For every vote someone gets by such touting, several votes will be lost, and rightly so (pun intended).

Just wait until Obama's administration is likely filled with Clinton and Carter retreads and other Democratic Washington fixtures. “Surprise,” again, “progressives” [sic]!

* * *

“McCain is turning into a tongue-tied equivocating political clubfoot”

He's preparing for the debates. [rolling eyes]

The United States population is just too conservative in general for that.

Some Obama supporters are concerned that by saying “NAFTA is not so bad after all”, he might appear to be backtracking on the strongly expressed previously held position opposing NAFTA. Said position being exactly what he needed to win support in De…

One of the biggest problems in politics as I see it is that most of the energy is spent on “problems” that don't really exist except as political cudgels, and that's what there is noble “compromise” on, while most of the real problems see little attempt at pragmatic compromise. At the very least, Obama should have put up a little fight and sparred with the Democratic leadership a bit, it would show that he was ready to be more independent.

It should never have been allowed to be voted on as such. The fundamental issue is too great.

This is like the complaints that the Dems in Congress din't end the war.
The only way they oculd have done that, was to cut off funding. And then what?
If things deteriorated in Iraq, they would be out of office soomer than you can say 'office'.
After people express what they would like, someone has to take responsiblity to plan how to get there from here without stepping on a landmine.
I wonder which of these unhappy demanders is ready to take rresponibility and the blame if things go terribly wrong.
Obama is right about the withdrawal needing to be very cautious.
You can start complaining about the speed now, because I guarantee that it won't be as fast as the demanders want.

Now FiSA,. Where were the votes to get a more 'acceptable' bill passed? Hm?
For that matter, how was Obama , on his own, going to force a better bill through? As he says, there are improvements. In the meantime, GI provisions were attached, I understad. Has anyone been watching what a miracle it is to get anything done with the Republicans?

Neither a candidate, nor a preisdent is a miracle man. The situation is so precarious both at home, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, that I'm grateful for any progress, which can built on, if the Dem party doesn't self-destruct in the meantime.

Since McCain is turning into a tongue-tied equivocating political clubfoot, I'm happy someone is actually stripping off his suit and putting up a fight.

“Were people really not listening to anything except Obama’s rhetoric?” – D

Yes they were! Yes they were! Yes they were!

All that said, I with Chris. I am extremely alarmed and depressed about the FISA compromise. What about all that support of Dodd he professed last time? And what's with this BS: “It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay.” What is alarming is that it seems like Obama is going to take the track that the government having a lot of power is not inherently bad as long as someone good is in office. Even if he is a noble and great president, this is dangerous because it weakens the institutional resistance against bad leaders. On this point, I think Clinton was identical BTW.

In the end I have always supported Obama not because he is always on the right side, but that he seemed to be the one that would be most responsive. I hope that faith isn't misplaced and there is severe blowback from all sides to force him to cut down on the Executive's power.

What was the complaint about Bush? That he was president of his party, not the nation. And how popular are the Reps today? It seems these demand, demand people want to repeat history. Only an Obama-in-their-image would ensure a Republican resurgence much sooner, i'd say by next election cycle., They have heard of backlashes, I presume?

Obama, on the other hand is thinking long term, not short term vengeance, in every aspect from the economy to energy policy to political strategy. to make the Democratic Party viable for a long itme.
He is, in fact, acting like the president we wish Bush could have been. He is a Democrat, but he is thinking about leading and changing the nation, not just any whining faction.
Why that is so hard to grasp eludes me, unless Americans really are hell bent on self destrucion.

The steady transformation of the U.S. into a police state is almost complete. We have the coalition of Bin Laden, Bush and the Congressional Democrats to thank for that.