..and I stand by my words there, regardless of how many times they are repeated.

Entropy acted childish and almost hurt himself avoiding the libertarian label. When I made the mildest of suggestions that he was being labeled such by his own words, he flew off the handle.

The Ill Wind is fast and firmly gaining the reputation as a childish little fool, sans the intellect to debate properly. Posting my responses to rudeness is just stupid, as is this poster. Need I search the forum for the endless insults this jackwagon has hurled at so many over the last two years plus I have been here?

My very first effort here was to ask this fart in a windstorm why he was being so rude. Keep casting stones moron, I am confident that the adults here understand both your uselessness and irrelevance.

If they know this is a bad time to cut spending and all the other stuff the article mentioned why the Hell did Obama caved in to the Republicans during the debt crisis - please don’t say he was being the adult in the room - he has yet to do anything without caving - and in the debt debacle there were such good other options? I simply can no longer believe that Obama is willing to do what needs to be done to win. Which, considering the Republican candidates is terrifying.

@Inherit The Wind—Thanks! It’s so hard not to keep responding to this asshat, especially when he baldface lies! I come here to discuss and debate, not always convincing someone, but hopefully giving and taking. I don’t mind reasoned disagreements, but brainless attacks, lies and rhetorical BS—:P

Yet again the Resident Dickhead shows that he heaps abuse of the most feculant sort on anyone who dares question his “wisdom” gained in the services of “St. Ralph”

ardee, August 31 at 4:57 pm Link to this comment

No indeed, I directly addressed your point, but apparently mistook you for someone willing to debate. Go and commit an anatomically impossible task upon yourself for all I care.

He lies about addressing a point, expecting you to confuse his insults, obfuscations and opinions for facts.

He’s also attacked Shenonymous and Leefeller this way as well as his little vendetta against yours truly.

I am continually amazed and saddened at the ability of otherwise moderately intelligent people like the R.D. to fool themselves so badly that they inevitably lash out savagely at anyone who challenges their bizarre fantasies.

Yeah, ardee, I must admit that I too paused on this
line:

“The recent dip in Obama’s approval ratings appears
to reflect dissatisfaction with his handling of the
economy—and points to a potential vulnerability that
his Republican opponent will seek to exploit.”

Robinson’s lawyerly use of the term “recent” is like a hangnail with a backrub. 

President Obama has been annoyingly predictable with
foreign and economic policy.

He can’t spend money at home because it’s wrapped up
in the wars. 

He can’t stop the wars because too much of the
economy is wrapped up in the war. 

He can’t stop the wars because he hasn’t been able to
substantively change our energy policy, which depends
on the oil for juice and the wars for protection.

He can’t stop the wars because if he did and we got
hit by a major terrorist attack shortly thereafter
his political balls would be dangling
from that big fence around The White House—and the
Democrats would be banished from the place for a few
decades. Never mind the incompetence of George W.
Bush and what happened during the first nine months
of his White House vacation.

Like I’ve said or implied in a lot of posts, if a third party
candidate runs with a plank in his or her platform of breaking
up the network television news corporations—
that candidate will get my vote.

No progressive candidate will ever be effective
until we break the war propaganda machine
the distraction machine
the disinformation machine
the Repub-li-crat point-of-view machine
the public pillory machine
known as network television news.

It’s a diabolical beast.

And just to be clear on something…

Lafayette: “And it’s me who is shilling for the Replicants?”

No, it’s you who’s shilling for Democrats who are actually Replicants. See, that’s how Replicants work, Laffy, they look like something they really aren’t. Maybe someday you’ll get a handle on all that, but I won’t hold my breath.

Lafayette,

Your “riposte” is laughable, and, of course, exactly what was expected. Moreover, I did vote at the midterm and will continue to vote, as I’ve already stated in previous post. I see you can’t be bothered to read what it is people actually write before you cobble together some feeble excuse for an insult.

“Betrayal of what?” If you’re asking this question in all sincerity then it is you, not me, who is woefully ignorant. But I know you’re not being sincere, Lafayette. You’re just intellectually dishonest and morally stunted, like your beloved Fop-in-Chief.

RD: The great majority of those detained were not captured on battlefields but were turned in for monetary gain, to settle old feuds or other spurious reasoning.

