romney?? Impossible.
Still Here

Nor would the score of un- and under-employed. Obama’s proposals all involve growing the size of government with make-work jobs. You know, one guy digs a hole, and another fills it in. That’s a shovel-ready, infrastructure investment to him.

Still Here

Maybe there’s a community, a small one, he could organize, and work up to the kind of responsibility he has proven he is currently incapable of handling. California would be seem to be friendly territory for him, maybe San Pedro Rock.

twenty-niner

Obama should start house hunting, because he’s already gone. Here are today’s headlines (again, the news the networks don’t report):

Chicago PMI just printed 53.8. 50, down form 61.5 in April and 63.3 in March. 50 essentially means recession, which we are already in.

https://www.ism-chicago.org/chapters/ism-ismchicago/files/ChicagoPMI-12-05.pdf

ADP payrolls prints another big miss at 130K on expectations of 150K, which makes four misses out of the last five. Manufacturing is -2 jobs for the month.

Consumer confidence has dropped to 64.9, down from 68.7, the lowest since January and the third miss in a row:

http://www.conference-board.org/data/consumerconfidence.cfm

The lagging indicators such as bread lines are now poised to peak right around November. QE3 (or 4 if you count operation twist as QE) is the wild card. Expect a market jump post rumor, but the QEs are showing diminishing returns, and worse, unpredictable side effects, as typical with squeezed water balloons.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Statistics? Numbers that are not really true or numbers that speculates and put into a graph to make it real.
- twenty-niner
  
  Look at food stamp participation, which is a better indicator of employment numbers than employment numbers, which are constantly “corrected” with seasonal adjustments and the black-box fudginator referred to as the “birth-death model”.
  - lodger
    
    So now you’re refuting the employment stats you cited above?
    - twenty-niner
      
      No. ADP doesn’t estimate employment based on “birth-death”. The bogus stats come from the BLS.
      
      The ADP report is a relatively small sample based on the payrolls of about 500,000 US businesses that use ADPs services.
      
      But the larger point is the expectations miss, not the actual number. Misses are leading indicators, actual head counts are lagging. The thrust of the post is that we are headed back into recession, if not already there, as evidenced by the range of expectations misses from various sources.
    - lodger
      
      Your own citations show upticks in job growth. Falling short of predictions doesn’t mean recession, it means they didn’t grow as fast as some had predicted.
    - twenty-niner
      
      Again,
      
      PMI – leading indicator
      
      Expectations miss (on reduced expectations) – leading indicator
      
      Employment growth or contraction – lagging indicator
    - twenty-niner
      
      And no comments on the ISM data?
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      FOR REAL
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    Food stamps will always be high because of high unemployment rate. you don’t have to be Statistician to explain that problems.
lodger

Be prepared for a rising tide of these lies/agitprop as election day nears.
It’s gratifying to see so many common-sense, factual responses to the few predictable misinformationists.The reality-based community is — to paraphrase Lincoln — our last, best hope.
- twenty-niner
  
  The ISM is lying?
  
  Finish cleaning your room and make your mother happy.

Suzvt

And where did you read those “headlines”?

twenty-niner

I provided “links”.

Stretchdog

As in every election year, On Point (and the rest of the media) is fixating on the “horse race” aspect of the election to the exclusion of real content: What do the polls say? What is candidate X’s strategy? Which party is raising the most money? How will Hispanics vote? And so forth.

Most of what we hear in these discussions is either speculation, unsupported opinion, or outright “spin” served up by partisan guests and so-call “experts.”

Tom, please get out of the horse race business and bring us guests who can speak directly and authoritatively about the problems facing this nation and how we can solve them. There’s more than enough to talk about: the corrupting influence of money in Washington; American’s coming fiscal train wreck; the “skills gap,” etc. And please leave the two major parties on the shelf and let us hear other voices: from the left, right, and the middle.

Markus

So glad someone said this. At this point, I turn off any program that talks about who’s winning. However, I’m guessing 90% of the political coverage will be on the race aspects because it’s easier to cover and boosts ratings.

Good time to switch to sports.
lodger

Excellent point.
http://twitter.com/kuroikittee Kittee

Perhaps you just do not listen often enough… Does NPR quote polls, sure, but they do a fantastic job of explaining that polls are not always a true reflection of what will actually happen, and moreover, actually discuss the important aspects of the presidential race: differences between candidates, the dangers of campaign finance post Citizens United, the economy, etc. Your comment is very short-sighted as does no credit to the work that, in my opinion, Tom Ashbrook and the rest of the NPR crew, do exceptionally well.

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

10 year U.S. Treasury bonds hit a new historic low today of 1.55% yield.

