Of course, the only way 41 Democrats will hang together is if they decide that political suicide isn't enough and they just can't resist the by-the-neck-until-dead kind.

I do call them like I see them, whether Democrats or Republicans are the current fount of stupidity.

I know you do, which is the ONLY reason I stick around... :D

He delivered. OK, it wasn't exactly what everyone wanted, but it is indeed what millions of Americans elected him to do. To deny this is to deny reality, sorry.

Millions of the American LEFT...

If you believe that Obama got elected with a mandate for Crapcare, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you... :D

Obama got elected by the Independents and NPAs of this country...

They elected Obama because they thought he could change they way things are done in DC...

Ya know, "HOPE" and "CHANGE"....

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.. Boy did you back the wrong horse..."
-Peter Venkman, GHOSTBUSTERS II

but that whatever his flaws he would be one HECK of a lot better than any of the Republicans running.

And your evidence is... what exactly???

Obama has succeeded in dividing the United States more than any president in recent history.

He is petulant, he is completely inexperienced and he is utterly without compassion for everyday Americans...

This guy is even a worse president than Carter and the ONLY possible ray of light is that this country will survive long enough to put this disgusting and perverse era of utterly incompetent leadership behind it...

Michale.....

Oh, foof. Who died and elected you Supreme Decider Of What The Electorate Is Thinking?

Republicans, 97% of them in the House at least, DO have a "pact" with this Grover Norquist fellow (hint: Google "drown it in a bathtub" and his name will pop up). It says they'll never raise taxes ever again, for any reason whatsoever.

And, yes, you're right that there is plenty of blame to shovel around. As they used to say in the old Westerns: "Out here, we spread that around the back forty and grow corn with it." If I had known, when I wrote this, that Reid's proposal had the same debt commission idea in it (I refuse to use the cutesy term now in vogue: "Super Congress"), then I would have included just as much wrath towards him as directed towards Boehner above.

I do call them like I see them, whether Democrats or Republicans are the current fount of stupidity.

Osborne -

(shudder) Don't bring up Prop 13... please... all I can say is "I didn't live here at the time!"

I'd date the whole thing as an offshoot of Reaganism. But that puts it at about 1979, which is pretty much what you said.

Elizabeth -

Excellent point. As Veep Cheney infamously said: "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." That was the Republican mantra right up to Inauguration Day.

Michale[6] -

OK, since you opened it up, allow me to correct two of your go-to French phrases.

Touché can be written if you know how to make an accented "e" character (it's pretty easy on a Mac, not so sure on a Windows machine). If you don't know how, typing the following (but replacing the : with a ;)

Touch&eacute:

will likely create the same. Let me try it here:

Touché

And the other one (without accents, to make it easy) is:

Au contraire, mon frere...

OK, enough of that.

Sigh. See (on [1]) above previous comment on "who died and made you..."

Healthcare reform has been on the Democratic agenda since at least the 1970s. It's a core plank in the Dem platform. Obama campaigned on it. He delivered. OK, it wasn't exactly what everyone wanted, but it is indeed what millions of Americans elected him to do. To deny this is to deny reality, sorry.

If the election were held today, I would indeed vote for Obama. I'd do so in the same spirit I initially voted for him: knowing (far more than many Lefties) that he was flawed and corporate-leaning, but that whatever his flaws he would be one HECK of a lot better than any of the Republicans running.

David -

I totally agree about Huntsman. I was amused at how much the DC-insiders were talking him up before his run, because my reaction was always "he's never going to get nominated." I think Perry and Palin are both going to jump in. But that's just today -- this feeling changes by the hour, for both of them.

Note:

OK, I'm going to have to stop here (at comment [7], for those keeping score). Things are heating up in the House, and I've got an article to write...

More later...

-CW

"The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created by Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Commission_%28US%29

Rutherfraud B. Hayes got inaugurated. Up to you whether or not you consider that a solution to the lack of any authoritative election results.

There isn't any agreement..

There doesn't appear to be any agreement any time soon..

Yet the financial meltdown that was predicted for Monday never happened...

I think we're all being conned by Administration fear-mongering....

Michale.....

I'll vote for the most progressive candidates I can.

OK, let me ask you this way..

Do you think that Obama should face a primary challenge???

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/07/obama-poll-jobs-democratic-base-crumbling.html

Michale.....

Not voting never solved anything.

So, you would vote for Obama??

I would rather not vote than make the same mistake twice...

But that's just me... :D

Kevin,

I don't know where that guy is getting his "average" from...

I would consider myself average....

Do you know how much credit card debt I have??

Zero.. Zilch.. Nada.. Nun...

I don't own a monster truck and I don't own a $300K house... All three of my vehicles are paid for..

After my legal go-round with DirectTV & GE, I paid $51K for my house in 2003. It was appraised at about $125K in 2005. I owe about $60K on it now...

