Bagley nails it again.

My husband is on the phone at this minute trying to explain the death panels to his ill informed North Carolina relatives.

Lord have mercy why are there so many ignorant people in this nation?

How many people believe in angels? If it's more than one, that's too many.

Any time its those catch phrases of fear it is only then that people listen for that brief moment and then take it and spread it to everyone they know...never exploring if any of it is true.

America is what it is because the republicans clearly know that America is a nation of "stupid" and prey on it.

It will take a STRONG president and congress to force things through...like forcing down bad tasting medicine down your childs throat for the greater good of making all things well. The inherent problem is that democrats are a party of weaklings who baffingly refuse to fight back and spread the word about beneficial agendas even when polls say the public support them in overwhelming numbers to their proposed agendas and they have control in the house and the senate.

Unless the democratic party can begin to take advantage of the media in the same way that republicans and their MSM-supported right-arms do then this game of fear and maintaining status-quo will always be. Ideally their needs to be a face in the democratic party that is good at creating bite-size sound bites that emphasize the dramatic positive of an agenda or the gross disaster of a republican supported on....and then have a steady flow of democrats going out and about forcing themselves onto the MSM (which will be tough since clearly MSM disproportionately invite GOP as guests daily) and spreading a CONSISTENT, and what should be, repititive, catchy sound-bite. The republicans repeatedly go on tv daily and repeat their daily fear in a very organized, deliberate way...this is how they always win the messaging game.

As it stands the democratic party has lost my respect because well i thought things would be different this time around with so many things going for them...but all that has been shown (at least for domestic matters) is a consistent caving in (and/or watering down) to appease the republican minority.

I really wish the GOP was "for the people" (and i mean, "ALL the people") because i really respect how they work together to force things through for change...everything else about them, everything, is appalling. Ah well.

Sorry for the rant...i am just disappointed from all angles today in American politics because democrats when it comes to important issues just are for the people. :(

Obama is a credible, strong leader, but under the American system the president can only do so much. It requires backbone in Congress and state legislatures and statehouses. *That* we don't have.

Also, the moron-American element in society has always been very strong and is apparently uneducable, even into the 21st Century.

I've left America. I have no intention of coming back except for short visits. I tell people I'm Canadian and have disabled the RFID chip in my passport.

Until today I was pulling for Obama and all the great things he might do. Now I see no hope. Let the birthers and the deathers and the teabaggers stew in their own fetid juices.

To my progressive brethren -- sorry guys, I've done my best by voting in every election even while overseas and donating to the causes and parties that seemed sane to me.

It didn't work. I give up.