Wow, guess he broke your heart.

Of course, it all depends on your perspective. I consider myself fortunate because McCain isn't the president. Others are just the opposite.

He has fulfilled many of his campaign promises, like them or not. His success rate matches any other if not more.

Obama's focus on the issue came as a New York Times/CBS News poll published Thursday found that 70 percent of the public believes the country is headed in the wrong direction. That followed a March AP-GfK survey reflecting widespread discontent over the economy, with just 15 percent seeing an economic improvement the previous month. Through the spring, Obama's approval numbers in several polls have slipped.

"Gas prices are a major factor in his slide ... along with unemployment and his talk about cuts and tax increases to deal with deficits and debt," Thurber said.

As he has noted he is slipping in the polls and he is trying to blame it on something. Gas prices are as good an excuse as any other.

"Whenever gas prices shoot up, like clockwork, you see politicians racing to the cameras, waving three-point plans for two dollar gas," Obama said in Saturday's address. But when prices subside, those plans are quietly shelved.

To The Bummer's credit, this is probably the most truthful thing he has said since taking office. And true to form, he did just as he stated - raced to get in front of the cameras. What he is saying is "my efforts at looking for manipulation of oil prices is just idle lip service. Don't count on seeing any real change. As soon as the attention starts to wane, I'll shelve the efforts and dust them off again during the next price surge."

"My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people,"

No kidding, and now it's too late for any relief after years of stifling the development of our own fossil fuels resources.

But we should take heart, because 'core inflation' is stiil very low. Of course, 'core inflation' only applies to people who don't drive cars or eat food.

Wasn't it Obama that once said that high gasoline prices are a 'good thing', because it causes people to drive less? I wonder if he will tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the summer of 2012 (just before the election), saying it's an 'emergency'. Of course, he will say it has nothing to do with the election.

And does it cause the First Family to use less fuel at taxpayer expense? Is Air Force 1 an electric plane? Are they chauffeured in electric limos? Does their gas bill come out of their paycheck? Yes, the oil companies need to be given no breaks!!

Obama knows political fortunes tied to gas prices

Is this what Obomba knows? Are we really so dumb that all we care about is the price of gas? We're in two and a half undeclared wars which we will probably not win and our government is manipulating public opinion by changing the price at the pump. Does anyone else feel insulted by this?

The only way some of Obama's base will understand that he isn't a good leader is by the price of gasoline which will lead to higher prices for everything else.

mountainmike-1199289: "There is currently an obvious lack of aggressive regulation by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission now under the control of Ryan McKee, an anti regulation lobbyist hired for the job by Republican Frank Lucas."

Are people really so poorly informed about the structure of the United States Government to make such wild claims?

The CFTC is an independent agency of the government and is controlled by five Commissioners (4 of the 5 current Commissioners were nominated by Barrack Obama and confirmed by the Senate). The only "control" that Congressional oversight committees have over the CFTC is the ability to change the laws that the CFTC executes - and changing the laws is not highly likely with a Republican House and Democratic Senate. The claim that a Congressional committee staffer "controls" a federal agency led by Presidential appointees is ludicrous.

right wing Teapublicans.

Thanks for putting this at the beginning of your post Cardog. It saved me from wasting time reading the rest of it which is undoubtedly pure crap.

cardog: You think MTMike is a teapublican? Wow, you really are far, far left of center.

cardog: Mtmike is SUPPORTING Obama. As for the 'truth' have you looked closely at who Obama reappointed? If he were serious about reform he would have chased those crooks to the far sides of the earth rather than re-appointing them back where they can continue to do damage...sheesh.

Obama throwing Egypt, an ally, under the bus by supporting protesters:

Obama prefaced his remarks by noting Egypt’s role as a US ally, and its peace with Israel, but then used the YouTube forum to offer some encouragement to the youth-driven uprising that began this week against Mubarak’s nearly 30 years of rule. He stressed the importance of free speech, including access to social networking tools.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0127/At-last-Obama-addresses-Egypt-protests-on-YouTube

U.S. – Saudi Arabia rift over abandonment of Egypt.