Right, they were in Afghanistan with flowers in their hair to attend a Peace Day gathering put on by Paul McCartney.

Look at the Detainees List of Prisoners and where they came from.

“Old feuds”, me arse.

IN DENIAL

PM: The Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for the Midterms. The wages of failure AND of a perception of betrayal.

Betrayal of what? I never saw Obama’s T-shirt that said, “And I walk on water too!” Did you?

You are ignorant ... of the fact that he was handed the worst recession in 80 years - and, of course, you expected Abracadabra Economic Policy to pull us out of the Deep Doodoo.

You are also in denial, like so many others who victimize themselves. Looking for a scapegoat, are you? Peek into the mirror. 

A minority of the American voters (48%, to be exact) voted the Crazies into power because people like YOU decided to stay away. So, the American People got what they deserved.

MY POINT

And with your nattering negativism, you are aiding and abetting the Republican candidate for the Oval Office.

And it’s me who is shilling for the Replicants?

POST SCRIPTUM

Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery. Thank you.

@ardee—again, you fail to directly address the ideas I mentioned, choosing, instead, to play identity games. What, exactly, about the specific ideas I advanced do you disagree with?

The problem with your position, in my opinion, is that it is unique to you

I mentioned Mondragon Corporation as a model for a possible route to more social and economic justice. It is the 7th largest company in Spain…my positions are anything but “unique” to me.

In any case, you appear to be a simple-minded attack troll with nothing original to say. Like many others on this board, I guess I’ll just ignore you. You and Laffy can enjoy your own circle jerks. Last response to you…seeya.

Dear entropy,
less sighing more thoughtfulness.

I referred to libertarians because your own political statements are so very close to their own, obvious that. Allow me to repost the final sentence of my response to you:

The problem with your position, in my opinion, is that it is unique to you and, I fear, puts you in league with forces that take it much further than you appear to desire.

BLATHERING BUFFOON OF BLOVIATION

“Get used to it - given the nutters polluting the blogosphere with their nonsense, we are likely to remain in it for some time to come.”

Agreed. Blindly loyal idiots who apparently lack critical discernment of any sort—on the Right and the Left—are what got us here. You’re as guilty of this as the Tea Partiers you often whinge about. And your solution: Keep voting for more of the same.

INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY IN ACTION

“No wonder the Tea Party elected its Crazies into the HofR with this sort of bathos occurring in the political debate. We shot Obama in the foot at the midterms and now we blame him for the present political atrophy in LaLaLand on the Potomac?”

Wrong, as usual. The Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for the Midterms. The wages of failure AND of a perception of betrayal. Of course, dingbats like you will continue to deny the obvious, “blaming the victim” so to speak. But that’s what shills always do, isn’t it?

“Useless rhetoric to cloud the real debate of what needs to be done to get our country back on track.”

Your sad little list is Exhibit A. Misdirection and spin packaged as “progress”.

WHAT WORLD DO YOU LIVE IN?

“If this is all we can accomplish for political exchange at a crucial point in history, then we deserve the Deep Doodoo in which we find ourselves presently.”

You’re right again. If all we can do is continue to cling to corporate mediocrities, projecting upon them some un-reality that they are actually working on our behalf, then we are lost. You fail, as usual, to respond to any of the legitimate issues raised by posters like Ardee and myself, instead flying off on another of your fancies of misdirection. And I’ve already addressed the reason I continue to vote, despite the betrayals and hopelessness of true reform. But don’t worry about addressing any real issues, Lafayette, I know you can’t.

Eagerly awaiting your next round of delusional shilling and bleating bloviation-in-a-blog. We, the sheeple, indeed.

@ardee

*sigh*—I thought we were talking about possible solutions for problems that our society faces. Instead of addressing several ideas that I offered, you fixate on the label “libertarian” (which I actually do not apply to myself). It’s exactly this myopic “us vs. them” attitude that poisons the problem solving process.

entropy2, August 30 at 6:19 pm

Fight? What fight? I am asking only for a clarification of your position. I do know that Libertarian politics does not support any entitlements for our citizens,none at all. It certainly frees corporations to commit all the selfish, destructive and greedy acts they wish.

The problem with your position, in my opinion, is that it is unique to you and, I fear, puts you in league with forces that take it much further than you appear to desire.

