If there is one thing that I would like to see this administration do is start taking responsibility. It is no longer George Bush fault. Meanwhile the other night in an interview with ABC news President Obama would not even take responsibility for the, up to now, failed health care bill. He basically said it was the fault of congress and the deals that were made he had nothing to do with. That did not sit to well with those that were negotiating the deals as they indicated the
White House was definitely keeping close tabs on all negotiations. I think it would serve the administration well to just take the attitude of Harry Truman and say "The buck stops here".

I thought Obama was great tonight. He is really a good man IMO. That doesn't mean I think he is or will be a great President but his intentions are really good and he's a guy you can trust. The issue is that he's a great communicator, so he shines in moments like this, but can he become a great operator? So far he's not been one. Let's hope he becomes one. If he can bring folks together than he's done his job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izpU4YJ0ZAA...layer_embedded#

thats funny!

Obama is turning more moderate in some of his views -- a strategy reminiscent of what Bill Clinton did during his presidency. I voted for Obama and believe health reform is necessary. However, IMO his administration's policy emphasis and priority should have been entirely on the economy. In that respect, I am very disappointed in him thus far. Fix the economy first before trying to undertake huge changes elsewhere. It alll begins and ends with jobs and the economy.

Judge him by what he actually does and not what he says.

He reminds me of a .200 hitter who is great with the media, gives great quotes, but was promoted to the majors way before he was ready and keeps telling you how he is going to get better.

Will believe a move to the center when I see it.

No special interests and transparency, two weeks after he has secret meetings with union leaders and a special deal gets added to bill. The man is a two bit hustler and con artist.

I hope I am wrong, but have not seen anything in 12 months to suggest I am.

All along his problem is what he needs to do runs counter to what he got elected on and wants to do. He's a very smart man with no experience. That's why he gets trapped into things that make no sense - like trying the 9/11 terrorists in the suns shadow of where it happened. He's also now lost Bloomberg's support on this one as reality sets in on everyone, except him and Holder, about what this really means. So if he shifts to a much more moderate position, corrects past mistakes on emphasizing healthcare and this terrorist trial among others, it could mean he's coming of age. If he doesn't go there then he's a one term and out President and positve things he does too late in that term will get creditted to his successor.

If I'm him I simply stop the trash talking on banks and bonusses and simply put in a huge tax on trading over past historical norms and tax everything heavily on the type of derivatives that got us in trouble. I'd also take all the leverage out of commodity markets and put it at the same restrictions that exist on stocks. That will quickly stop all the fantasy profits, trading bubbles and dangerous derivatives on Wall Street that bring nothing positive to anyone but the greed takers and simply divert money from where he'd like to see it go. Stop trying to force banks to lend money as that is what got us into the real estate mess we have in the first place. The Government should just set up it's own bank for small and intermediate size businesses and qualify loans on basic loan compliance stats. You have it, you get it and tax returns or auditted styatements prove if you have it. Normal leverage ratios such as EBITDA to debt or interest expense coverage determine your rate. The lower of the first and the higher of the second the better the interest rate gets as the risk on the loan is much lower. Going through a middleman is always difficult and never yields the results you want.

Couldn't agree more; he says that people are hurting. Gee, it took him this long to figure that out? Welcome to 2008; that's when we started losing jobs. I just don't understand why he didn't tackle unemployment first.

Well he sure spent a lot of time trying to blame everything on the previous administration. Very disappointing.

I do think Obama is a genuinely good person and wants to do things he thinks will help people in the end. Some of his ideas may be good, some not so much. But we need an end to the partisan crap or nothing will ever get done.

On another note, what in the hell was Nancy Pelosi thinking with that hair?

Yup. I don't want a President who constantly deflects blame. He wanted the job, he told us he was qualified to do it. Now let him accept the great responsibilities that come with it. Did Bush make some big-time mistakes? Hell yes. But Obama knew what he was getting into. It's time for him to step up. Bush hasn't been in office for over a year; that's a lifetime in the political world, especially when he's had a Democratic majority in both houses. They've had time to get some things done.

Her ego is bigger than the solar system. Somewhere there's a psychiatrists couch waiting for that woman, if not a whole psychiatric ward.

Agree. When you see that type of behavior it usually means he has no solutions and if he has no solutions it means he'd have been forced to do many of the same things to keep America safe from terrorists. You can't lead by blaming others. I think he also doesn't understand that by pushing banks to lend so heavily he's supporting the same bubble that happened before and that was an important factor in our economic mess. He's got to separate all lending from good lending. Right now the banks are so cautious that they are passing up good lending and that's aiding unemployment. They are partly cautious because fears of tax increases mean a rougher economy and regarding smaller businesses (and small to me is 1-20mln in revenue) means those entrepeneurs will be hit with higher taxes and less cash to repay loans with. So that increases risk as the longer a loan needs to be repaid the greater the risk a bank perceives. It's sort of like loving snow and wanting 45 degree weather in winter. You can't have both. That's why the Reps are so pushing on the tax issue. If Obama ends that fear you'll see banks stop passing up good loans and this economic mess has a better chance of expanding and starting to reduce unemployment.