Those uprisings [in Egypt] have sparked tensions in U.S.-Saudi relations. In a rare open disagreement with the Obama administration, King Abdullah chastised the president for abandoning Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime ally.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/06/135183927/response-to-arab-uprisings-causes-u-s-saudi-rift?ft=1&f=2

Saudi Arabia cuts oil output.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Sunday the kingdom had slashed output by 800,000 barrels per day in March due to oversupply, sending the strongest signal yet that OPEC will not act to quell soaring prices.

http://www.financialsense.com/node/4946

Obama blames speculators on rise in gas prices.

US President Barack Obama blamed oil "speculators" on Tuesday for soaring gasoline prices that risk weighing down the US recovery and could dampen his 2012 election hopes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110419/pl_afp/uspoliticsobamacommoditiesenergyoilprice

Yeah, Mr. Obama….blame the speculators on oil-gas price increases and say it is really going to hurt you re-election campaign.

Don’t you think your International policy of abandonment of an ally resulted in another ally cutting oil production thus increasing oil prices ? Nah, the answer to that one is not in your Community Organizer handbook.

I have tried to look at the precise issue and what is causing it. Republicans are stuck into an Obama bashing rut with very little evidence or rationale to the statements. Once you look at the increase in gas prices close enough you see that it isn't connected to supply and demand or the unrest in the Mideast. It is Wall Street using the unrest as smokescreen for speculation in oil. So how do you regulate oil speculation? The CFTC has had the key role of controlling oil speculation for years.

‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878

That article squarely puts the blame on the lack of CFTC oversight in 2006. The precise issue is the lack of regulation over oil speculation. No need to blame Bush or Obama, blame the slobs that are actually doing the damage, Wall Street oil speculators and their pretend regulators.

Bush, Clinton and Obama all deserve to carry blame. They appointed and re-appointed the crooks.

Or, we could take another look at Mr. Obama statement about energy prices necessarily skyrocketing if his Cap and Trade was implemented. Nah, that wouldn't get Congressional approval so he is using the EPA to put "directives" into place.

He could care less about what the price of oil per/barrel is doing on the World market. It is all about his "Go Green" agenda.

If our government really does something about "oil speculators", why not "regulate" hedge funds?

It's amazing anyone believes the liar in chief anymore. Do gas prices impact the price of gold? silver? copper? All commodities are going through the roof, not just food and gas. The dollar is hitting record lows!

It called inflation and is what happens when you continue to borrow $1.5 trillion average year after year, money becomes worth less with every dollar that's circulated.

If he really wanted to know who's to blame there must be a mirror in the white house somewhere.

Attention liberal Obama-zombies!!! The price of oil and speculation has about as much impact on the price at the pump as the reflection of swampgas off of Venus. If this were the case (if the price of oil was the only reason) then the effect at the pump would be equal across the globe. In the last 18 months the US has seen an average of 43% increase at the pump, the UK has seen a 31% increase, and Asia is the lowest at 22%. Now ask yourself, whos currency is in the crapper? Think about the UNCHECKED printing of in US currency (100s of Billions) without ANYTING to back it up. For the 1st time in History, the Canadian and Austrailian dollar is stronger that ours and you are still calling the oil companies and speculators the EVIL ones....LOL. This is what happens when your POTUS systematically destroys the economy you live in, get used to it idiots.

Screw political fortunes, the whole dam economy is tied to gas prices. Obama has done nothing but make it difficult to obtain more oil. His borrowing and spending driven down the value of the dollar causing everything we import to be more costly especially oil. Yes we need to move toward green energy but we still need oil.

Obama has talked plenty about gas prices but he sure hasn't done much except increase his own carbon footprint.

its george bush's fault obama is the worst president in the history of the united states, all george bush's fault. its bushes fault we dont use our oil, its bush's fault obomber is setting the stage to be involved in 5 loosing wars in the sand box. its bush's fault obama looted our economy for his union and international banking pals, all bush's fault I spend $400 a month on gas. bush, bush, bush. not obama the fool.