Oh dear Lafayette you have exposed far, far too much:

So what? Since when your precious concern for justice done to people who were combatants?

Lie, blatant lie. The great majority of those detained were not captured on battlefields but were turned in for monetary gain, to settle old feuds or other spurious reasoning. This is about as right wing an argument as one might find from a supposed democrat. This also strengthens my position that voting for and with democrats is counter productive.

Let’s fix the immoral injustice of Income Inequality in America before we go ballistic over Gitmo. Most of them have never been so well fed in all their pathetic lives.

What a stupid comment, what else can be said? All injustice is of equal importance, Gitmo is a violation of human rights and worthy of the attention of all people with an actual conscience. I guess you were absent when those were handed out.

Would you like to have one as neighbor? We can’t even give them away, nobody wants them.

Politeness keeps me from telling you exactly what I think of this crap you spew…..oops.

Only in Washington is the subject of job’s about reelection; everywhere else, it’s about survival.  People are important, not the electability of a president.  No amount of propaganda from the chattering class will change that.  I’m growing weary of reading the same thing over and over from the same tired retreads.  Find some new voices who are in touch with the people.

THE LOTUS EATERS

MG: It is interesting to see the country slowly self-immolate. In a traffic pile-up kind of way.

Ah ha, finally! Someone with a sense of candor ... instead of the usual Tired Pathos evoked here.

The traffic pile-up is generational, I suspect. We have bred a Lotus Eater Generation  that is accustomed to an Easy-Come Lifestyle. They are consequently numbed and lost in the reality of a pernicious recession that should not have been.

I suspect, furthermore, that most of America is unaware of the fundamental Economic Paradigm Shift that has occurred, that is, from the Industrial to the Information Age during a period of extensive economic globalization. Which is somewhat akin to the disappearance of the Roman Empire that brought about a disruption in political circumstances in Europe. (It also provoked the debut of the Dark Ages in the 5th century.)

Which is shameful. As a nation, given our educational achievement, we should know better.

POST SCRIPTUM

George Santayana:

Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION

RD: As I read I remembered all those lawyers attempting to gain access to Guantanamo detainees and were absolutely shocked that the Obama Justice Dept echoed that of Bushs’. Then I recalled all the comments that noted that the Obama administration is actually MORE secretive that was the Bush reign

So what? Since when your precious concern for justice done to people who were combatants?

Let’s fix the immoral injustice of Income Inequality in America before we go ballistic over Gitmo. Most of them have never been so well fed in all their pathetic lives.

Would you like to have one as neighbor? We can’t even give them away, nobody wants them.

If I had the stomach for it I would bet that research would disclose the emptiness of most of the items therein.

Right, bet. Because that is about all you can do with baseless suppositions.

You’re just one of the Angry Mass who set their hopes too high in a country ridden with nostalgia for the “good ole days” but with a political naiveness that is unreal.

Americans were so indifferent to midterm elections that they could stay away in droves ... but, Wow!, here they are now all over the blogs with righteous indignation. Explain that mysterious metamorphosis, please.

MY POINT

That is NOT how a democracy works. In fact, it’s a prime example of democratic dysfunction.

NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVISM

PM: Returning to form, eh? Your list of “accomplishments” is dull and misleading and is more than offset by the failures and betrayals of the Obama admin, beginning certainly with the appointment of financial sector toadies Geithner and Summers. Listing as an accomplishment the “reform” of the financial sector is a hollow joke when you know full well that absolutely nothing on Wall Street has changed.

Blah, blah, blah, blah. Is this all you have in your quiver?

Useless rhetoric to cloud the real debate of what needs to be done to get our country back on track.

I’ve pitched suggestions numerous times and all I get in return is the same tedious rhetoric. Obama this an Obama that. Obama should have done this and Obama should have done that.

No wonder the Tea Party elected its Crazies into the HofR with this sort of bathos occurring in the political debate. We shot Obama in the foot at the midterms and now we blame him for the present political atrophy in LaLaLand on the Potomac?

What planet do you live on?

If this is all we can accomplish for political exchange at a crucial point in history, then we deserve the Deep Doodoo in which we find ourselves presently.

Get used to it - given the nutters polluting the blogosphere with their nonsense, we are likely to remain in it for some time to come.

