“The GOP’s gridlock strategy was well thought out and has paid enormous dividends.”

The reason the GOP’s gridlock strategy worked so well is that Obama and Reid didn’t understand how to turn it against them.  Instead of cutting deals that watered down reform and waiting until they had enough votes for cloture, they should have forced the Republicans to conduct actual filibusters.  The TV coverage would have been great.  Imagine 24 to 48 to 72 hours of coverage of Republicans saying nothing of substance while tying up the entire Congress in order to oppose real health insurance reform that included a public option, or an extension of unemployment benefits, or meaningful financial reform (instead of the half-baked reform currently on the table). 

Despite having made large gains in the 1994 elections, Newt Gingrich’s decision to have the House Republicans shut down government resulted in the reelection of Bill Clinton in 1996.  Unfortunately, neither Obama nor Reid learned from that.

Can Americans really be this stupid? Yes they can! The idea of giving the Republicans control of anything, even a dog pound, after the chaos and destruction they’ve visited on everything from the economy to the environment to foreign policy belongs to the ‘He only hits me ‘cause he loves me’ school of thought. Ardee’s hard-breathing rhetoric is typical. It’s all about Obama and Obama’s a Bad Man. The theme song for voters like Ardee would be ‘Send in the Clowns’. And G. Anderson seems to think that electing the Republicans means that the voters don’t care what happens to the Democrats. Believe me GA it won’t happen to the Democrats- it will happen to you and every other voter and you won’t like it one bit. The idea that if the government you’ve elected doesn’t do exactly what you want, immediately, you replace them with psychopaths like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and the still undead Dick Cheney and walk away muttering ‘That’ll teach ‘em’ is absolute nonsense. If people stopped running their mouths and their blood pressure and informed themselves on what the Republicans really have planned for Americans and America they would never elect any of them- ever again. I know that’s not what Fox News says but Rupert Murdoch is in on the plan and lies for a living.

It’s too late.  We had a date, the voters and the Democrats.  For the junior prom, but they stood us up.  Then for a summer dance, and no-show again.  Then senior prom, and they came with another girl.

The supporters, those who campaigned for the Democrats last time, were pretty clear in what they wanted.  End the wars.  Indict and prosecute all the big boys from Wall Street, seize their assets, throw them in prison, and bust up their companies to stop them from doing this again.  Indict and prosecute bush-cheney for war crimes.  Create a national healthcare system which will allow Americans access to affordable healthcare on a non-profit basis.  Invest in jobs and education.

On each issue the Democrats have spit in our faces.  Okay.  Maybe we’re the dumb kids, but we catch on eventually.  Yes the Republicans are despicable, but I’m not going to bother voting for Democrats on that ground alone. 

This is what it is.  Let’s say some woman gets married, and her husband beats her, so she finally leaves him.  Then she gets married again, but her second husband is a drunk, and steals her paychecks and spends it on booze.  Should she stay with husband number 2 (the Democrats) because, after all, he doesn’t beat her?  Or should she leave the bum and maybe stay single for awhile, see if she can’t find someone who will treat her better?

Yes the Republicans are awful.  But the Democrats have broken our hearts, betrayed us.  They deserve to lose.

your Brother To The North—-I like your idea but you
know we Americans are an impatiet lot.  We want
change and we want it right now.  I don’t see change
coming through politics.  Our politicians and Supreme
Court(a joke) decided they were going to kick God
out of things and do it man’s way.  Well, take a look
around the world and see what doing it man’s way has
got us.  A big mess. I hate to be the one that say’s
the Emperor has no clothes on but I’ll go ahead and
do it.  What would this world be like if man decided
to quit playing God and let God do it?  Well, one
big change is people would start loving one another.
Kind of hard to blow someone’s head off if you love
them. Second big change would be to start thinking
about the needs of others instead of your own selfish
needs and WANTS. We have the resources to meet the
NEEDS of all people if we would just do it.  That
might mean giving up that trip to Vegas to give your
money to the parasites who live off others.  That
might mean giving up going to the movies which are
polluting your mind and behavior anyway.  I could
go on and on but you get the idea.  Without God in
our lives mankind is headed down the black hole of
nothingness.

It would seem we really do have just 2 factions of
the same right-wing (fascist) party, as Gore Vidal
has pointed out.  It appears that they are both
working for the same donors, pursuing the same
agenda, but each playing a role on stage for us. 
What we don’t have is representation, much less
promotion, of Labor, and it is only Labor that has
value. Yet time and again our very government has
used its goons to use violence and brutality to break
up strikes, the Democrats being only too happy to
send in the National Guard.  Not that the Republicans
wouldn’t use them, that’s a given.  The only
difference being how long they wait before sending in
the troops.
Our State escalates violence and promotes unfounded
fears.  Machiavelli would be proud of our tin-pot
leaders.
There must be a more effective way to dissent besides
petition and protest, especially since they are as
ineffective as voting, and all the more counter-
productive as our stock market futures are stacked
upon the success of the very corporations that are
keeping wages down, exporting jobs, blaming the poor
in their press, and destroying our world with our own
money.  It is our fault for letting them get away
with it, and shame on us for trusting ANY politician
or Party to do what they say.  Every politician who
breaks a promise (which means practically all of
them) should be removed from office immediately.  No
grace period, no apologies accepted.

