I kind of agree with that call, by the way, on Clinton, but Obama is, to my eyes, more pragmatic. (sp??)

I see where Retour is coming from, but I don't agree, nor really see the benefit of the way he's expressing it, but in his postings I get an odd home-sick feeling.

And yes, the average supper party at the O'Brien house growing up would make Jeremiah Wright shit himself scrawny.

Not sure if I should do this, but... Retour - "Deathcare?" Really? What makes you say that? You realize where that talking point came from right? The fact that the current insurance system is, in fact, death care and rewards it's staff for saving money by basically killing sick people. The Republicans, in a fit of irony (or lack of awareness, since it came from that fucking dope Palin) used it to describe the very thing that would fix it. Like... to JBF it... it would be like if the Red Skull called Captian America a Red-Faced Calaveras Nazi.

If you have some insight that the rest of us are lacking about how items in the bill will make the current problem worse than better, let us know, otherwise, and I'm speaking to you as a human here, you might want to think about how you're wording your points, as you're not winning too many people over.

More and more I'm feeling like those on the left want things fixed, while those on the right want things fixed by those on the right.

Politicians talk about reaching across the aisle during elections all the time, but when one really tries to find middle ground with his political opponents, it's treated like an indication of weakness. 

It would serve a lot of Americans right if Obama really was the evil boogey man so many of you seem so terrified of, or if his programs really were the beginning of the end of your way of life.  If America could be irrepairably ruined by one man, it would already have happened. 

And Michael R., they're right: just using the term "death panel" makes you sound like a fool. 

Sounds good, right? Hell with credit and APRs, right?

I'm with everyone on that!

But then - our whole economy would literally die - overnight. Dead. I'm talking neighbors killing neighbors for their human meat. I'm talking dirt sandwhiches for you only meal once a week if you can't stomach eating human flesh, etc.

Sounds crazy as uncle's day at a whorehouse, right? Well... not so fast...

Like it or not, our whole economy is based on credit. Very very very very few people (JB is an example, oddly!) buy a house, a car, an education, medical care, etc, with a bag of cash. With a burlap sack with a dollar sign painted on it.

It's ugly, but true - credit is so interweived into our day to day interactions that we could not function without it. At least, not overnight.

Like - you take a junkie off heroin with methadone, not cold turkey.

So I was always for Obama keeping our banking system afloat, especially if it would include regulations once it stablizied, which, by the by, is now what's happening.

But more than that, I forgot this added benefit of what he did - as was noted on an awesome summary over on KOS of all of Obama's great acheivements - by saving the banking system, he managed to save a lot of people's (not all, but a lot) retirements. So.. there's that, too.

He could, as some noted, have just handed out money to the American people, but... let's think this through... first? When people other than Retour say this - in other words, when Republicans say this, you have to understand the "game" that's being played. They can say this safely - it didn't happen, so they can say it. Yet, had Obama given money to the people, they would have called him on that, too - that he was creating a welfare state. And in fact, Republicans have long stood for helping banks and corporations. If they were true to their history and ideals, they would be applauding Obama for his actions.

(Which, by the way, gives some credence to Retour's claim to being a Democrat)

Obama did a Republican move, yes, but I believe it was to our nation's great benefit. Republicans are calling him out because they're playing a game, and Democrats who call him out? They're not playing the game correctly.

Al & Jodi thanks but Obama is a Wall St puppet - let me put that in simpler terms for you: Obama is for the banks and not the people.  He is going to attack Social Security next.  Bombs away.

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Really.

So the fact that he has never worked for Wall Street in any capacity is what... a lie?

Look at his career.  Nothing there says, "hey, he worked for the bigcats making them tons of money!"  No, instead it was all about helping  people.  From being a director at DCP to becoming a civil rights attorney.  And you DO realize the law firm he worked at had ZERO to do with Wall Street, correct?  It specialized in civil rights litigation.

So yeah.....  I can see where you'd think what you think.   (hm, then again, not really)