@ardee—well…by ending corporate welfare, more resources would be available to help those truly in need. By deregulating micro-business, there would be fewer needy that would require assistance AND stronger communities that would trade their unhealthy dependence on corporate daddy and government mommy for local interdependence. If workers had the choice of working for themselves (or forming co-ops, associations, etc.), wages would naturally go up even for those who chose to work for others.

Seriously…I don’t want to fight and I don’t claim to have every answer.  I just think that we need to look beyond a centralized, “one size fits all” approach to every issue. (And, personally, I think it would be loads of fun to shove the term “free market” squarely up the a** of the plutocracy.)

btw—this isn’t “pie in the sky” utopianism. Google “Mondragon Corporation.”

entropy2, August 30 at 4:34 pm

..and your thoughts on welfare for the poor, free school lunches for the hungry kids, health care for those without?

Lafayette

I admit that I couldn’t get through that list. As I read I remembered all those lawyers attempting to gain access to Guantanamo detainees and were absolutely shocked that the Obama Justice Dept echoed that of Bushs’. Then I recalled all the comments that noted that the Obama administration is actually MORE secretive that was the Bush reign.

If I had the stomach for it I would bet that research would disclose the emptiness of most of the items therein. But all I need to do is read the headlines ( actually I listen to NPR for my news, with some Pacifica radio thrown in for spice).

If even a small number of those utopian and sketchy “accomplishments” were actually a reality we would not be in the descending spiral towards third world status we now find ourselves.

@mrfreeze—thank you

I just think that there are a lot of skills, resources, creativity and energy (the last, albeit, perhaps borne of desperation) out here among the working class. We don’t need redistribution of wealth...we need redistribution of power and opportunity.

That takes trusting us proles…something the liberal establishment has a hard time doing.

Freeze,

The ideas are there. Have been for ages. Folks like Stiglitz and Krugman and Reich have been talking about them for ages. Hell, if we lived in a democracy you might even get a chance to see them put into practice.

entropy2 - Thanks for your comment. Interesting ideas. I’m sick and tired of hearing everyone complain. I’d like to hear more ideas on how to solve our problems.

@mrfreeze

“What ideas do you all have to create the demand that will ignite significant job creation?”

End welfare and deregulate business.

Hold the brickbats and stay with me for a minute.

End welfare FROM THE TOP DOWN.—- No more giveaways to big business. Subsidies, taxes, free (taxpayer-funded) infrastructure, artificial monopolies…everything needs to be laid out on the table.

Deregulate business FROM THE BOTTOM UP.—- Ease up on zoning, code and licensing for micro-businesses. Many government regulations were *intended* (I’m being charitable) ostensibly to protect consumers from big business. Instead, they have been hijacked by big business to cartelize industry and commerce into the hands of the few.

The result would be that big business would have to compete BOTH for customers AND for workers.

Eugene’s just a corporate clown who writes what he gets paid to write and blab on MSNBC. Obama in his book made it clear he’s a Friedman disciple, he’s not going to be FDR because FDR is too radical for him. He’s praised Reagan more than FDR. Just go collect your check and keep writing your b.s. Eugene, I honestly don’t know who reads it and takes it to heart.

1 observation and 1 sincere question:

Observation: Job creation has been presented as something that happens when “job creators” (what a bullshit, worthelss term) feel “confident” about the marketplace and they hire new people…I’ve heard some of the brigher folk out there point out that job creation is a result of “demand” and that, simply put, our economic system has come to the end of it’s ability to create demand. The other sad fact is that Americans are discovering that their personal credit card limit has been reached and their wealth has dwindled…..this doesn’t help demand.

So now for the question:

What ideas do you all have to create the demand that will ignite significant job creation? I’m sincerely interested in hearing what some of you have to say.

Methinks I smell more tax holiday’s and de-regulation coming down the pike. Wow, never get tired of those ideas.

Barry’s re-election strategy seems to be “vote for me, I am the most reasonable conservative candidate (that isn’t a mormon)”

Where are we going, and why am I in this handbag?

More political   masturbation   from Eugene   Robinson.

Eugene,  you’re one of the   “Trolls” Chris Hedges was referring to in his   article.