First "end the speculation that takes place in the oil commodities futures market" and begin by raising the margin requirement to 100%. Many of those buying oil futures never intend to "take possession" of the oil, they are just joining with others to push up the price and make all of us "pay at the pump"!

It's time for the greed to end, the run-up in prices hurts us all especially those on modest incomes and the economy as a whole.

But it's not just Wall Street Hedge funds, although they are big players, the futures market is open to everyone and it may surprise you to know that some of those speculators are organizations like...the Harvard Endowment Fund, Pension Funds (maybe your own)...and perhaps even your next door neighbor!

At least one good thing will come of it. One Term President Odumbell and his useless parasite cronies will lose in the next election.

I don't know what people are complaining about. Obama said under his plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket. He is getting his wish without even implementing his cap and trade plan. Just think of how high the cost to fill up the tank will be if he does enact his plan too. Pretty soon we will be in line with Europe on gas prices. On the other hand, to gain support from voters he will promise new subsidies. But only if the debt celling will be increased infinitely. Just think of all the borrowing we could do if we didn't have a debt limit.

Great post from Common-Sense #1.4

There seems to be no leadership in the US anymore just a bunch of elitist sellouts.

Sad but true!

• Production in the Gulf is down 13%.
• Printing money has lowered the value of the dollar so that it is not worth what it was just last year, which means it takes more dollars to buy the same barrel of oil folks.
• China is a 9% annual growth engine.

Speculation? I speculate that Mr. Obama's continued policy direction to support clean energy no matter the cost/value and hamper and villify oil, coal and nuclear energy sources will continue to have a direct impact on the cost of oil. I speculate that continued money printing for massive debt spending will have a direct impact on the price of oil.

Mr. President, you can do 3 things to send a message to the evil speculators:

1. Realease oil from strategic reserve.
2. Approve drilling in ANWR today.
3. Take what was learned in the Gulf oil spill and make the improvements to drill, drill, drill in the Gulf.

The message will have been sent.

BTW people - oil is a commodity. Look up the definition.

Silver has almost tripled in 1 year to $45/ounce (from $16)

Gold is $1500 and ounce.

Copper is up about 35% in 1 year.

Are those evil speculators too Mr. President? Or hedges against or because of inflation?

Okay - let's try this again.

This time around, the speculators and Wall Street are not to blame for the sharp spike in oil (although that won't stop the left from saying so)

Oil is traded based on the US dollar. Because of quantitative easing part 1 and 2, the value of the dollar has fallen, fast.

Example -

You're in London and want to buy a pair of shoes that cost 60 Euro. It cost you 100 dollars, as that is the exchange rate. Next week you want to buy another pair of shoes, costing 60 euro, only this time it cost you 125 dollars because of the exchange rate.

The costs of the shoes did not change, but the value of your dollar did - it declined. This administration failed to realize (cough, cough) that printing money would cause a sharp decline in the value of the US dollar around the world.

Obama is a poor leader and has no leadership skills. Obama doesn't care that oil prices are high because that will make you more dependent on the socialist government he is trying to create. Obama is the devil.

Whenever Gasoline goes up we hear from the Left how it is the "evil Republicans" and "Speculators" driving up the cost... The only problem with this is there is no proof from these people. They'll link to opinion blogs from Alter.net and other pro-liberal junk but nothing relative or substantial.

So, here is the truth. Libya, oil moratorium, Left wing agenda to move to green fuel, Egypt Unrest, US 14 Trillion Dollar debt, Democrat Restrictions on drilling for Oil, Syria Unrest, falling US Dollar due to debt and over printing, default of certain European Union Countries on National Debt, Spain 20% Unemployment, nonrecovery of housing market, record setting winter causing food shortage due to destroyed crops, 3 wars at the same time, and I think that is it. I probably missed a couple things.

Then we have to add into the mix the anti-oil idiots who have restricted new refinaries from being opened. Without new refinaries we just can't process the oil at a substantial enough rate to take care of the demand.

Then we also have all the anti-oil idiots that have pushed oil drilling into the deep waters. We have tons of Oil just waiting to be tapped. A good portion of it sitting on the coast of California.