Obama’s added 6 trillion dollars to the federal debt in three years. The smart money is running away from the U.S. dollar.

That would also explain why the for-profit, privately owned, ‘Federal’ Reserve is buying up most of the U.S. Treasury bonds being issued.

Ray in VT

You seem to post and repost a lot of the same stuff, Fred.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
  
  This “person” is simply a programmed bot, designed to spew right wing Republican propaganda and lies. All it knows has already been poven false, and is merely a boring repetition of the Republican party line of delusion. Please do not expect it to “think” for itself. Bots never do and are, in fact, incapable of independent thought as you can easily see by the type of “comments” it posts.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    Is that why you seem to believe everything Obama says?
    - Still Here
      
      He’s an ignorant bot, he just doesn’t know it.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      I don’t care what he thinks.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      Now you are babbling to yourself. Bad meds? More likely not enuf meds…
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      No meds for me, just clear thinking.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Stop sniffing sap coming out of the trees dude, it’s impairing your judgement.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Why would I want to snip sap? I’d rather boil it down and put it on my waffles.
    - Still Here
      
      Sounds painful, but I’m for the government letting you do whatever you want with your “waffles.”
    - Ray in VT
      
      We’re all taking about maple sap, right? That’s the only tree sap that most Vermonters think about. Why the quotes around waffles, BTW (that’s for you, Greg)?
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      I love people from Vermont.
    - Still Here
      
      I was sure it was a Vermonter euphemism for something.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Like what?
    - Ray in VT
      
      Nope. It was just about maple syrup, or Northern Comfort as it is something marketed here.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      But if they want to put blueberries on their waffles, they’ll probably need a waiver from the IRS.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      That sounds good.
    - Terrybrewster
      
      Or use it to fuel a flex-fuel vehicle? Power a flex-fuel home generator?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Yes we know $5 trillion from Bush plus 1 trillion from Obama equals $6 trillion. But Bush left the house and handed over the debt to Obama that makes it $6 trillion.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  So you’re proud of the fact that President Obama has added as much to the federal debt in three years as Bush added in eight years??
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    I didn’t say that. 10 years of war of course the debt will go up. try spending 1 billion a month in 10 years without any pay back. it will raise the debt ceiling.
    
    How can Obama spent 6 trillion dollars in 3 1/2 years compared to Bush 8 years in office the arithmetic does not add up.
    
    If you add the Bail Money for the banks of course it wil raise the debt but it was necessary to bail them out multiple times since the Bush administration was still in office.
    
    Tell me give some REAL FACTS why the debt went up to 6 trillion.
Kellymlee

And treasury bonds are safest and highest bet out there. European bonds are offered at a negative percentage.
- twenty-niner
  
  This is not how traders think. When you see US debt spike, be very nervous, because it means investors are moving to the sidelines. You can put a few thousand dollars in your mattress but not a few billion. When you have to move that kind of money, you buy US treasuries, which is the deepest and most liquid market in existence. No one is buying Treasuries for the reasons our grandparents did, as a nice save investment for the grandkids. It’s purely a means to move money off the table while the market implodes.
  
  Right now, the yield on the 10Y is 1.9%. This is actually bad news, because this is way under the rate of inflation, and this means big institutional investors are very nervous.
  
  By the way, the are no European bonds, per se. Each individual country must issue their own debt, which is why there’s a big chance the Euro will fail, and why 10Ys are trading at 1.9%.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    1.9% yield on a 10 year U.S. Treasury??
    
    Where are you getting your bogus data from?
    
    According to Bloomberg, the 10 year U.S. Treasury is at 1.57% yield.
    - twenty-niner
      
      Calm down. It’s a typo. Meant to write 1.6%.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      Who cares about treasury bonds those are worthless piece of toilet papers.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Knock yourself out.
  
  Buy all the crashing U.S. Treasuries you want.
  
  The Pentagon wants to attack Iran, so keep buying those sinking T-Bills.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    ‘W’ admin got them addicted to that high-end way of life?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

You can Keep the change:

I know like any other Republicans you are a senile.

In September 29th of 2008 George Bush added 4 trillion mega dollars to our debt.

On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. the Treasury Department shows the national debt stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent increase on Mr. Bush’s watch.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

History in November 7th, 2004 for Republican Seniles

A divided Senate approved an $800 billion increase in the federal debt limit yesterday, a major boost in borrowing that Senator John Kerry and other Democrats blamed on the fiscal policies of President Bush.
The 52-44 vote, mostly along party lines, was expected to be followed by House passage today. Enactment would raise the government’s borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion — more than eight times the total federal debt that existed when President Reagan took office in 1981.
You_Can_Keep_The_Change

“Obama never lied” (LOL)

If you’re going to provide cover for Obama, try to at least make it sound plausible.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
  
  Behold the programmed bot speaks…
  Please disregard the broken record, please disregard the broken record, please disregard the broken record…..and on and on.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    Yes,
    
    people should disregard anything you have to say.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      The only thing that Obama did for 3 1/2 years is to fixED your beloved Bush did WRONG. And he still fixing it it and it.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      When have I ever claimed to be a Bush supporter?
      