However unfortunate it might seem to some, it should come as no surprise that the US is in decline. It seems the fate of all empires to overextend themselves militarily, bloat themselves with bureaucracy and corruption, and be subverted from within and without by emergent foreign powers. The historical precedent is fairly obvious, and “end of history” narratives only obfuscate this essential truth. What problematizes the decline of the imperial United States is the amount of economic and environmental damage it might do on its way out. Will the decline of this empire be catatrosphic, in the fashion of Rome, or will it manage a more quiet and orderly reinvention of itself on a smaller scale, like England in the last century? It seems to me that this might be the most important reason to continue to participate in the charade of “democracy”. Obama, corruption aside, may at least possess the intellect and good sense to steer the country away from pyrrhic self-immolation, instead bleeding the empire out slowly over time. Perhaps if the country is fortunate enough to have several “steward” type corporatist presidents in the White House it might eventually be reduced enough in power to be safely controlled/handled by more rational world players. It’s a small hope, but possibly better than the specter of yet more “blood & treasure” adventurism in a doomed effort to claw back to the top of the pile.

Oh come on now Laffy… your saying that President Obama shouldn’t have to do his job because it’s just too hard….

Boo hoo, Boo Hoo…

Isn’t that what he promised, to come up with real solutions? Isn’t it..

and you want bloggers to come up with his answers for him…

quite frankly I don’t think that’s the issue..

Maybe if OJama hadn’t been so busy, hiring the corporate elite to fill his adminstation, he wouldn’t have a problem coming up with some answers….

Lafayette,

Returning to form, eh? Your list of “accomplishments” is dull and misleading and is more than offset by the failures and betrayals of the Obama admin, beginning certainly with the appointment of financial sector toadies Geithner and Summers. Listing as an accomplishment the “reform” of the financial sector is a hollow joke when you know full well that absolutely nothing on Wall Street has changed. Follow on the heels of this the miserly joke that was the stimulus package and the escalation of adventurism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and we begin to see a true image of the man at the reigns. This is not to mention the reauthorization (with a few new teeth added) of the Patriot Act, the teeth-gnashing rage over Wikileak’s disclosure of criminal action by the military (transparency, indeed), and the further devolution of democratic education under the auspices of Race to the Top “reforms”. Accomplishments? Laughable. Then there are the Obama sellouts of single payer and the Employee Free Choice Act. I’d suggest that you’re the one doing the navel gazing, Layfayette. That or you’re just intellectually dishonest—a quality that would certainly put you in the company of the PotUS.

FONT OF WISDOM

AlexNYC: After almost 3 years of being just another corporatist president, Obama is simply shifting to his campaign-mode persona by claiming that his main priority is job creation.

OK, Font of Wisdom, what would you have done if the you were gifted by the preceding administration the worst recession in 80 years and we, the sheeple, had elected the Tea Party Crazies in the HofR last year and stonewalled all propositions for renewal?

What would you do today, in Obama’s shoes, in the present circumstance knowing you’re up for reelection next year?

C’mon, let’s see what you’ve got for arrows in your quiver.

MY POINT

It’s easy to bitch-in-a-blog. Which is why everybody’s doing it. But when it comes to making concrete proposals - ooppps!, no hands up to make a proposition.

POST SCRIPTUM

Btw, here is what he actually accomplished whilst blowhards were absorbed with navel gazing.

Mr Robinson you have much more faith in the ability or willingness of Obama to make a 180 degree turn so far into his presidency. After almost 3 years of being just another corporatist president, Obama is simply shifting to his campaign-mode persona by claiming that his main priority is job creation. At least with George W Bush you knew what he stood for, with Obama there is nothing genuine about him. And should he happen to get re-elected, he’ll go right back to furthering the agenda for the richest 1%. PProgressives voted Obama because we believed, or wanted to believe, his hope and change rhetoric. Empty campaign promises are nothing new, but Obama’s sting hard because after years 8 years Bush, the nation needed a change desperately. Sadly we got more of the same instead.

Mr Robinson you have much more faith in the ability or willingness of Obama to make a 180 degree turn so far into his presidency. After almost 3 years of being just another corporatist president, Obama is simply shifting to his campaign-mode persona by claiming that his main priority is job creation. At least with George W Bush you knew what he stood for, with Obama there is nothing genuine about him. And should he happen to get re-elected, he’ll go right back to furthering the agenda for the richest 1%. PProgressives voted Obama because we believed, or wanted to believe, his hope and change rhetoric. Empty campaign promises are nothing new, but Obama’s sting hard because after years 8 years Bush, the nation needed a change desperately. Sandly we got more of the same instead.

