So throw is out the window, at least for now - but don't throw Obama with it. It's to his credit that he tried, and failed, to engage the right. After all, it's his DNA. However, it's 100% their fault, and their loss, as they try to rebuild their party after 8 atrocious years of their control.

Keep reminding Obama what we expect of him, and what he's capable of. Call, write, email, and set the tone for the rest of his, and our, agenda.

We'll get healthcare reform by the end of the year, with the Public Option. Too many people are pushing for it to fail. The economy is slowly starting to respond, will still be hurting, with an atrocious number of jobs still lost. But things will look very different by the end of the year.

We are at the beginning of our first big step in discovering the U.S. has "limits" - financial, territorial, psychic - but that we can still be the same, inclusive country within them. Green technologies make sense; using ALL our citizen resources do too, as opposed to just the top 1%.

The shift we're making is implicitly a Democratic agenda. We're evolving as a nation - that to me is the true meaning of Obama's presidency, everything else aside.

Republicans are unable to deal with the changes required right now to survive as a productive, exemplary nation. They can't move forward, only backward toward an imaginary, and destructive, frontier ideal. Congress numbers may change, but we're the future, or at least a very big part of it.

And he's just a guy.

If you want something to be done, after 8 years of abject disaster, and in the most toxic political environment we've ever had (you can say that every day, and it will always be true!) - you have to pitch in with all your might. And if that goal is healthcare (60 years and counting), you have to work harder.**

I support Obama 100%, and this week I'll lead the line to kick his butt. They're not mutually exclusive ideas.

** " 'A slow sort of country!' said the(Red) Queen. 'Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!' "

I think you're being a little thin-skinned. Bernbart is saying what needs to be said, and nothing he's saying is to the detriment of what FDL is accomplishing.

After you and I wrote, I went to FDL and gave too - I thank you immensely for that reference. I hadn't visited them for a while, and I will do so daily. That's exactly what you, Bernbart and I are all hoping for.

But it's no exaggeration that there is a tremendous amount of whining and nay-saying on most Salon boards. It ebbs and flows, but it's there. It doesn't harm a single person to point out that action needs to follow words. It's not counterproductive, and if it doesn't speak to you, skip over it. But why not save objections for the objectionable?

There's a goal here, we're all agreed, and it doesn't preclude different ways of achieving it - yours, mine, ours.

Didn't mean to spark anything. As I said, I don't come here often........

I'm glad we're all pushing for healthcare reform. We are a bumptious group. And I thank you again for the FDL recommendation. A great, heartening site.

We found out this week:

1. We really have to participate if we want something, even if we elected one of the best persons to get it for us.

2. There's a lot of room on the Democratic scale, which can lead to strong, serious debate just as well as it can lead to useless infighting. And vice versa.

3. Presidents aren't any more kings than they are mindreaders.

4. What Bill Clinton went through for almost any spot of progress is the rule, not the exception.

5. If we stop supporting our President, his numbers will go down, and Republicans will use that against him. And us.

6. It's possible to back the President and kick him in the drawers at the same time.

7. If you pray hard enough, someone, someday will suggest a march on Washington to help you get what you need - thank you Robert Reich!!

8. There are blogs and there are blogs. And there are blogs which can make wonderful, inspiring, collective difference - thank you FDL!

9. Healthcare can be as sexy and galvanizing an issue as any post-Alaskan-beauty-queen runner-up.

10. Chris Matthews will say some great, necessary things, and he'll say some incredibly idiotic things. (Fred Thomas' English Leather smell, anyone?). It appears sometimes to be a random setting.

Extra bonus realization: Barney Frank and Jon Stewart are wise, oracular aliens from space, and should be worshipped accordingly.

Thanks for a good week, Salon.

to mention that B Frank and J Stewart are Handsome and Beneficent, wise oracles. Space aliens don't need much, so I suggest gift certificates from The Sharper Image, instead of sacrifices, will do for worship.

If the march is on, I'm there. September is only two days after my birthday, so I'll be celebrating progressive aging in WDC!

looks a lot more like Sean Hannity, seems to me. Oh shoot, now I can't watch Sean Hannity without thinking of Rachel Maddow! I have to get rid of all his literature too.

Ouch, very ouch.

PS: Anyone notice that Glen Beck looks an awful lot like Buffy, Jody AND Cissy from "Family Affair" (1966)? Weird.

It is a heavy weight to bear indeed. How can one man look like all three? But it gives me an idea for giant puppets for the march. Buffy, Jody, Glen.

Thank you again for the wonderful healthcare coverage these past weeks. It really makes all the difference in the world. March on!

I hear Readerreader's posts all read in Mr. French's voice. I know, I'm bad.