      Honest criticism of President, Obama, does not make me a Bush or Romney supporter.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      But you sounded like a Bush supporter and now you are changing your political philosphy.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      I’m not changing anything. I’m a small-goverment conservative who wants Uncle Sam to stay out of my life and out of my wallet.
    - Alan in NH
      
      How about out of your bedroom, out of your doctor’s office, and off your phone?
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      Indeed. Your mind exists in the 1950s. NEVER TO GROW OR EXPAND OR CHANGE. Your world is gone dude. Deal with it.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Move to Somalia?
      Gov’t. stays out of your life AND out of your wallet, corporations pollute at will, and ALL the other ‘benefits’ you cry for?
    - jefe68
      
      Why don’t you move to a country that will indulge you then?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  Lies!!! Another misconception
  
  Remember WMD? Was that a BIG BIG LIE in front of the WORLD. Even the guy who lied for Bush quit his job because he could not tolerate anymore the incompetence of the Bush administration – General Powell.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  By the way can you please change your profile pic it is an insult to the American people and to the American soldiers who fought the wars.
  
  It is also in insult to the Russian people.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    I still have Freedom of Speech, unless Obama gets re-elected and he puts the Constitution through the paper shredder.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A

sorry typo in wrong place.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Obama never lied. What for to convince to the American people that he is doing a great job. Please!!!

I am not a Obama supporter I am just telling the truth.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Democratic Party Achievement before President Bush it is written in History books:

September 27, 2000 President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year’s record surplus of $122.7 billion.
“Eight years ago, our future was at risk,” Clinton said Wednesday morning. “Economic growth was low, unemployment was high, interest rates were high, the federal debt had quadrupled in the previous 12 years. When Vice President Gore and I took office, the budget deficit was $290 billion, and it was projected this year the budget deficit would be $455 billion.”

THE BIG QUESTION WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONEY?

William

I thought the Republican Congress forced Clinton into a balanced budget?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Bush Legacy: Who created the debt who destroyed the American economy.

October 7th 2008.

The federal budget deficit hit a new record in the just-completed 2008 budget year under the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
The record $438 billion shortfall for the budget year that ended last week is up from $162 billion posted last year. The previous record of $413 billion was posted in 2004.
CBO said Tuesday that with the economy in a slump, revenues dropped by almost 2%. Corporate income receipts dropped by $65 billion, or nearly 18%. At the same time, individual income tax revenues declined by 1.6%.

The deficit is virtually certain to balloon even higher next year as the government sorts out the financial crisis and taps a $700 billion Treasury fund to buy toxic mortgage-related securities.
The next president is likely to have to scale back campaign pledges as he inherits a likely deficit for 2009 exceeding $500 billion. But neither GOP standard-bearer John McCain nor Democratic nominee Barack has given much detail regarding what promises they won’t be able to keep.

Yes it is always Bush faults. No Arguement but if you still argue you just plain old retard.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

iOnePoint:

You know Filipinos and Americans have one thing in common they keep supporting politicians who destroyed the 2 nations economies. On other side of the Globe the Philippines ousted Marcos with People Power revolution but the Filipinos still voted the people who created chaos and destructions.

And in mainland America The Republicans keep putting their heads in the sand to deny the incompetent of the Bush administration for 8 years and even voted for the same President twice.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

That’s why I hate politics but I will defend politicians who are doing their jobs to support the American people.
William

What was so bad about Bush? He spent a lot of money, started a new entitlement program, went to war like JFK and LBJ did, expanded the role of government, expanded the size of government…these are all big liberal ideas…
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  JFK served in the Navy in WWII, with valor, stared down the Soviet Union over Cuba, sent, then was bringing Special Forces advisors from Vietnam. Which war did he start?
  - William
    
    JFK got his one and only command sunk, he almost started a nuke war over Cuba with his failed, illegal invasion, he was a serious drug addict, cheated on his wife, and his Vietnam war policy ended up getting a lot of young American GI’s killed.
    - Roy Mac
      
      So maybe we vets are bitter about the fact that Dubya deserted, and Cheney was a draft dodger–ya think, maybe?
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Fellow Vet, that’s a LITTLE of it!
    - William
      
      Bush wore a uniform..but Clinton, well, he pulled a “slick willy”, ya think?
    - jefe68
      
      This is your answer?
      Bush wore a uniform?
      You have to be kidding.
      Clinton was a Rhodes scholar. Left the office of the Presidency with one of the highest approval ratings of any modern President.
      
