Thanks bhill1967, the first paragraphs that you wrote sound reasonable. Sure, it seems likely enough (I haven't found the exact results online yet) that only that percentage may have voted for him.

As to the last paragraph, though it's a bit off-topic, I would say that since we have a $10 trillion invoice coming due soon for Medicare and Social Security, the idea behind spending a trillion and a half or three on a stimulus package now was that we'd better not head into that situation without any taxpayers to fund it. Better to stimulate entrepreneurship before the $10 trillion bill comes due. Obama didn't start Social Security or Medicare, and he won't even face the worst of funding them (that'll be his immediate successor, I bet). Also, he's not aiming to tax his way out of the problem; he's printing money. Since that $10 trillion will also have to be raised by printing money, better to do it now to fund new enterprises, which will at least provide some tax money, than simply to print money to pay the entitlement bills when they come due.

The math isn't there; it is simply impossible to tax enough, even if a dastardly Democrat targeted the legendary "middle class," to fund all of this. The only possible way to address such huge needs is by printing money, and making it worthless. If I were an intelligent conservative, which I'm sure you are, I would realize that fact, and maneuver accordingly.

One thing about inflation: you sure have a lot of opportunities to make money (or to parlay that money into something that's actually worth something anymore).

If there was ever an election that demanded a do-over, it was this one. And it ought to be in the law of every state that elections that close are no election at all. But the last things that the Democrats wanted was a match race between Coleman and Franken within Obama on the ticket

to pump up Franken's numbers.

IAC, we had better not hear anything about Florida ever again, not from you.

"At least he's not big, fat, ugly, dumb, STD and cancer stricken, full mastectomy survivors like many of you. He's also not dead before birth, like many of your long dead children. I love the license to attack the physical. Keep up the stupid, brownshirt, threatening, childish insults. We can play it."

Oh, look! More self-projection from a conservative! lol

You "can play it"? No kidding. Where do you think we got the playbook? The rightwing has given the left a crash course in character assassination and dirty politics in the past couple decades. You're just upset that we've turned your own tactics against you...and also know how to make people laugh when we do it. You, on the other hand, just come off as...well, angry, dumb, ugly and unhinged.

And he can't thank you enough for paying so much attention to him.

Unless you were an all-out supporter of a do-over in 2000, we shouldn't be hearing anything from you.

The major question is why anybody cares about the guy. He has proven he is a drug addict and he has proven that he is not important in any way except in his own mind (maybe).

Stop talking about him and just say "NO" to anything about the guy.

As a life-long observer of US society, including politics, I find it amazing how the talking heads of the right, many of whom are Republicans, have lost all sense of decency and logic.

Pillaring citizens and elected officials of the 'other' side, with such venomous and illogical non-arguments suggest an hysterical teeter-totter that keeps bumping tree branches and the ground without any fresh air of objectivity inbetween.

What rationale for such un-American rant against fellow citizens?

Casting aspersions such as: "Dingbat", "Numbnut", "whacko", etc. would do no good and only be jumping into the same tipping canoe of self-righteous bifurcated fungoids.

Sad indeed, to have the spokespeople, official and unoffiical, trying to destroy a president before he has had time to put into place programs designed to help the country, both employers and employees, the less fortunate and the wealthy, get back on their collective feet.

One can only surmise that putrescence of the highest order of decay has set in upon those who are out of power in Washington, and to those who are incapable of carrying on a discussion based upon fact and the rational give and take of opinions.

If politics and the public discourse in the US has become so polluted as to preclude normal debate without vicious personal attacks (usually without foundation) of monumental proportions; one can only wonder what the social dialogue will be a few years hence, as the American Empire tries to forge a path to a future of opportunity for all leading to a positve rebirth of the American dream.

Those of us who are long-time neighbours and friends of the United States and of all decent, thoughtful, and caring Americans, hope for the best.....hope for a sense of decency in the public forum to return.

Our prayers and best wishes are with you.

Thanks for your comments.

On matters of the media in the US--too often a kind of latter-day Second City, you are hereby awarded the Analogy Prize of the day. At least it's improved since W's first two years after invading Iraq, but that's a bit like saying the car is no longer stalled. Even though it's a vain hope, can Woodward ever show his face in public again without a permanent apologetic foreword?

Hey Auntie,

Initially I hope I am not a fear-monger.

• I did not indicate that the stimulus needed to be passed in a certain week or the direst of predictions would come true (that was a Democrat saying that)

• I did not indicate that if the health reform is not passed a great number of people will lose their health care insurance (that was a Democrat saying that)

A word about Sen Franken:

• He won - a fact

• He won with less than a majority in his state which to me means he does not necessarily represent the majority but he legally has a vote in the Senate - a fact

• He does not have the courage to stand up to Democratic Party Leaders - he will be a rubber stamp - my opinion

• His tenure in the Senate should be judged by his performance in the Senate - I hope he gives a better account of himself that Kerry, Dodd, Durbin, and Ried - my opinion

Additionally - perhaps he does belong in the Senate because he certainly could not compete in talk radio.