{sigh}

I long for the days when we had something to functionally debate in this forum...

Sadly, I am in full agreement with nearly everything Ryan says. I'm nearly convinced that Obama is rapidly making himself a joke to Americans, and completely irrelevant to the rest of the world (especially such peace-loving, tolerant societies as Iran and North Korea).

My opinion is that we will continue to see more evidence of incompetence and blatant fraud from more and more of the Democratic leadership (White House and Congressional) over the next two years, along with more and more proof that the policies and legislation of the Dems simply doesn't work (or worse, makes things worse). I'm not advocating standing by and allowing the Dems to "hang themselves" with their own rope... but I'm confident in their ability to make themselves irrelevant far faster than they are capable of actually instituting any really damaging policies or programs. The AIG fiasco is ample proof that Democratic "bill ramming" doesn't speed recovery... it increases the chance that mistakes and loop-holes will be found to circumvent regulation and show the failings of the Democratic platform as a whole.

Obama fancied himself a historian prior to the election... but were that actually the case, he'd know he was on the fast-track to repeating the same errors that cost previous Democratic Presidents their Congressional support (Carter AND Clinton are stellar examples), and he hasn't shown me that he has the political savy to "spin" such an event to his advantage the way Clinton did in '95.

With any luck, he really will become the 2nd Carter Administration...