      Yeah, he was slick all right, but in some very good ways.
    - William
      
      Yeah right…he dodged the draft too….highest ratings for a sleezy guy that even his own wife hates.
    - TFRX
      
      Your mask of “polite” is slipping.
    - TFRX
      
      Uh, no: You’re thinking of any number of righty chickenhawks, who supported the Vietnam War effort (then or now) by taking every advantage of not going, and have ever since beat their mighty chests about their patriotism.
    - jefe68
      
      So his PT boat being rammed by a Japanese destroyer was his fault.
      The man saved peoples lives, swam with a wounded crew member on his back for miles and you have the nerve to post this disgusting dribble.
      You have no idea what was going on at that time. In fact JFK saved the world from the brink of a nuclear war
      by not listening to his war mongering military advisers and cutting a deal with the Russians.
      
      Vietnam was a debacle, but then again you would have been there waving your flag and supporting it.
      Now in hindsight you make inane comments. What nerve.
    - William
      
      JFK himself felt he screwed up getting his boat sunk. JFK blew it on Cuba with his failed invasion and gave the Russians an excuse to put nukes into Cuba. Vietnam? Give JFK the credit he wanted, craved, he wanted to look tough to the Russians “Go anywhere, pay any price…”….a total failure….study history before you try to defend a failed President…
- Zack
  
  These are NOT liberal ideas. They are the stereotype of liberal ideas. Clinton SAVED money – gave us a multi-trillion $ surplus – with entitlement reform (btw, ’twas the Republicans insisting on an individual mandate back then), was incredibly skillful at maintaining national security without actually sending Americans to get killed anywhere, and cut back on government (though mostly wisely, rather than just doing it how the lobbyists said without first checking for consequences). Are these “all big conservative ideas?” . . . Except for the part about cutting back on government, conservative governments have consistently done the opposite of these important moves, and the results – well, Clinton gave us a decade of incredible economic growth and huge surpluses, as aforementioned. Then came Bush (illegitimately), flushed the surplus down the toilet and brought in incredible deficits, and at the end of his time in office, as a parting shot, he gave us the Great Recession. And that’s not to mention the thousands upon thousands of lives lost in Bush’s needless wars. . . .

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

My girlfriend called me last night and she said ” Hun while I was walking in downtown a lot of men were staring at me and smiling”

I asked her what were you wearing? I was weating a shirt that says ” I can drive a stick”

LOL oh okay!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1155042916 Mike Hanson

“I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. A year from now, I think people are gonna see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still gonna be some pain out there. If I don’t this done in three years, then there’s gonna be a one-term proposition” _ Barack Obama, February 2, 2009

I couldnt agree more Mr President … have fun with your upcoming retiement.

Bhbyrum

My husband and I voted for Obama last time. However, he’s spent so much time trying to please the right, the conservatives, that he’s left his base behind in many ways. We are both probably going to sit out this election and simply not vote in the presidential election. It doesn’t matter, however, because we live in a solidly red state and our vote doesn’t count. Our sitting this election out is a protest, since it doesn’t matter.

ana

The far left encouraged non-voting in 2010 to send President Obama a message, thus ushering the teaparty to their seats. They bear a huge responsibility for the extremist grip on the nation.
JGC

What is the sound of a silent protest in the forest?

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

So Obama added six trillion dollars to the federal debt in three and a half years. Is that Obama’s idea of moving ‘Forward’?

Because if it is, Obama has got ‘Forward’ confused with backward.

Still Here

A billion of it went into the electric car battery sinkhole.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Just more campaign rewards to Obama’s 2008 financial supporters,
  
  Solyndra (which went bankrupt) being the best example of the ineptitude of the present administration.
  - Roy Mac
    
    Solyndra is the only answer the rightwing nutjobs have–over and over and over. Is that really all you got?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      No.
      
      Obama enacted Obamacare, NDAA, and he added $6 trillion dollars to the federal debt in three years, just for starters.
      
      If you and your fellow liberals want to celebrate those accomplishments, then go right ahead.
    - juliuspontifex
      
      It’s sad to have to respond to such historical ignorance. The US, and every government across the planet has always supported native industries to the tune of billions. In the US since the Civil War. Why can’t you wingers just read a little US History?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      Why can’t you dyed-in-the-wool Obama supporters discern truth from facts from propaganda?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      That’s right,
      
      letting Obama think for you saves you from having to do it for yourself.
    - juliuspontifex
      
      So silly. So LimbaughSo Beck
      I asked a specific question:What about the US industries the US has supported financially for a century and a half?
      Lot of them went belly up. What’s the big deal about Solyndra,unless you’re ignorant of US History?
    - jefe68
      
      They only like it when history is supports their own regressive agenda.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  How many $BILLIONS have we subsidized the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries with?   With CEOs and EXECUTEives making $ MILLIONS to $ BILLIONS?
     EXPENSIVE rat-hole for DECADES?
     YOU don’t WHINE about that?

