The Democrats now complain about the war and the economy and pretend they had nothing to do with any of it. Nobody from either party ever really tries to fix anything because the fixes cost too much politically. Both parties have been using smoke and mirrors for years. The stimulus and these new bailouts are the latest in a very long line of politically motivated fixes that only mask the real issues and push the costs further down the line.

And anybody who says that the economy follows directly any presidential term, either the current situation being all Bush or all Clinton is a simpleton or willfully dishonest.

Both parties have fundamentally failed and continuing to delude yourself by saying one is slightly less bad than the other and thereby worthy of support only perpetuates the problem. With that strategy the best you can hope for is to push off the real trouble for the next generation to deal with. The Franken/Coleman race perfectly illustrates the destructive, self promoting idiocy of both parties.

Mr. Hat, it seems that for an “independent” you certainly spend a lot of time defending the Republicans and slagging any Democrat you can… or is that also a “bug”?

The Clinton’s and many other Democrats most certainly were much more than passive bystanders on banking deregulation. I didn’t expand on who else was responsible because I don’t believe that deregulation was the core cause of what happened. You made that claim and then simply blamed Republicans. You were either misinformed or being willfully dishonest.

And yes, anybody that supported the war shares the blame. Even if you believed Bush any support of the war was support for preemptive war. Otherwise known as the core to the Bush Doctrine. That Franken, who’s job was to be a critic of all things Republican and a supposed admirer of Wellstone to overlook that very simple and basic fact shows how myopic he is. Even if he believed Powell there was no justification for war, period. Anybody claiming the lies of the Bush administration lies as an excuse is a coward.

Yes, not holding a political party accountable for their philosophies is ludicrous. More importantly is holding a party accountable for it’s actions. I’m not a Republican, most likely never will be. So go ahead and continue to fling that around as your only response while you completely fail to live up to your own standards with the Democrats. I guess as long as Franken was able to buy the nomination of your preferred party he can do whatever he wants and you will continue to kiss his feet.

Most people I talk to refuse to vote for Al Franken.

If Coleman wins it’s becuase the Dem’s squandared what should have been an easy victory by nominating a polarizing candidate with huge negatives.

This reminds me of those willing to blame the Democrat in Congress for the Iraq War because they believed a lying George Bush and Dick Cheney. How dare they listen to the President and his false intelligence! Voting is not like starting the process and feeding the flames for an action you are driving for…

Powerful moneyed people and corporations have been affecting American Politics since the Southern Slave owners pulled rank on Jefferson, Adams and Franklin. To not hold political parties accountable for their philosophies and beliefs is ludicrous.

Republican’s were directly responsible for a hurricane? I’ll assume you mean the response to said storm. The response that was completely botched at all levels, local state and federal. The first two, local and state being the ones primarily responsible for immediate disaster relief and were managed by Democrats. As for the markets do you mean the deregulation passed by the Clinton administration? An administration that was the largest recipients of money from the banking sector? Maybe that is another bit of information that got lost in your partisan filter.

Funny how a economic problem preceded by decades of bad monetary policy and the abuse of credit at every level can be so easily summed up blaming the “free market”. The economy was going to find reality no matter how long it was propped up with artificially low interest rates, stimulus packages and other politically motivated buffoonary. If you think it is bad now wait until the balloon payments on Medicare and Medicaid come due. The bailout is a horrible idea no matter what type of oversight is promised. The coalition that is supporting it reminds me of the one that supported the invasion of Iraq. Idiots from both parties finding friends and political cover by pretending to do something.

I’m sure though that Chris Dodd, Chair of the Banking Committee and largest recipient of funds from Fannie May and Freddie Mac, will do an excellent and unbiased job designing the bailout packages for those two companies. Your blind allegiance to the Democrats is sure to be rewarded by Mr. Dodd.

I think I said fairly clearly that there is plenty of blame to go around. One of the reasons I don’t support either party. Which is more or less the opposite of your twisted comprehension of “not wanting to play the blame game”. Your inability to see the Democrats complicity in the problems is borderline delusional.

Exotic mortgage derivatives as financial products divorced from the risk and any connection to reality… WHHHEEE no regulation, let the “Free Market” take care of the problem… its all fun until some taxpayers get their eye put out!

Deregulation is the mantra of the Republicans… take some responsibility.

Dan, is your only method of debate to pretend the person you are engaging has made claims they haven’t made? Truth is that there is plenty of blame to go around for our countries situation. Both parties have spent decades screwing things up only to enrich themselves and their buddies. Of course loyal party apologists from both sides help make it easy for them.

All Franken supporters end up with only one argument. He isn’t Coleman. Unfortunately, given the records of both parties that means nothing.