It is not ‘ideological’ to oppose the half-assed way this administration has gone
about its business and the sell out of the middle class that has resulted.

Sorry, try again.

Political Math:

If you count up all the Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen who are
owned by the financial industry, pharmaceutical industry, health insurance
industry and energy industry, you will get way over 50 in the Senate and over
220 in the House.

Obama and the Democrats Conclusion:

Therefore, Dont present a people first agenda. Roll over on health care, pretend
you made financial reform, cut Social Security benefits and keep tax breaks for
hedgefund managers and the wealthy (dividends and capital gains), fund a
mindless and wasteful war, etc.

Then, say ‘it’s the Republicans’ fault’.

Well, folks might believe it’s the Republican’s fault, if the Democrats could put
forward a vision for the future that put the middle class at the center of their
policies. BUT either they wont or cant.

Too bad. It’s the Dems who’ve lost ‘the vision thing’.

“The outcome of the 2010 elections thus depends in large part on whether they can find a solution to a set of simultaneous equations before November.”

The upcoming election isn’t a math problem, it’s an ideological problem. The public is extremely nervous about the huge mouthsful of the economy that the administration is wolfing down at the buffet table with no regard for the rest of the diners.

For me, reading ?all posts and all cullumns on DV is not at all different than reading-digesting NT, WP, LAT.
While 99.99% of americans see the king arrayed in best clothes ever i see only a naked king.

Unlike ellis, i assert that the FIRST CAUSE [or root cause] for all ills that befall us was the division of people into people and nonpeople.
Of course, the effects caused by FIRST CAUSE, also act as causes.

So, eating junk food and getting sick from it, appears as a trillionth x trillionth effect of one root cause.
Waging poverty and ignorance are also effects.

However, i assert, that only the removal of the FIRST CAUSE can remove all or most of the effects.

Working on any effect solely, is not gonna do it. 

Yes, THEY, the AWFUL THEM, wage [cause] poverty also, but on nonpeople.

To put the cause for poverty or ignorance on nature wld mean that nature is really evil.
I assert nature cares for all of us abudantly. But the greatest hell on Earth are some people.
And if we don’t remove such cancer, the cancer wld eat us forever!

So expect worsening in every aspect of living and more of it for nonpeople and nonpeoples! tnx

On his program at 10 a.m. Pat Robertson reported
that a high percentage of Americans believe President
Obama is leading this country to a Socialist state.
I would bet a dollar to a donut that over 90% of
people watching his program, The 700 Club, don’t
even know what a “socialist state” means.  Yet,
knowing the words carry a negative connotation, he
uses them.  Think he is trying to influence the vote
in November?  A few months ago when a memorial was
held in Beckley, West Virginia to the 29 miners killed in a mine explosion President Obama spoke at
the memorial asking the families and friends of the
miners to seek God for comfort.  President Obama also
mentioned Psalm 23 in his speech.  The next day I
watched Pat Robertson’s 700 Club to see what he would
say about Pres. Obama’s speech.  He said nothing. He
completely ignored the speech and the memorial to
the deceased miners.  You would think that Saint
Robertson would want his Christian audience to know
that their President mentioned God and quoted from
the Bible.  Not a word was spoken.  In case you don’t
know one of the ten commandments is “Do Not Use The
Name of God In Vain.”  That means don’t use or neglect the name of God for your own political agenda.  Someone should tell Saint Robertson.

Here’s a thought, instead of B.S., and manipulation, maybe the Democrats should do what elected them to do, instead of bowing and scraping to the plutocracy…

Otherwise no one will care what happens to them.

Americanism is not americanism applied. It being an ism, it cannot be ever understood. This is valid for every ism.
Isms are ab ideations and when confined to the level of thinkig, no harm may arise out of the theoretical knowledge-ideating.
This is what shld be free! In cuba also, but not with american threats and sanctions against it!

What we need to look at what is happening on living level.

When we look what catholics, islamists, talmudniks, asocialists do, we obtain knowledge.
We obtain knowledge only thru our five senses and which we spread by discriptions only and not by theory, conclusions, blame, condemnation, personalization, wishful thinking, etc.

Natch, every collumnist and nearly every poster avoids descriptions of events; preferring personalizing events, wishfulness, blame, lament, pet peeving-theorizing, and the like. tnx

my lack of passion is due entirely to the nonperformance of Obama - his failure to respond, lead and inspire on issues that matter most to American citizens. Instead, he has proven to be just another corporatist. That’s why I am sitting this one out. Makes no difference who I vote for.

So, most of us poor dumb voters are not “ideological”, a remark rather dismissive and perhaps echoing my experience with the Democratic Party leadership. Anyone who has experienced a community Democratic club understands fully how the State and National leadership ignores the local clubs until such time as they are needed to contribute money or time during election cycles.

Now I fully understand this penchant for treating its base as serfs, we are, after all, too dumb to understand decisions and we know little to nothing about policies and agendas.

What we poor dumb voters do understand is manipulative articles, loss of jobs while Industry receives most favorable treatment for exporting said jobs, losing ones home while the financial institutions responsible for about two million foreclosures gets carloads of money thrown at it.

Vote Green, its a good start.

If Obama had done even 1/4 of what he campaigned on there would be no political math problem and the author could write about summer in the Hamptons. Or why Levi apologized to the Palins.