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

H.H.S. (Health and Human Services),

signs $20 million dollar contract with a P.R. firm to promote Obamacare

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/228699-hhs-inks-20m-contract-with-pr-firm-to-tout-preventive-benefits

The very same Obamacare that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and every Democratic member of Congress who voted for it, made themselves exempt from.

jimino

“The very same Obamacare that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and
every Democratic member of Congress who voted for it, made themselves
exempt from Obamacare.”

Putting your ignorance of the facts in writing is a poor way to build credibility. Although I must admit some people appear to proudly revel in their ignorance.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Your uncritical support for President Obama shows that you intentionally choose to remain uninformed.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
    
    Mr. Bot: please get some new programming. Your standard bag of old and worn out replies is B-O-R-I-N-G. Completely so.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      Boring?
      
      That’s a good way of describing your rants.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
  
  And “keep the change” is monumentally ignorant.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    I agree that you’re ignorant.

JGC

Two presidents who were elected with backgrounds in Business:

Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush.

‘Nuff said.

TomK in Boston

I posted elsewhere the chart of the % of total income that goes to the 1%. I think it’s very interesting that the 2 principal peaks, with the Romney-types getting over 23%, were in 2007 and 1928. That is, the extreme peaks in inequality have predicted the two biggest economic crashes of the 20th and 21st centuries with, as you say, “businessmen”in the WH.

It’s obvious to me that there is cause and effect here. Extreme inequality, with the 1% getting over 23% of income, means there is so much $ in the casino, as opposed to the real economy, that a big bubble will be bursting very soon.

The script that says inequality is fine so long as the middle class is doing OK is jsut self-serving propaganda. Setting aside the fact that the middle class is NOT doing OK, too much inequality leads to an unstable bubble economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/26/nyregion/the-new-gilded-age.html

juliuspontifex

One problem President Obama has, most especially in Florida and Ohio, is that if the election is close, the Republicans will steal it.

They stole Florida very clearly in 2000 and they stole Ohio in 2004. They know how to steal elections. What they did in Miami Dade County during the 2000 recount was exactly what the Nazis did in Germany.

Suzvt

You can be sure that every person against Obama’s plan to expand healthcare to every American in our wonderful prosperous country has a very nice healthcare plan of their own or has had the good fortune to be blessed with good health without the need to access health insurance. If there’s anyone who is uninsured or underinsured who speaks up against fair healthcare for everyone, and I haven’t heard them,they would have to be woefully intellectually challenged. How on earth can those of us who are so fortunate to have good healthcare coverage want to deny it to the people who do work hard and can’t afford to buy medical insurance? Can you put yourself in the shoes of those, and there are many, who are underinsured and there insurance provider won’t approve their treatment for M.S. or cancer, or any number of debilitating and life threatening diseases?I can assure you it happens to many people every day. What kind of society are we, that we can be so selfish? I have good insurance, but it doesn’t mean I will always be so lucky, or you for that matter. Every senator and congressman who worked hard to stop the so called Obamacare has the best health care coverage available and we tax payers pay for it. Wouldn’t it be something to be proud of, to live in a society that has compassion for those less fortunate? And I’m not talking about welfare and food stamps.Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has cancer and desperately wants to live, but can’t be given the same treatment as our congressmen. It’s a very frightening situation.

Suzvt

What’s with the hammer and sickle? And why all the name calling? Can’t people discuss topics without resorting to name calling? It sounds hateful and ignorant. Have you ever even listened to Tom Ashbrook? He’s always such a gentleman and so are most of his guests. I wonder what he thinks of some of the ignorant and negative arguing that goes on here, and usually by the same people over and over. He tries to listen and see both sides, that’s why I love On Point. I’m a moderate independent.

twenty-niner

“What’s with the hammer and sickle?”

What’s with the use of military drones over US soil?

Drones over US to get weaponized – so far, non-lethally

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-domestic-drones-armed-090/

Do any of these headlines bother any of the so-called liberals on this board? Maybe Romney needs to get elected to get liberals to put down their “Be All the Sycophant You Can Be” handbooks and start denouncing this crap.

