I think he will be re-elected.

But I think he would do well to distinguish himself with some brave moral stances; time to legalize marijuana and support full marriage equality for LGBT citizens, for starts.

. . . if this thread was used to discuss summit -- the subject of the op.

Duly noted, tho . . . Warren DeMontague thinks President Obama will be re-elected, despite differences with the administration over their drug policy and his stance on marriage equality.

But I EXPECT some real leadership on things like the idiotic drug war and full equality for all, if not before the election then in the 2nd term. I mean, it's 2012 for fuck's sake. Well past time.

There isn't going to be any public change in the administration's stance on legalization before the election, and, the move by Latin American countries to consider legalization and decriminalization as a way to deal with their cartels and drug gangs has had the effect of hardening the administration's public stance; all that on stage at this meeting.

"We should have this debate, and the reason is to dispel some of the myths that exist about legalization," VP Biden told reporters last month. "There are those people who say, 'If you legalize, you are not going to expand the number of consumers significantly.' Not true."

And I EXPECT our party to embrace long-overdue justice & sanity on both fronts.

(OTOH, I don't really expect Biden, author of the "Bill Graham deserved a felony life sentence for running the Fillmore" imbecilic RAVE Act, to be a font of anything other than blabbering nonsense on this particular issue)




And they will, sooner or later... despite the desperation on the parts of cynics, conventional wisdom poo-bahs, and -most of all- happy piggies at the drug war $$$ gravy train $$$ slop bucket;

....to hold back the tide of history and inevitability.

If we stopped the drug war and focused our forces on actual crime, it would be a different country.

Guess that goes to show the influence the for-profit prison industry, the legal industry, the DEA (and other law enforcement entities), and the banks that launder drug money have over U.S. policy. Teh War on Drugs is lucrative for a lot of very bad people.

Discounting the educated opinions of so many other nation's leaders, so casually, was a bad move - They know that our war on drugs is having detrimental effects on their people and their economies.

Are you saying you just want to hear the president make speeches about it? Is this another of those "leadership" critiques?

I have a feeling that she might not stay around for Obama's second term.

thanx

. . . to see both of these two political rivals working so closely and effectively together. It's a remarkable reflection of our democracy and an example to many other nations which seem to sometimes view their elections as bloodsport and their own political authority as exclusionary and autocratic. To see them cooperating for our nation's greater good is just inspiring.


REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

beyond Secretary of State.

She looks absolutely exhausted.

who is on deck to replace her?

thanks!

. . . otherwise, maybe her deputy, William Burns.

. . . more than it pretends to know what they're discussing. What I'm trying to convey in the title and photo is that these two former political rivals are cooperating and working together for the greater good of the nation, and they exude confidence and camaraderie in this perspective. I think that's an outstanding example to other nations which struggle with transfers of power and power-sharing in their own electoral processes.