Considering the mess that Obama inherited from Bush, he is doing pretty well. The economic numbers are showing improvement, real estate is moving again, the DOW is up, unemployment is falling, his first nomination to the Supreme Court is confirmed.

I'd say this is pretty good for less than ten months in office.

Palin, on the other hand, managed to lose an election, further divide the Republican base, and quit her job as governor of Alaska.

And now she is roaming around telling Obama how to run the country? Give me a break!

With Palin busy running the GOP spin machine, the Alaskan wildlife can breath a little easier.

A possible job opportunity for Sarah may be as a fighter pilot in the USAF, except that the targets will shoot back.

Big business isn't worried too much about who wins elections because it will subvert the democratic process in order to effect public policy.

Instead, they focus on back-room deals, lobbyists, lies, and a media driven mob to affect public opinion.

This is exactly what is happening now. This is a bigger threat to Americans' freedom than Iraq or Afghanistan. Respectful debate is the backbone of a democratic society and the key word is "respectful". Flooding the broadcast media with one-sided shills whipping up emotions while subduing or distorting the facts is not helping the dabate, it is propaganda that has no place in enlightened society.

The GOP's liars are transparent in their hatred of Obama and their irrational fears about improving the health care system.

The opposition to health care reform is driven by Fox News and conservative blowhards stirring up their hardcore audience. The vast majority know that healthcare reform is needed.

It is, after all, one of the main reasons that Obama was elected and it will happen.

Looking at the wreckage that the Bush Administration has left us, it is obvious who the winners are in the Iraq War: Al Qaeda and Halliberton.

Obama faces the decision whether to expend vast resources on investigations of countless Bush Administration crimes or to move the country out of the financial disaster that Bush left. In addition he has to reform our health care system while fighting back against the Fox News/Republican propaganda machine.

History will not be kind to the GOP. People will look back and ask how an entire nation could have been so badly served by the Bush Administration. One reason is very apparent: the failure of mainstream news to adequately investigate and report events leading up to and during the Iraq War, and the events leading to our financial collapse.

I am hoping that the passage of health care reform will enable Obama focus upon and to push for investigations into Bush war crimes and crimes against the American people. It makes no sense to expend lives for Iraqis' freedom while violating the U.S Constitution at home.

And its Permanenent Minority status is ensured.

you are taking the wrong approach.

We are a nation of sound-bite addicts. If we must read something it had better be written at a 12 year olds' level.

This is why the right wing hate machine is having such an effect on the public discussion of health care reform. The ignorant fear change and the GOP plays on this by using its biased news outlets and talk show blowhards.

Health care reform is complicated and requires a little study that is beyond the mental capability of too many Americans.

Perhaps we should be pushing for education reforrm first, in order to teach people how to employ critical thinking and reading skills.

Regulates or oversees air travel, rail travel, drugs, medical certifications, pension plans, shipping, seaports, highway safety, building permits and inspections, the chemical industry, the national parks, Medicare - all to the ultimate benefit of the public.

The reason why the government is charged with this responsibility is that THE PRIVATE SECTOR HAS FAILED TO SUPERVISE ITSELF resulting in a history of unsafe practices, and unsafe products.

Our medical care is no less important than any of the entities shown above, yet the loonies are screaming about a "government takeover" or "big government" running the healthcare industry.

The government has no desire to take over American healthcare. Nowhere in the proposed changes is it stated that the government will take over the healthcare industry.

Excuse me for butting in, but I'm pretty sure that Bush is defending Obama's deficits since he caused them, or caused them to happen, in the first place.

Not one point in your post refutes Obama's arguments for his plan.

Why is that?

EOM.

and it gets its strength by playing on the fears of the ignorant and the uninformed.

This is increasingly evident in the health care debate.

The lunatic fringe is trying to paint Obama as a socialist. This is laughable, as it is the lie of the right wing media whores willing to say anything to keep their mentally challenged audiences frothing at the mouth.

We don't have a health care system. That is the problem. We have a hodgepodge of health plans run by insurance companies that value profit over service.

Our politicians and policies are driven and controlled by business and the defense industry. This is the product of American capitalism and people are important only to the extent that they can consume.

An effective healthcare system cannot be milked by business interests and therefore will not happen unless the grassroots gets very, very angry and forces their elected representatives to to their jobs.

for Republicans. Sorry about that, but there it is.

The GOP has coined the phrase "Death Benefit" to describe end life counseling and therefore must not want it.