By the way, I’m no neocon, and was equal vocal against the Patriot Act, which was reauthorized by OBushny.
juliuspontifex

He’s an entertainer who knows what works for him. Just like Limbaugh or all the other right wingers. It’s primarily entertainment, first, last and always. That’s why they have sponsors.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  JPMorgan Employees Join Goldman Sachs Among Top Obama Donors
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-20/jpmorgan-employees-join-goldman-sachs-among-top-obama-donors.html
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      It looks like Obama is getting plenty of Wall Street sponsorship.
- TFRX
  
  “Entertainer”?
  
  Until I see him juggling chainsaws, that’s a stretch.

You_Can_Keep_The_Change

With Obama’s chances of getting re-elected becoming less likely,

look for Obama to stage his own False-Flag, Gulf of Tonkin type incident in an attempt to rally support for his Presidency.

Remember that fabricated incident of the used car salesman from Houston who Obama claimed had ties to the Iranian goverment and who tried but failed to blow up the Saudi embassy in D.C.?

What ever happened to that guy?

juliuspontifex

Is that worse than the Republicans’ contemptuous disdain for democracy by stealing two presidential elections?
- juliuspontifex
  
  And I forgot. When did Republicans ever meet a war they didn’t like; in this century or the last?
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says U.S. ready to attack Iran
    
    http://www.infowars.com/panetta-says-u-s-now-ready-to-attack-iran/
    
    It looks like the President is getting ready to start a war with Iran.
    - juliuspontifex
      
      You’re ridiculous. The only people who would enjoy responding to you are people who like to play round and round the mayberry bush. You never answer directly to the question asked with facts. Are you a middle school kid trying to engage the adults in debate?
    - juliuspontifex
      
      You’re ridiculous. The only people who would enjoy responding to you are people who like to play round and round the mayberry bush. You never answer directly to the question asked with facts. Are you a middle school kid trying to engage the adults in debate?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      The only people who would enjoy responding to you,
      
      are people who are happy that Obama signed the NDAA, which effectively trashed the Constitution.
    - Hidan
      
      In Which Republican Supported(with few exceptions)
      
      Why would Republican support and vote for something that “effectively trashed the Constitution” ?
    - Hidan
      
      Folks who voted yes
      
      http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2011/s218
      
      D 48
      R 44
      I 1
      
      That means 44 Republicans trashed the Constitution along with the Democrats and droopy dog
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      “droopy dog”?
      
      Try and show a little respect for the President.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Don’t forget the House:
      
      http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll932.xml
      
      R 190
      D 93
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
      
      That is because the fool “keep the change” is a bot, created in the 1950s and mentally LOCKED in the 1950s, and what intellectual capacity he/she/it has is severely limited.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      Most middle schoolers wouldn’t want anything to do with you.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Is that supposed to be an insult?
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      I was paying him a compliment.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A
    
    And that anicent fossil McCain, the lover of war and killing that learned nothing as a POW in Vietnam. The NVA should have done us a favor and hanged the sob.
    - brettearle
      
      McCain has backed 5 wars, or possible wars, in recent years:
      
      Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan.
      
      This guy’s the outrageous gunslinger of the Middle East and Central Asia.
  - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
    
    You conveniently overlooked the fact that Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, dragged this country into WW1, after he campaigned to keep this country out of WW1.
  - Don_B1
    
    Actually they opposed supporting Great Britain through the lend-lease program in the run-up to WWII, just at they are opposing the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Both oppositions are due to their preferences for business profit over the interests of the citizens of this country.
  - Don_B1
    
    Actually they opposed supporting Great Britain through the lend-lease program in the run-up to WWII, just at they are opposing the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Both oppositions are due to their preferences for business profit over the interests of the citizens of this country.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  At least the GOP doesn’t associate with A.C.O.R.N., like Obama does.
Terry Tree Tree

TOO MANY ‘false flag’ incidents under ‘W’, to count? Orange or Red Alert status near almost every election, and any action they wanted to sneak through?
President Obama would have to have Orange or Red Alerts every other day, to catch up?
http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A

Selective memory…how convenient. You recall this non-incident but forget, more likely ignore, the crimes of the century created by Bush and his CEO cronies. You forget about the needless WARS, and the EVEN MORE NEEDLESS DEATHS, BY THE THOUSANDS, OF OUR TROOPS. You and your kind are criminally complicit and should be standing next to Bush on the gallows.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  You’re in dire need of some professional counselling, and a hard dose of reality.
brettearle

Proof, please, of Obama’s fabricated incident.

Give us a source–or are you guys simply going to name the Washington Times or News Max, as sources, again?

Your irrational demonizations are getting much more than tiresome.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Not everyone chooses to bury their hand in the sand and ignore the facts as you do.
  - Ray in VT
    
    Not everyone chooses to believe in bizarre conspiracy theories and every lie thrown out by the goons at Newsmax and their ilk.
    - You_Can_Keep_The_Change
      
      You’ve really got to stop believing everything you read in those pamphlets put out by A.C.O.R.N.