This is what the liberals have wanted. The "I hate oil" group is getting just what they asked for. Of course they didn't realize that when gasoline went up to $6.00 that they would be hit too. So, here you go liberals. You got what you wished for. I hope you enjoy it.

So, hopefully lessons will be learned and most of the anti-oil dumb asses will turn a corner and join me in wanting new refinaries created and domestic oil drilling being cheered in. If not then I hope you are not allergic to horses.

So why has every other educated person but our POTUS figuered out that printing $ 2 TRILLION in new dollar lowers the value of the dollar and drives up the price of oil (which is traded in US $'s)??

It's called Hyper inflation... and it's what happens when you add 4 TRILLION in debt in 2 years...

What amazes me is that so many are so willing to accept whatever the republicans claim to be our problems..like they never had anything to do with any of it...its easy to place blame on everything on the sitting president, who ever he is..the problem is that we have 55o in congress..many of them havew been there through a good number of presidents..and are still there..if any one is a crook or doing unethical things wouldhave to think it would be those who have been in office the longest...that folks, is in congress. Yet,,so many swear by what these politican make claims too as being truthfull..and I for one have little faith in getting the truth out of any of them..either party.

The economic waterfall fall wont be good for anyone in office if they take advantage of high petroleum costs.

Alternative energies and efficiency are a novel idea, but the development is a long term goal and we might be able to see the industry start to come around in about 50 years.

ivan, NC, and those that have been in office longer are... Dem's!

In fact in the house, of the top 12 most Senior, 10 are Dem's.

And of the top 24 in the Senate, 17 are Dem's... thanks for admi

Obama will be out. Inflation is coming home to roost as this year rolls on into the next.

Mathemetics are at play now. There's nothing Obama can do, short of cutting the budget $1.7 trillion this year and charging each taxpayer $140,000.

Romney will be the next president, but he won't have any effect on inflation.

It is all Obama's fault. Everything was great when that last guy left office.

What's happening today with gas prices is disgusting, but not illegal and thank your elected officials for making it possible...However, there is one thing that can be done in Washington to alleviate the pricing and that is to dip into the govt reserves, which are in place to help address this very issue and from what I've heard and read, the reserves are at peak levels...So why hasn't the president done it yet....I'd love to know the answer to that question because experts are saying they can see gas hit as much as $6 per gallon...

Just a FYI - oil is still tied to the dollar and as the dollar falls in value, oil goes up. Thank you QE2.

What amazes me is that so many are so willing to accept whatever the republicans claim to be our problems

I look at the facts and I apply reason to it. Two years ago we had a chance to stop the oncoming freight train headed our way. People like myself said, "Look to the Past." Instead we not only repeated history but piled on the brush for the burning to even greater heights. Initially, the first recession was Bush but what is coming is all Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. I hope everyone remembers who did this to us. I hope people remember the Democrats wanting this. It's just getting started.

its easy to place blame on everything on the sitting president, who ever he is

Yes it is but tell that to the one's screaming "It's Bush's fault." Hate to say it but the crap didn't start getting bad till the Democrats took Congress.

Yet,,so many swear by what these politican make claims too as being truthfull.

As long as the claims fit the facts but certain groups seem to be unable to understand that overexaggerating is just about the same as lying. We are in a really bad position and if this Congress and President doesn't get real honest with the American people then I don't think we are going to have an America left.

Well I guess the prez was pretty stupid to let the pupetmasters push him into attacking Libya, the destabilization of the Middle East is EXACTLY what is driving gas prices up. He has Made his own bed.

Yeah-BUSH left a mess and OBOMBA made it worse. I'm sure that Giving Billions of dollars of our money to Wall Streeters and BANKSTERS (who created their own problems )without guidelines was BUSH's fault. So yeah BUSH created the problems --too many wars/ deregulation like Daddy Bush wanted but OBOMBA's doing the same thing and printing money like its toilet paper while pushing down interest rates from saings to nothing so his BANKSTERS could take all our interest money as we were afraid of another Wall Street crash. Soooo Quit making excuses for your coporate sell out BOY---OBOMBA

@Valhalla Phil -

Inflation is part of it, yes. When the dollar is worth less there's incentive to buy oil because foreign money goes further on the market that's priced on the dollar. But the correlation ends after the initial correction. This is where the speculators jump in and begin inflating prices. Suddenly "expert analysts" predict where prices may go because of this reason and that reason. And then the speculators have more incentive to continue to drive prices up because there's no ceiling. It's about short term profiting for them, who cares what happens three months from now.

