Seems the rose colored glasses are coming off for Mr. Obama aren't they...

"The slickness of campaigning that comes from a combination of heavy funding and public relations expertise does not inevitably translate into an ability to govern."

Let us be more direct: slick campaigning and public relations expertise have nothing to do with an ability to govern. In fact, they probably detract from the ability to govern, because the candidates are selected for the wrong abilities.

The President is head of the executive branch. He ought to be an executive - a manager - because he is in fact managing a huge organization. The entire government would benefit immensely from this attitude.

As a very small example: imagine if the government followed the same GAAP standards that apply to business. No more double-counting social security surpluses to make the deficit look smaller. No more hiding earmarks in unrelated bills.

Imagine asking departments to justify their cost effectiveness. The Department of Education was created in 1979 and now has an annual budget of $70 billion per year. What improvements have been made in education, and what return on investment do they represent? What, educational standards have sunk in the last 30 years? No sense throwing good money after bad...

It was only a matter of time. I hate to say it, but... told ya.

Flynne: That's FUN, isn't it?

Not fun enough to make it worthwhile, but....

"What improvements have been made in education,"

Detroit. Rhode Island. Kansas City. Chicago. Take your pick in California. All have bankrupt school systems and pass illiterate students while collecting at least ten grand a head per year.

The problem is not that he can't walk on water, it's that he doesn't do too well on land either.

I think the message that really needs to get out is: No politician, of any ideology, is your personal savior. Do not stake your identity or your sense of your morality on a politician. A politician is human and does not deserve (in either the positive or the negative sense of the word) to have that put on them.

I'm not sure which is worse, Obama's continuation of the war or Bush's alcoholic incompetence that got us into it in the first place.

To his credit, Obama's on the job. Bush spent nearly 500 days lounging at Camp David and nearly 500 days lounging at Crawford (that's 77 trips to Crawford, folks, at over $200,000 a pop, look up the operational costs of Air Force One if you doubt it).

In any case, I think it's hilarious that the Republican plan for the wars are now being dissed by Republicans since they've been taken over by the black Democratic President, and the disastrous Republican economy is only now recognized as a disaster since their boy isn't the one madly shoveling cash into the furnace.

And to my everlasting credit, I didn't vote for either of these shmoes. Shame on you who did.

"on the job"?

the disastrous Republican economy

I'm gonna need some facts to back that one up. Because everything I've seen so far puts this squarely in the laps of the Democrats and their fellow travelers.

Shame, I say. Shame.

Never cluck.

Ok, fine, no clucking. But I can get you a deal on the spirits of two dead people, captured in glass vials and washed in holy water.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_fe_st/as_odd_ghost_auction;_ylt=AhP8fuGQMiV.119Vj.QVJ_HtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJsMmRmMGtoBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzA5L2FzX29kZF9naG9zdF9hdWN0aW9uBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNuZXd6ZWFsYW5kd28-

Was he clucking at me? He repeats the media lies and expects me to not call him on it?

Was it Bush who had the FDIC pushing banks to make risky loans? Did Bush represent pressure groups suing banks to get them to make high-risk loans? Was Bush protecting Fannie and Freddie and using them as a vehicle to drive his political agenda?

The answers are: Dodd, Obama, Frank. Democrats all.

"He repeats the media lies"

The Fox mainstream #1 cable news media lies or just the media lies that you don't like?

How dare he. How dare he! Please, tell us more... wait, hang on a sec, the Party of Moral Superiority just had another closeted anti-gay-rights politician come out of the closet -- breaking news from the lying news media, no doubt:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/03/a-republican-state-senator-from-bakersfield-came-out-of-the-closet-in-a-radio-interview-monday-morning-in-the-wake-of-a-repor.html

Seems we just found some extra incentive to pass Healthcare Reform. It seems a certain obese, drug-addicted loser has vowed to leave the country if healthcare passes!

So long, Rushbo. Don't let it hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

Gog - Try controlling your ADD for a moment. What does one random cocksucker in California have to do with (as you put it) the disastrous Republican economy.

Oh yeah, nothing. The fact remains that you are trying to make someone else responsible for an economic implosion that they had no hand in crafting. I know you want to blubber on about "but he started two wars". Small potatoes compared to the malfeasance of Barney Frank in propping up Fannie and Freddie while the various CEOs of those two organizations committed rank fraud and walked away.

@Patrick - I won't be far behind him. There's no point in staying here if my taxes are going to go up any further. I have no desire to work 15% more just to break even.

If Obamacare passes as is, this country will be in default within a decade, probably much sooner.

Think of what that's going to do to the world economy. Then look back at history and note what the world tends to do in such circumstances.

I'll be looking for an out of the way country that nobody cares to invade.

When you have a spare moment from wiping spittle, do note that Congress, not the President, has 100% of the Constitutional spending authority.

One Hundred Percent.

So the most you could justify is that the executive doesn't show people the truth about the powers and responsibilities of governmental offices.

Chances are, you're blaming the wrong person(s), even if you think that if the guy you voted for does something, it's automatically OK even if you called the previous guy a criminal for doing that.

You shouldn't count on somebody in office to explain things to you. They don't have that as a priority.

Rad - that's as may be, but the president has the veto pen. And when the Congress is following his agenda, it doesn't matter what the people think.

Congress is gonna shove this abomination straight up our collective asses.

Help is on the way! Michael Moore is volunteering to replace Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief-of-Staff for only a dollar a day and a cot in the basement.

He promises to have Obama doing calisthenics by 5 every morning and decapitating Republicans by dinner-time every evening.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/president-obama-replace-rahm-me-open-letter-michael-moore

That's what politics needs in this country, a fat-ass blowhard making asinine statements.

"what does one random cocksucker in California have to do with"

As opposed to the well-planned type? Geez Brian, have your girlfriend write your answers for you next time. You're, like, all uptight and stuff.

Gog, you throw out a non sequitur about some state republican having homosexual affairs in the middle of a conversation about who's responsible for the present economic malaise.

I mean, what the fuck? "Oh, look over there - it's another gay Republican". How the holy fuck is that germane to a discussion about the banking system?

Yes that's right, I'm throwing non sequiturs into an absurd discussion based on the hyperbolic assertion that anyone who supports Obama's policy also believe that he's Jesus Christ.

If we're going to be ridiculous and absurd in our hyperbole let's just go all the way.

"Yes that's right, I'm throwing non sequiturs into an absurd discussion based on the hyperbolic assertion that anyone who supports Obama's policy also believe that he's Jesus Christ."

While the Christian world awaits the return of Christ to bring about Utopia apparently Obama and his supporters where only waiting for themselves.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for" -Obama, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=molWTfv8TYw