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@Gerald, yes Bush did, most people refer to his cajones as Dick Cheney though.
Nels, I did not like Bush II because I viewed him as a stupid person and a mass murderer but he did have a pair of cajones.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/a-tale-of-two-sotus/
Sound's like Thom wants a Teddy Roosevelt. However Roosevelt was a fluke, he was made the Vice President to McKinley because the party leaders wanted him to go away and nothing like the Vice Presidency to take a politician out of the public eye. When McKinley was assassinated, well much to the consternation of the party bosses, Roosevelt became President. Somewhat similar to LBJ's rise to power, but of course the differences are numerous and stark. Point being, powerful, outspoken progressive politicians don't get to be president, it takes unforeseen circumstances for that to happen. Christ I hope we don't get any "unforeseen circumstance" with this President... perhaps a stroke or heart attack for a right leaning Supreme Court Judge wouldn't be so terrible for the country, but that would really be more an act for God.
My parents WERE partriotic Americans.
Quark, you are right; both parties are failed parties.
DDay, my parents never said to me that America can do no wrong. I said that they patriotic Americans. The good Catholic sisters preached how great America is. But, the good sisters never said to me that America can do no wrong.
DDay, I do not know if you have children. We have children and we have had them to think for themselves. We have never made our children clones of their parents. We are very proud of our sons because they can think for themselves. They are true Americans. True Americans are discerning Americans.
DDay, I am a member of the KMA club in retirement. I am not interested in being politically correct.
@Brad - 2 things about that poll ... you linked -
1) It's from September of 2008 - just after her selection by McCain - and it's about whether or not she's qualified to be the VICE-president, not the President.
2) The "No" votes outweigh the "Yes"es by 95% to 5%.
I don't think any further action on our part is necessary.
Lawrence O'Donnell for chief of staff.
@ Nels
I like and agree with your "rant". Few things are black and white and most of them are best left to childhood.
There is an article on Huffpost about despised Rahm Emmanual is by progressive.
Who would you like to replace him. Who is progressive and has the chops to push through good policy and get Congress to follow?
Someone like a Howard Dean with LBJ's powers of persuasion?
@Quark, I cant disagree with your assessment that both parties are failed parties. Of course it occurs to me that really in a lot of ways they are just two sides of the same coin. And its not so much that they have failed, so much as their handlers have succeeded. The Government is currently being held under in the bathtub.
Quark, Obama has $150 million from his campaign and so he really does need to work after one term. If I had $150 million, I might care as well.
I love Paul Wellstone and his quote. Hopefully, Minnesota and all our states can elect another Paul Wellstone.
The late U.S. Senator said, “Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives. It’s about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and in the world. Politics is about doing well for people.”
Great quote from Paul Wellstone!!!
Thom, you are too optimistic in speaking of Obama. He's a loser.
Gerald,
After reading your posts for near six months I am relatively certain that your intentions are good. I must however question the validity of your messages. You are taught by your parents that America can do no wrong...you find out that isn't true so you decide all America is evil? Now you tell us that your older sons voted for McCain because the Republicans did such a bad job that they should clean it up? This is further proof that the apple indeed does not fall far from the tree. If you want to help things, I suggest that you join the Republican party. They could use some people with good intentions, and it would be beneficial to all if your decision making abilities were adopted by the GOP. You could become kind of a Trojan Horse for us. A poison pill! Consider it. :-)
Nels and Gerald,
BOTH parties are failed parties. That's what the Tea Parties and Perot, before them, were about.
Out of 300 million Americans, the best guy Obama can think of is Ben Bernancke?
He is so important that a filibuster will be disallowed ... more important than health care reform?
Obama is handing Congress back to the Republicans, because Independents hate Bernancke
@Gerald, I understand your disgust. However, who would they put in his place (and I do mean they, because we have little if any decision in it). It matters little who is allowed to lead because the position seems to be titular to me. Personally I'm hoping that this trial of fire will toughen Obama up and he'll snap out of it. But from all I know of his life he's an overachiever, a straight A kind of student, you don't get straight A's by rocking the boat.
Yeah, I'd like to see Howard Dean as President, but our choices will always be restricted to a centrist Democrat or a Right to the Right Side Republican, so long as the people get spoon fed CNN, Fox, MSNBC .... well all the Corporate channels, with precious few if any independent channels (Free Speech TV). I think if Obama were to bail now, it would absolutely kill the progressive movement because it would be incessantly blared on all the channels "that the progressive movement was so wrong headed even their precious leader quit." You have to keep in mind that the majority of Americans are watching American Idol, or Real World. They don't care about the ideology of either political party they just want to go with the one that makes them "feel good". Bush made them feel good, Palin makes them "feel good"; Obama makes a lot of them feel numb and dumb, so they don't want him. Obama really needs to get back the spark he had during his campaign, and a major part of that is shedding the personnel he took on when he took the White House.
We'll now I'm just ranting, so I'll stop here.
In light of the recent SCOTUS decision...
Create an independent campaign watchdog organization whose sole purpose is to evaluate the facts presented in ANY campaign material pushed to the American public... be it by TV, radio, internet, mailbox etc. Source citations would be required.
If the content is found to be factual, a copyrighted seal would be issued - regardless of the opinions expressed in the ad. Visual and audio versions of the seal would be needed. The material would be posted on their web site as a function of locality and topic.
If the copyright is misused, those responsible for the ad (original requestor and any group down chain) would be subject to a fine of 10% of their net worth). The fine would go to a public campaign financing fund.
The evaluation would have to be objective and timely.
A media blitz would educate voters to look for the seal or to distrust the content of the material being pushed at them.
Thom just used the term ConservaDems. Having personally preferred DINOcons for years, perhaps a new term is needed to express both what they are and what we should do to the false Dems and the Fraidycrats who enable the Cons:
ConDems
@Nels,
Nels January 26th, 2010, 9:40 am
"You give someone enough slack and more often than not they hang themselves. :-<"
I've always heard that, but I don't see it. For every Bernie Madoff that got popped, there are hundreds, like Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, Cheney, Gonzales, et al who got away scott free.
"How depressing that Obama went to Clinton for his history lessons instead of FDR.":
As I understand it, he went to FDR, who wasn't very responsive.
"Remember, time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
-Townes Van Zandt
Nels, good thought! The Democrats are a failed party. I am not a fan of the late Robert Novak but he had it right by saying the Democrats are the stupid party. They cannot break the cycle of their stupidity.
s.b. "lobotomizing"
Gerald,
Not only is Obama no leader, he doesn't seem to have a "core". He doesn't seem to really CARE about anything. (Maybe he is taking a lobotmizing antidepressant.)
Paul Wellstone could get excited and get a crowd excited, too. Are ALL the Paul Wellstones dead?
I wrote the DNC back in April and I said that Obama is a failed president. I have known for at least ten months that Obama is useless.
Nels, our two older sons voted for McCain. They voted for him because the Republicans got us into this mess and let's see how they get us out of this mess.
Obama is unraveling as president because he is not a leader because he is not a leader and he is too inexperienced. Obama makes me throw up.