Ask yourself, who profits the most from high gas prices? Then ask yourself, is it pure coincidence that they happen to break all time corporate profits records year after year? Do they work that hard, or are they just that lucky? It's not that simple, which is why these incredible fluctuations in gas prices' continue to happen. There's a vast complex web of interconnections between countries, corporations, investors, politicians, regulators and others that drive this whole thing. And there are trillions of dollars that change hands. Think about what some people would do for that kind of money. Don't you think some of them are already doing it?

Blame should go all around. To oil companies for shamelessly raking in record profits while the citizens that need your product for every day life suffer to pay for it. BP ruined a lot of lives and the environment in the gulf; I wonder how much money they make this year (a ton).

To Wall Street for shamelessly reverting to your old tactics for making a quick buck at the expense of any and every one. Your tactics for making money off of bad mortgages failed, you crashed the economy, got bailed out by the same people who's lives you ruined, and now we've come full circle. Now it's back to oil and other commodities.

To politicians and the people that advise them. Your job now appears to be permanent campaigning. The only things that matter are votes and campaign money to get the votes. Where do they get the millions upon millions they "need" to convince us they should keep their jobs or take someone elses? A small percentage comes from the average Joe. But almost all of it comes from corporations who have something to gain through political policy. So, what, we expect politicians to take action to negatively impact the very people that give them the lifestyle they have? Regulators? Well, they're just people appointed by politicians to carry out their will anyways.

You hear about class warfare a lot, usually regarding taxes. Well, my friends, or fellow corporate leaders, politicians, and financial service people are really raging class warfare on all of you. They're making a boatload of money, and my guess is almost all of us on here complaining about this certainly are not.

I really don't believe there will be an election in 2012. Obama will have some crisis that is so bad he will declare martial law and not allow the elections. He and his wife are very comfortable where they are and have no plans on changing their life style because of an election.

Supply and demand does not explain the current increase in gas prices. The volume of Wall speculation on oil does.

Lobbyist In Charge Of ‘Trying To Kill’ Financial Reform Hired By GOP Chair To Oversee Financial Regulations

See my post 1.6 above. Republicans were the ones that were paid millions of Wall Street dollars to obstruct or water down the banking reform legislation, which included regulations on oil speculation. They have the regulations they need to control oil speculation. However, when the Republicans got the majority in the House of Representatives, Frank Lucas (Republican, Oklahoma) became the chairman of the AG committee, which had the job of hiring a new Commodities and Futures Trade Commission. He hired Ryan McKee, an anti regulation lobbyist. Obama has announced there will be an investigation into the lack of oversight regulation over oil speculation.

What needs to happen is that the CFTC needs to do its job, McKee needs to get fired, and Lucas needs to be brought up on ethics violations.

Interesting that Bernanke and the Fed get a pass here. The CFTC has no teeth, look to Brooksley Born and derivatives. Even after the collapse there are no regulations in place to stem yet another meltdown. Lip service from both sides of the aisle. Interesting that this is April 2011 and we're in an 'election cycle?' Excuse me but perhaps a lot less campaigning and a bit more attention paid to what is happening with the country would perhaps help the situation.

"Lefty"

Sounds like a high school debate.

You still did not respond to the precise point, which is Ryan McKee.

I do not support the Fed. Check out Taibbi's article at Rolling Stone about the insider bail outs that happened and have never been reported in the major news sources.

Check out this article written in 2006 that squarely puts the blame even then on the CTFC.

‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878

It seems to be an old game where the regulations are in place but not enforced. You keep voters happy with the pretense of regulation while at the same time keeping Wall Street happy with no real regulation.

cardog: Mtmike has a better handle on the situation than you do. Calling him a stupid 'teapublican' after reading his posts only indicates that your loyal devotion to Obama has blinded you to the facts.