I said on my Facebook page she looked like she was peering through a porthole on a ship.

Exactly. From what I've heard, there's too much uncertainty out there vis a vis taxes, regulation, health care costs, etc. for businesses to really rev up hiring, especially among those businesses you mentioned that are most sensitive to increased expenses. And let's not forget what a huge percentage of employment that small business is responsible for.

We have made it through the first year of a President whom I felt was not nearly qualified to be president. He could speak well and came along at the right time and that's why he's President. Having said that, I hope that he has now become qualified, ( a year in that job can make you qualified in a hurry). Hopefully his second year will be more productive than the first. I just hope he treats terrorists as terrorists and not criminals. There are to many lives at stake to make mistakes with that.

Well Bloomberg has told him he's against having the trial in NYC now. Everyone in lower Manhattan is up arms about this and you can start counting the business bankruptcies that'll happen down there if the trial is not moved. Plus it'll cost NYC $200mln a year in costs as well as the loss of money from the businesses that will go bankrupt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/nyregion...s&st=Search

But I'm afraid Obama doesn't get it. He thinks of them as murderous thugs, not folks at war with us. I close my eyes and I can see George Reeves and Adam West calling their foes murderous thugs on their old innocent TV renditions of Superman and Batman. Somehow it is beyond every shred of common sense and intelligence I have for me to think that Obama and Holder are living in a Batman TV show. But they are and as long as Obama is thinking the way he does as per the link below I have 0% confidence in him and he remains unprepared and unqualified for his job. Speeches are great talk and he was great at it last night, but I'm now looking for some intelligent decisions and actions from the man and the one in the link below most certainly isn't one of them. Bloomberg gave him a big out, so big of an out that I thought it was orchestrated by the Obama team. But Obama instead was too foolish to seize it. I'm afraid we wont see any improvement in year 2.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01...trial-in-ny/?hp

On the Ch 5 news at 10 they are reporting the White House has asked Holder to reconsider the venue for the trial.

Translation - some high ranking Democrat got to Obama today and said "Do you understand the gift Mayor Bloomberg gave you today" .

I'm telling you Obama is all booksmart and has very little streetsmarts in him. Now if Holder doesn't change then Obama is really in a difficult spot that has all been needlessly self created. He's looking weak enough with all this waffling going on but if Holder rules here he looks even weaker and controlled by others as he'll make something totally senseless happen and all he can do is lose on the decision. And in a worst case result of a legal technicality or a terrorist assault during the trial he could end up being the biggest jackass in history.

Holder and the Justice Department don't get it. They screwed up the handling of the Christmas Day underwear terroist with Miranda rights and all. Obviously, Holder has his own agenda and it's up to Obama to reel him in.

Whatever is going through Holder's mind, he better get realistic about this. How does he reconcile a terrorist threat from an organization (splintered or not) that has declared war on us, and uses on an international flight with international passengers on it to be the vehicle, with his thoughts that it was an ordinary crime committed by an everyday run of the mill criminal. Holder is just plain out of his mind. There's no other possible explanation for his thinking.

Obama smartens up and drops the trial in NYC. Now why did he have to make the statements the other day that he'd go forward despite what Bloomberg wanted. He couldn't have sat on it for the weekend and simply state he'd take Bloombergs change of opinion to heart and reconsider. This is what scares me about Obama. React without thinking and then back off. It shows true lack of leadership. What's even more appalling about the initial decision of Holder and Obama to hold the trial here came out in todauy's news. When they made the decision to try the case here they never even consulted beforehand with a NYS or NYC official. They got no go ahead from the Mayor or Governor and never even talked to Kelly about security. It's unbelievable how inexperienced and unthinking these guys are.

Now Obama looks like a fool. Details that make him and Holder look stupid are coming out and he wasn't even smart enough to take Bloomberg's "out" the other day. I am sure Obama and Holder are intellectually very smart, but common sense and street smarts are completely absent in both of them.

Excerpt from the link and if this doesn't show you how stupid Holder's behavior on this one was and how green behind the ears Obama is for letting him be this wreckless, I don't know what will:

Mr. Holder called Mr. Bloomberg and Gov. David A. Paterson only a few hours before his public announcement on Nov. 13; and Mr. Kelly got a similar call that morning from Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office had been picked to prosecute the cases.

But by the time those calls were made, the decision had already been reported in the news media, which was how Mr. Bloomberg learned about it, according to mayoral aides.

One senior Bloomberg official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to antagonize the White House, said: “When Holder was making the decision he didn’t call Ray Kelly and say, ‘What do you think?’ He didn’t call the mayor and say, ‘What would your position be?’ They didn’t reach out until it got out there.”

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/nyregion...rops&st=cse

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/08...-trial-planner/

This guys decision-making really scares me.