TomK in Boston

Well, anyway, as I’ve said before, we have an election between the classic centrist Rockefeller republican, President Obama, and the chameleon with “no core”, the Etchasketch, Willard M Romney. If the picture that emerges when the Etchasketch is redrawn resembles that of the liberal MA governor, BHO will be the righty in this race. I don’t expect it, but anyone who claims to know what will appear on the Etchasketch on any given day is a better prophet than I am.

I’m afraid Etcha would put the tax rates of his fellow super rich even below their current record lows, which would be a disaster for the middle class and would cement our developing oligarchy. But hey, why not? Even Etcha can use a few more $millions.

The right love the “sophomoric” rand book, “atlas shrugged”. I’m not atlas or super rich, but I’m quite well off and I get tired of asking that my taxes be raised so we can take back the good old USA, while those who most need it demand tax cuts. Maybe I’ll just shrug, go off and count my money. Personally I find it offensive that a Leveraged Buyout financial con man has the gall to run for president while we sit in a Depression caused by financial con men.

bellavida

How people can support Etcha….and yet pounce on Obama for Obamacare, is beyond comprehension to me. I have decent health insurance coverage through my employer, I make a decent income and I still see the need for everyone to have access to healthcare. Obviously Mitt also agreed with this once upon a time. Oh yes, now his tune is that it’s to be mandated by the individual state and not the federal government. He is quite the chameleon, that one.
brettearle

Bain is fair game.

Venture Capitalism is one thing.

Private Equity firms are another thing, altogether.

For Romney to say that he’s not going to apologize for being successful, is, to some degree, a disgrace.

The way he amassed a part of his fortune is by NOT taking financial risk.

That is NOT the American Way of capitalism.

He should be thrown out of office, before he even gets there–if he beats Obama.

He is the epitome of practical, financial, and economic hypocrisy.
- You_Can_Keep_The_Change
  
  Obama said he won’t be returning his donations from Bain Capital
  
  http://politicker.com/2012/05/president-obama-wont-be-returning-his-donations-from-bain-capital/

Ksmidstra

I think there is a lot about the very very positive things the president Obama has both done and tried to do that are missed by both the popular media and even NPR: it’s called the truth.

Google Obama truth team and learn it. Talk about it. Mitt Romney lies blatantly and no one calls him on it.

And about getting things done – that is on the bipolar congress. Obama has been on it since day 1. If people can’t see it, they are not paying attention to the truth.

http://profile.yahoo.com/PQOCSU3NJ5J6SSQBEM5YBFCPZY Jason__A

You are so correct.
Hidan

Like,

- expanding the Drone Program(Killing even more civilians, on top they don’t have to even identify who they kill)
-Record # of Precutions of leakers(of course not the ones that leak stuff that helps the president or the WH POV)
-Kinetic Libyan actions(supported TNC that ethnically cleanse an african town and raped,abused,killed and tortured libyan of african origin)
-Sign National Defense Authorization Act(pesky due process)
-Expanding spying on U.S. citizens( new Utah Data Center)
-Waited 3 years to staff the “sic”
Privacy Board Delayed
-Sold Arms to Saudi Arabia after it Banned Protest with the Theat of Death
-Recently sold Arms to Bahrain after Human Rights reports came out saying it tortured it citizens(as brutal if not worst than what’s going on in Syria now)
-Look the other way on the coup in Honduras
-Expanded the Executive Branch Power.
-Enshrined To Big to Fail into Law
-Hired a crapload of Lobbying Esp from Goldman Sachs.
-Won an award for being transparent while not being

And than there’s this ,

“President Obama
finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open
government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the
White House on Monday.”

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0311/not_a_secret_anymore_a00ccd98-0d9e-4822-8936-168f3a51b959.html
- http://twitter.com/kuroikittee Kittee
  
  Clearly, either your trying to be humorous, or you have no understanding of the word “positive”…
  
  I doubt that any reasonable sane person believes Obama is perfect. I believe we can also agree that there are things he should do differently. However, even having said that, I believe that he is the best candidate for president.
  - Robespiere
    
    why? Isn’t the above violations on human rights enough? You are not voting in a man–you are voting in a party–a party which is in bed with fascists–just as is the republicans. Either way–you vote fascists–and more of the same–no change–ever!
    
    Vote third-party–
    
    its time everyone start showing the power of the vote–if you truly believe democracy still exists–i do not–then vote third party and make change–be change–stop playing the game of fascists–you know Stalin said–it doesn’t matter who they vote for–they always vote for us–
    
    Rpubs and dems are the same–they are owned by corporate-aristocracy–fascists!
    