REPUBLICAN AXIOM

ER: President Obama’s promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least.

ER is going to see that wish-come-true.

Given that there will be NO TAX INCREASES, unless the Crazies leave the HofR in droves, there will be no money for a Jobs Plan2. (We’ve already had JP1).

We’ll be lucky if we can get to keep the present level of spending, never mind any new money for Stimulus Spending.

Let’s remember the now famous Republican Axiom: A Minor Recession is when you are out of job, and a Major Recession is when I am out of a job. The Replicants in Congress all have jobs, so they think this is just a passing economic down-turn.

The Crazies will stonewall the SuperCommittee, just as they stonewalled Obama before the agreement was negotiated to set it up.

So, anyone who thinks a meaningful Jobs Plan is in the making is smoking pot.

The gridlock in LaLaLand on the Potomac; which we, the sheeple, brought about at the midterms will last until we, the sheeple, also put an end to it in November of 2012.

Next time, perhaps we’ll think twice before being overcome by a fit of pique and staying away from midterm polling booths? Nahhhhhhh ...

The US economy now resides offshore..And why in the world would anyone want to re elect this FOOL?!

Scroll down and read the excellent post by ‘madisolation’..

Ah, Eugene, you’re dreaming again. Face it—an FDR he ain’t, and will never be. He won’t even tout his own achievements, such as they are. His fellow Democrats seldom take his back on any issue, on top of being almost totally disfunctional on the national level. Stand up for something for god’s sake! The Republicans do, even if it’s reactionary, nonsensical, and probably evil. Obama might go through the motions, but in the end he’ll fold on jobs, rather than calling out the GOP as the neo-slaveholders they aspire to be. If I were he, I’d rail about the corrupt party that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ruling class till the cows come home. The media would start slavering over the fight and print every word. All the time we wasted believing him—it’s just sad. What we really need is an army of the unemployed down at the White House, next to the Tar Sands protesters.

Obama’s going to go big, all right—for the corporations. His idea of a “jobs plan” is signing trade deals that offshore jobs. He simply doesn’t care about U.S. workers, and if people think four more years of this country-destroying, short-term-thinking, greedy oaf are going to be better than the last four years, they’re either delusional or as rich as Eugene Robinson.
How does it feel, Eugene, to be a stenographer shilling for a corporate-friendly president, all the knowing that black unemployment is at 17.5% and 41% for black teen-agers? You two are nothing but a couple of jokes, both to the people of the country and to the wealthy. Lloyd Blankfein’s calling, Eugene: he wants you to kiss Obama’s ass, and he wants Obama to kiss his.

Bollocks, Eugene. An extension of the payroll tax break seasoned with the usual metaphorical canard about cars in ditches is about the best we can expect from the Fop-in-Chief. And you know it. After all, America is doing just swell in the only sector that matters.

Oh Eugene, hanging your hat on yet another promise from the king of unfulfilled promises. Will you never learn? Does the simple fact that Obama has surrounded himself with those whose roots are firmly imbedded in the very business philosophy and venality that has led us to an outsourced industry ( yes it began under Reagan but Obama must share the blame now), a crashing jobs forecast and about one and one half million foreclosures with another million or so impending and in the pipeline not register at all with you?

Do you honestly believe that the dissatisfaction with Obama is confined to economics? Granted, that is a large part of what concerns working and middle class families, but the issues of perpetual war, the allowance of criminality towards those who contribute a large enough campaign check, the constant and wretched capitulation to precisely those who work diligently for his failure and his refusal to honor his endless and endlessly forgotten promises certainly remain in the minds of many voters.

Even his staunchest supporters in ‘08 are disappearing, the youth and the African American community, who , according to reports on NPR, are very unhappy with his seeming refusal to help them at all.

Will he be re-elected? Probably, considering both the advantage an incumbent retains and the lack of quality ( perhaps even sanity) among those who are battling to oppose him in the coming election. Will his re-election bring any more hope to progressives? I doubt it very much.