Cardog: Quit making assumptions. I call you far left because in other posts MTMIKe is defending Obama and you call him a teapublican.You're the one running around labeling people. You assume that because I distrust Obama because of his actions that I'm a republican or that I consider Palin or Bachman seriously. These are your erroneous assumptions and labels only detract from dialogue.

If oil is speculation then what about gold, silver, copper, cotton, food? All speculation too? What about the fact that the dollar is hitting record lows? Speculation too? The latest S&P debt downgrade?

It's called inflation, all commodities are going up.

Attention liberal Obama-zombies!!! The price of oil and speculation has about as much impact on the price at the pump as the reflection of swampgas off of Venus. If this were the case (if the price of oil was the only reason) then the effect at the pump would be equal across the globe. In the last 18 months the US has seen an average of 43% increase at the pump, the UK has seen a 31% increase, and Asia is the lowest at 22%. Now ask yourself, whos currency is in the crapper? Think about the UNCHECKED printing of in US currency (100s of Billions) without ANYTING to back it up. For the 1st time in History, the Canadian and Austrailian dollar is stronger that ours and you are still calling the oil companies and speculators the EVIL ones....LOL. This is what happens when your POTUS systematically destroys the economy you live in, get used to it idiots.

Today the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar by about 5%. Not long ago it was about 80%. Speculation Mt. Mike? Or fiscal spending run amok on the form of inflation.

How is Obama accountable? Read my post 1.6 above. He pushed banking reform legislation through congress to be passed with regulations on the speculation of oil. Then Republicans got the majority of the House of Representatives. That means all of their committees changes to Republican chairmen. Frank Lucas became the chairman of the AG committee and hired an anti regulation lobbyist to be the director of the agency directly in charge of regulating oil speculation.

Obama reappointed the same crooks who got us into this mess. Geithener, Summers, Bernanke, along with Greenspan, Rubin and Paulson were instrumental in allowing a non-regulated free market to spiral out of control. Obama is as guilty as Bush for allowing and encouraging these 'financial wizards' aka: crooks, a free hand in running the situation further into the ground. Bernanke and the Fed are one of the major reasons the specualtors are having a field day. QE2 is funneling money into the markets. The CFTC is a joke and the 'regulations' Obama proposed were never going to happen in any meaningful way, he profits just as much if not more from lobbists.

Bernake is the symptom, not the problem. The world simply will not buy $1.5 tillion a year in debt, nations are trying to offload dollars now. Bernake has two choices, print enough to buy a substantial portion of Obama's deficits, or stop printing and watch interest rates go through the roof. Since housing is in the tank due to strict lending, the latter would completely kill the economy.

Ask yourself this, if Obama wasn't borrowing $1.5 trillion, would Bernake need to print $600 billion of it?

How is odumbo responsible? Well simple economics for one. He reduced the supply of oil by shutting down oil production in the gulf. Two, he has Chu in charge of the dept of energy that stated we should be paying as much for gas as europeans do. And lastly, while campaigning, odumbo promised he would make us less dependent of foreign oil. We are currently more dependent on foreign oil then ever in the past!

What are his actions to solve the problem? Demonize big oil which makes less on a gallon of gas than the guvmint. He ordered investigations of price gouging. Guess what? That is something the guvmint has had in place for decades. In other words, no action from our empty suit in chief!!

Obama needs to cut spending, but the Republicans can only provide a horrific alternative with tax cuts to the rich, privatizing Social Security and Medicare, with increased military spending and extending tax loopholes for multi billiionaire corporations like General Electric and ExxonMobile to pay NO US income taxes due to weaselly accounting tricks using those loopholes.

"horrific alternative with tax cuts to the rich"

That's a lie. It was a democrat house and senate that passed the Bush extensions and a democrat president that signed it.

If you knew anything about the market you would be clamoing for SS privatization as well. My rate of return is easily twice that of SS and the government would have a hard time spending it. What's wrong with an OPTION??? Let each individual decide! I'd be out of there in a shot.