    Its time to vote green.
    
    its time to unseat fascists and be change.
    its time to end the wars and hyper-capitalism.
    its time to make amends with iran and korea and all we have raped and killed.
    
    its time to forgive debt.
    
    its time to usher in a new era of green earth technology and reverence of earth–that which sustains us.
    
    Obama is Romney!
    
    dont you people get it? wake up.

Mid-twenties liberal person

I decided to sit out the 2008 presidential campaign because I thought Obama was too conservative, disagreed with his policies and predicted many of his missteps. However, I am seriously considering voting for him this time and may even try to convince many of my non-voting mid-twenty year old friends to do the same. I agree with the show’s guest that the campaign (as the Obama camp is framing it) is about forward or backward. While I do not think Obama is a progressive (I view him more as center-right) I do see a very clear interest in having him be the next president as opposed to Mitt Romney. In this sense my vote will be more against Romney then for the current president. I am also increasingly worried about what the supreme court will look like after another four years if Romney is elected.

Don_B1

For your future and that of your whole cohort, Obama’s reelection is a REQUIREMENT if you want a successful future and that will be true for even the 1% and the 0.01%. The mindlessness of the Republican Party, enthralled with its Tea Party wing, is totally against government helping the economy in any way although almost every new technology, many of them invented in the private sector (but because of knowledge developed by government basic research) has been brought to fruition by government funding, from the Internet (1980s to 1990s) to the transcontinental railways (1860s).

And the Republican subservience to the fossil fuel industry will make the climate you and your progeny will have to live in, if you can, unrecognizable by those living a “civilized” life today. The migrations from drought and flooded regions (look up how many fled the Dust Bowl Midwest in the 1930s, how many millions will leave parts of Bangladesh and China) will cause starvation and wars that will disrupt the world economy and bring economic catastrophe to billions of people. The acidification of the oceans and droughts throughout the breadbaskets of the world will mean starvation of billions and mass death in the billions. The only good thing is that the world will not reach a population much over 9 or 10 billion, but at costs that the result will not justify. That result deserves to be achieved but through different mechanisms.

The only humans prepared to live the type of future that failure to mitigate CO2 emissions will bring about will be the “lost tribes” of Borneo and the Amazon who have not had contact with modern civilization and are able to live entirely off the wild land that fortunately still exists, though even it is under great threat.

potter

Three good reasons to vote for Obama again-

1) Once in office he’ll be making moves for his “legacy”, not for votes or contributions to his future campaign war chest. Possibly he will make good on some promises, fight harder, be bolder in certain areas. There is always hope.

2) He has had 4 years experience and presumably his learning curve is not so steep. In other words, he has learned a few things.

3)He is not Romney. The fear that the now very political Supreme Court would be very unbalanced with a Romney appointment.

Dee

Obama is right to portray Romney as a relic of the past and�
failed Republican policies….That’s even something John Boeh-ner admitted at a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast follow-
ing 2008–his party drove the economy into the ditch..(some-
one should get out that quote ..)

In addition, Obama should have people and companies witness for him.He shouldn’t try to do this himself. In addition, he should highlight some of the problems people wrote to him �
about and say how he wants to help them and fight for them.

And that he wants greed drive corporations to be responsible and abide the clean water act, and air and soil added to this.

Finally, state his commitment to grow the economy and move�
it away from the slow down and free fall of 2008……Dee

Robespiere

Vote third-party–

its time everyone start showing the power of the vote–if you truly
believe democracy still exists–i do not–then vote third party and make
change–be change–stop playing the game of fascists–you know Stalin
said–it doesn’t matter who they vote for–they always vote for us–

Rpubs and dems are the same–they are owned by corporate-aristocracy–fascists!

Its time to vote green.

its time to unseat fascists and be change.

its time to end the wars and hyper-capitalism.

its time to make amends with iran and korea and all we have raped and killed.

its time to forgive debt.

its time to usher in a new era of green earth technology and reverence of earth–that which sustains us.

Obama is Romney!

dont you people get it? wake up.

Vast Conspirator

Who are the “fascists” you want to unseat? I’m guessing it’s anyone who disagrees with you.

Forgive debt? Hyper capitalism? I don’t think you’ve really thought out the consequences of what you’re advocating.

LP

I am happy to see Obama’s support escalating… early on I did not see the enthusiasm and Obama-fever that was there in ’08, maybe largely because of the excitement of electing the first African-American president the first time around. Now we supporters need to show yard signs and stickers and give donations and support the President “loud and proud!”

Elapab

Obama likes War! People must think before giving him vote.
http://ouropenmind.com

Guest

From Tom’s Reading List