And another candidate will steal half his platform.

It seems that any liberal idea pertaining to smart defense policy is being ignored by Obama. If his name was blanked out of news reports I don't think I could distinguish between Obama and Cheney.

What the heck is going on? It was said Obama was a smart guy, but not cutting into defense goes against why the public voted "not Bush".

Obama is being dishonest with his base.

I've just lost hope.

Obama is not doing what he was elected to do. Something like this will push moderates off the Obama bandwagon.

Moderating the party - cadidates or voters - will only encourage the democrats. Staying true to teabagger roots will show how strong their principles are. Anyway, most women want to kill babies and suck the public teat for free healthcare. They might even think taxes could be useful for something other than wars.

Such ideas are not pure and must be purged.

I can guarantee that whatever Michelle Obama says it will will be utterly harmless. Obama has set a track record of making sure that all he says and does in the White House is mediocre and unassuming.

The man intentionally wants to try to put out fires in advance. Do you really think he will allow his wife to create a tempest on the biggest, most important subject currently in Washington? He wants to project an image of being a safe bet. Conciliation, whether effective or not, is his game.

It makes his detractors look like buffoons. Who complains about vanilla ice cream? Only those whipped up to believe its a bad thing.

Yes: we do need new banks - and we need them to replace the dinosaurs. Subsidies do distort the competition and there is a sore lack of competition already.

Yes: regulators should watch out for liquidity.

Yes: the dollar decline will hurt the rest of the world - and therefore it will also hurt the US.

Yes: companies should hire more historians.

Yes but no: sure cheap money started the recession. But terrible decisions along every step did not prevent the preventable. It seems financial companies cannot control themselves giving money to people who can't control themselves.

No: this recession couldn't have been prevented because all dissenting voices were drowned out even when they were screaming fire.

No: it is not like survival of the fittest. Lobbyists and influence peddling assure that financial companies get sweet deal legislation.

No: it's not just about regulation but about enforcement. Ratings companies were not independant enough. If regulators were on top of things then banks could have been smacked down for bad decisions; that never happened.

My own issue about banks is how some seem to be able to make such huge sums of money in such a supposedly competitive market. The ludicrous bonus payouts are incriminating evidence that the financial markets are not anywhere near efficient as could be. It is proof that a bank is simply a licence to print money. In a truly competitive market banks would have to make heart-wrenching decisions to stay afloat (we are nowhere near that).

That you have the nerve to say taking such a vote is a game and a waste of time only makes you a hypocrite.

Now, I don't watch Leno often - maybe 5 times a year - but when I do watch him I tend to enjoy him. This Leno bashing that HH hands out seems downright excessive. The man tells jokes and people laugh.

If the jokes are inferior to you then stop watching. To call the man talentless is much too hard. You miss Johnny Carson. Fine. He was unique. To expect all replacements to be equal is unreasonable. If you want better then offer a replacement.

Keeping score of jokes you don't like is lame.

But mmm nice.

He will then be able to say he let Congress try and show that they were the ones who failed. I think he is relying on the American public to shame Congress into getting something done.

Unfortunately, it won't work. Failure is failure. He can fail now and in the future as well. A failed Congress will still get elected and the public will still be pissed off about it.

Sometimes the best way to get something done is to whip party members into line. Obama needs to get tough with his own. It almost (but not really) makes one envious of dictators. At least some countries ruled by dictators have 100% health coverage.

whether or not it's true.

I wouldn't get laid otherwise.