Really, Dan? I thought you were smarter than this. I thought it was from CMan. I’m surprised to see this from you.

Oh well.

Selective amnesia, DtM? Forgot that Bush cut taxes AND funded a war, keeping the costs off the books? All part of the plan to keep the people in the dark. Then, when the Dems take over congress, started the Rove-esque plot to pin the blame on them, which comes to fruition when Obama steps in and starts handling the books RATIONALLY!

You’re a Bush apologist, DtM. Quit trying to squirm to the center.

And, I’m not sure he’s just another suit. His seems to be reaching embarrassing new heights of “empty” compared to the garden-variety politician.

BINGO!

Let’s look at what REALLY DID HAPPEN. In 2000, Junior Bush and Dick Cheney got into the White House after LOSING the election by a half-million votes. Despite the Democrats holding onto the Senate (theoretically), the Bush/Cheney cabal got everything they asked for as the Democrats capitulated and crawled and kow-towed.

So when the tables are finally turned, after 8 agonizing years, and the Democrats control the Senate, the House, and the Executive, what happens? The Republican dictatorship continues as the Democrats repeatedly retreat, cave in, roll over, and sell out.

This is NOT “change we can believe in.” The wars continue, the police state continues, the EPA embrace of polluters continues, the fight for universal health care turns into a bailout of the insurance companies [replete with secret deal-making during closed-door consultations in the White House!], Guantanamo is NOT shut down, NO ONE is held accountable for the past policies of torture and kidnapping — -and there is NO believable assurance that such practices have IN FACT been discontinued; beyond that, all power in Congress is ceded to the likes of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, and the national leadership is so inept and so quick to turn its back on the grass roots that they lose the Senate seat from Massachusetts, of all places!

The Atlantic Monthly was on the mark with its description of President Obama as the Herbert Hoover of our times. When FDR took office, he said “Our number one task is to put people to work.” When President Obama got in, it was “First we have to bail out Wall Street.”

Well, it is too soon to say whether we have avoided a “great depression.” Wall Street despite the bailout is beginning to falter.

On the other hand, it is not too soon to say that President Obama has turned his back on the people who put him into power — -either that, or he is simply not up to the job. People’s hope and dreams die hard, so don’t blame the liberals or progressives or the people commenting here for their disappointment with the administration. WE didn’t want them to fail. But these deluded trimmers made a bee-line to the right as soon as they got into office; all we heard over and over was “let’s be bipartisan; let’s compromise with the Republicans; blah-blah-blah.”

The Republicans are fascists, they’re not into compromise and have not been since Roger Ailes, the predecessor of Karl Rove, taught them the Mussolini Mambo. I didn’t vote for this President because of his name or his pigmentation — -I voted for him because people I trusted said that he would stand firm for health care coverage; for civil liberty restoration; for environmental protection; for adherence to international law; for economic justice.

Explain how Republicans can achieve their goals with a stolen Presidency and a divided Congress; but the Democrats can’t do it with a hefty majority in both houses AND a popular winner in the Oval Office. No, you can’t blame it on us liberals. If anything, we were TOO PATIENT in 2009! Barack Obama not only is no knight in shining armor…. he’s just another suit.

Obama himself said that the Stimulus would take time… “months or years”.. to have an impact. Did it really swing the pendulum the day he was elected? Damn, those stimulus funds flowed through the economy overnight!

A recession typically last 6-18 months. This one began in early 2008. We should expect that 2009 is when it would end, regardless of if McCain, Obama, or Ron Paul had been elected.

And if it is Bush policies that drove the started the recession, why did it only occur in year 8 of an 8 year Presidency? Judging the level of incompetetence people here say Bush had, I wonder why we didn’t see this recession brought on in year 1 or 2.

And if the political party in power really has a major impact on economic cycles (I’m saying it doesn’t), then why did this recession only occur once power had begun to shift to the Democratic side? Barney Frank had as much influence on the financial industry in 2008 as Henry Paulsen did.

Just saying, it is pretty much open for debate.