Medicare is a complete disaster. Do you think SS is in trouble? Medicare/Medicaid is easily 10x, perhaps even 100x worse. That's why NOBODY wants to talk about it.

"extending tax loopholes for multi billiionaire corporations"

Go back and take a high school economics class, no corporation pays taxes, their customers do. There is no magic tax account in any corporation, just an income and expense sheet. You boost their expenses, they a have to boost their income to cover it. Are people really so thick they can't understand this basic economic principle???

How do they increase revenue? Higher prices! Of course, instead of increasing revenue, they could just cut other expenses, like shipping more jobs overseas. Would you rather that?

Stop blindly parroting the leftist propaganda and think through the results of what you propose, corporate taxes are highly regressive. Would Gore OR Rush care if gas were $9/gal? Bread were $15/loaf? Hell no! What about the average guy?

You girls are out in force today.

mountainmike - all things you noted are good things! Next? Are you trying to say that households making $50K or less would actually have to pay some Federal income tax instead of getting money back through the insane EICs?

It's Bush's fault! It's Bush's fault! hahahahahahahahaha!

No need to blame Obama or Bush. Why not blame the Wall Street speculators who are actually the ones to blame and increasing the price of gas? Just check out the volume of oil speculation. On the other hand, there is no exceptional supply or demand issue to explain the increase.

Speculators saw the opportunity with the unrest in the Mideast to exploit the uncertainty about the flow of oil to America for profit. For the sake of their greedy profits they are willing to drive up the price of gas to $4 a gallon or more.

The big picture you are totally missing. What we are calling the recession was actually one of the largest Wall Street white collar crime waves in our history. They put us into hard times, and now that Main Street is barely showing signs of recovery, they are compromising the recovery with oil speculation and nation wide inflation.

It seems that Obama is simply the favorite target for some people on all issues. In the meantime, it is sheer stupidity not to find out what's really going on and blame the people that are actually doing the damage.

I think mountainmike has a decent understanding of it. But you get once removed from the speculators, and all that money hires a lot of lobbyists, and makes a lot of political contributions. There are an amazing amount of people who want to blame some secret conspiracy, but I think the truth is that isn't so secret. It's so huge that not one person can really be held accountable for it. The speculators and big bankers get rich at our expense, then cozy up with the very lawmakers who could regulate them. It's a broken system, what do we expect? I'm not sure if President Obama could change it even if he made it his top priority.

There is inflation because Obama is borrowing $1.5 tillion a year. Do you honestly think you can do that and NOT devalue the dollar? The dollar is hitting record lows, gold advanced every day last week, silver is through the roof. Want to blame that on gas speculation? Get real.

Phil, President Obama is not borrowing anything. The U.S. Government is borrowing it, and in case you hadn't noticed, President Obama is not the entire government He has serious opposition to nearly everything he does. I think the price of oil is driving inflation, as nearly everything in our economy is tied to energy and transportation. People flock to gold and silver as hedges against inflation. Could you for once make a post that doesn't explain everything as Obama's fault?

the title of this story is a lie! Bo recently said "he did't mind high gas prices, just they rose rapidly". He is trying to wreck our economy and does everything possible to restrict the use of our natural resources.

The birth of
the "One'

I know he came from somewhere
this must be true
who cares about this state
of confusion
it is only a black oily
smokescreen
to hide his agenda
thanks media and leftist
for floating this
story
It does'nt matter if he was birthed,
hatched
or crawled out of a well
Praise be to Allah.
or shot out of a lava
tube
straight from hell.
the only
things that matters
is he is Here!
The US once was great
and you debate which
State?

The Next To Last President

Barrack the next to last President
Had a contract out on U.S.
His Government took power
The people lost theirs
There is only so much liberty
Either for him or for us
Babies quiver in their mother’s womb
Anxiously awaiting their turn
Grant him single payer health care
You will obey your master
He’s will make you pay and pay at the
pump
Barry is smarter than all of
US
The Free Market System is the
only way
Of this I will never sway

“Never been proud of my country”

“Reparations
don’t go far enough”
Can he
bankrupt US into prosperity?
Wake
up; it’s almost too late!