My wife just got laid off a few weeks back, a week before my blown appendix (for which I now owe, approximately $45,000..

My computer shop brings in, on a good week, about $1200... On a bad week, about $200... I support my daughter and two grandchildren...

As I said, I consider myself pretty average.. Considering my geographical area, I am probably doing a little bit better than the National Average...

My point??

I have learned to do more with less??

Why can't Democrats learn this valuable lesson??

Honestly and truly, did we REALLY need CrapCare???

Did we really need all those Wall Street, Banks and Auto Corporation bailouts???

It actually seems ironic...

Democrats/liberals/progressives CLAIM to be fighting for the little guy. Fighting FOR Joe Sixpack...

Yet, ya'all seem to disparage him at every turn...

It's like the Bush Tax Cuts..

Ya'all want them to end, yet they are more of a benefit to the lower and middle class and tax the rich more....

Yea I know, I know... "Capital Gains"...

So, leave the Bush Tax Cuts in place and fix the Capital Gains issue..

Tax the REALLY rich..

People like Soros and Pelosi and Reid and Obama..

Why don't ya'all go after THEM about paying more in taxes???

David,

Yet when it comes to government and sports somehow Mr. Couch Potato suddenly knows so much more what to do than that quarterback on the field

Considering that this particular quarterback has thrown more interceptions than Brett Favre (310) and has fumbled the ball more than Warren Moon (161), I would say that ANYONE knows so much more than Quarterback Obama....

Michale.....

What always gets me is you never hear people saying "Let's replace that doctor with Joe Sixpack" or "Let's replace that civil engineer building that bridge with Joe Sixpack"

Yet when it comes to government and sports somehow Mr. Couch Potato suddenly knows so much more what to do than that quarterback on the field :)

Here's another one for you...

http://www.stonekettle.com/2011/07/what-would-joe-sixpack-do.html

I do think all of the regulars on this site would enjoy it, too.

Not voting never solved anything.

I'll vote for the most progressive candidates I can.

Unfortunately, the GOP hasn't offered much of an alternative. The only GOP candidate I'd even consider is Jon Huntsman and I don't think he has a snowball's chance in hell.

My guess is they'll run Rick Perry- unless he changes his mind and doesn't jump in. I'm thinking he'll announce soon though.

-David

-David

You mean, like Obama was elected into office to deliver on healthcare reform? Listening to the people who elected him into office, HCR was a key item on their agenda...

Ahhh Contraire, mon frair.... ( I know, it's mangled... :D)

Only on the LEFT was HCR the "key item on their agenda"...

The ones who REALLY put Obama in the White House, the Independents and the NPAs like me, THEIR agenda was the Obama set a NEW tone in DC. Obama was going to rise above politics and transform government and be for the people, not for the corporations and the politicians...

THAT was the agenda of the Americans who REALLY put Obama in the White House...

"{We} chose..... poorly"
-Knight, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

Today, it seems NEITHER party wants to be the party of the working class. Sigh.

A truer statement has never been spoken..

I have to ask and hope ya'all answer, or at the very least consider it..

If the election were held today, would you vote for Obama?? If your choices were you vote for Obama or just not vote, what would you do??

Michale.....

Good point. Prior to the 70s, Republicans actually presented themselves as the party of the working class (strange, but true -- see Nixon's wife's "respectable Republican cloth coat" for example). Those days are long gone, eh?

Today, it seems NEITHER party wants to be the party of the working class. Sigh.

-CW

OK, I just can't resist...

You mean, like Obama was elected into office to deliver on healthcare reform? Listening to the people who elected him into office, HCR was a key item on their agenda...

Heh.

-CW

And, we can be even more precise about when Republicans became so obsessed with deficits and debt, down to the hour of the day, in fact ... January 20, 2009.

Too bad that they have been allowed to get away with pretending not to know that the deficit and debt situation that existed on that day was largely a result of polices - foreign and domestic - of the previous administration, entrenched as it was within the Republican cult of economic failure.

What ties it all together is that, between 1971 and today, there has been a concerted effort by outside groups -- Heritage Foundation, Americans For Prosperity, etc -- to push this line on both parties (but especially on the GOP). The American Enterprise Institute is a good example: practically every Ivy League dean of economics is a paid "fellow." So while the transition began in the 70s, it only came to full flower in the last 16 years.

Or, more likely, Republicans that were voted into office by the American people took such responsibility seriously..

As I see it, Republicans don't have a pact with this Norquist fellow, who ever he is...

Republicans are doing something that Democrats apparently have never learned to do..

And that is actually LISTENING to the people who voted them into office and seeing after THEIR agenda...

In other words, if it's a blame-game you're interested in, there is plenty of blame to shovel around on both sides of the fence.

And that's why I like it here... There is none of this "OBAMA IS THE SECOND COMING" like several other Blogs around here...

It's refreshing....

As long as we agree on this point, then everything else is White Noise... :D

Michale.....