The
United States of America has been morally, politically and financially in
decline for many years. The mainline media, union bosses, progressive professors
and politicians controlled the ideological discourse and gained total control
upon the people. Any one who contradicted their beliefs was discredited by any
means possible. Because of their collusion, the truth about Progressives and the
causes they supported could never be exposed. This led to the final chapter in
the history of the United States of America with the Presidential Election of
Barack Hussein Obama on November 2, 2008.

"No Matter What---Obama Wins in 2012

April
18, 2011 at 8:10pm

No Matter What

By Dr. Walter
Williams

Can President Obama be defeated in 2012? No. He can't. I am
going on
record as saying that President Barak Obama will win a second term.
The
media won't tell you this because a good election campaign means hundreds

of millions (or in Obama's case billions) of dollars to them
in
advertising. But the truth is, there simply are no conditions
under
which Barak Obama can be defeated in 2012.

The quality of
the Republican candidate doesn't matter. Obama gets
reelected. Nine percent
unemployment? No problem. Obama will win. Gas
prices moving toward five
dollars a gallon? He still wins. The economy
soars or goes into the gutter.
Obama wins. War in the Middle East? He
wins a second term. America's role as
the leading Superpower disappears?
Hurrah for Barak Obama! The U.S.
government rushes toward bankruptcy,
the dollar continues to sink on world
markets and the price of daily
goods and services soars due to inflation
fueled by Obama's extraordinary
deficit spending? Obama wins
handily.

You are crazy Williams. Don't you understand how volatile
politics can
be when overall economic, government, and world conditions are
declining?
Sure I do. And that's why I know Obama will win. The American
people
are notoriously ignorant of economics. And economics is the key to
why
Obama should be defeated. Even when Obama's policies lead the nation
to
final ruin, the majority of the American people are going to believe
the
bait-and-switch tactics Obama and his supporters in the media will use to

explain why it isn't his fault. After all, things were much worse
than
understood when he took office.

Obama's reelection is really
a very, very simple math problem. Consider
the following:

1)
Blacks will vote for Obama blindly. Period. Doesn't matter what he
does. It's
a race thing. He's one of us,

2) College educated women will vote for
Obama. Though they will be
offended by this, they swoon at his oratory. It's
really not more
complex than that,

3) Liberals will vote for Obama. He
is their great hope,

4) Democrats will vote for Obama. He is the leader
of their party and
his coattails will carry them to victory
nationwide,

5) Hispanics will vote for Obama. He is the path to
citizenship for
those who are illegal and Hispanic leaders recognize the
political clout
they carry in the Democratic Party,

6) Union members
will vote overwhelmingly for Obama. He is their key to
money and power in
business, state and local politics,

7) Big Business will support Obama.
They already have. He has almost $1
Billion dollars in his reelection purse
gained largely from his
connections with Big Business and is gaining more
everyday. Big Business
loves Obama because he gives them access to taxpayer
money so long as
they support his social and political agenda,

8) The
media love him. They may attack the people who work for him, but
they love
him. After all, to not love him would be racist,

9) Most other
minorities and special interest groups will vote for him.
Oddly, the
overwhelming majority of Jews and Muslims will support him
because they won't
vote Republican. American Indians will support him.
Obviously homosexuals
tend to vote Democratic. And lastly,

10) Approximately half of
independents will vote for Obama. And he
doesn't need anywhere near that
number because he has all of the groups
previously mentioned. The President
will win an overwhelming victory in
2012.

- Dr. Walter
Williams

Is there a doctor in the house?!?

Thinker, the answer to your question, Who's fault is it now. Ask the Dictator two,Bush and Cheney. Your answer will appear.

So, you give Obama a pass for yet another war...Oh, newflash...Obama is the president, not Bush, has been for over two years now. Bush is gone, blaming him for what Obama is currently doing is, oh, inane and puerile and avoiding reality.

I'm pretty sure I heard on the news last week that President Obama paid something like $450,000 in federal tax last year. More than his salary. And he threatened to veto the troop pay bill because it had a bunch of unrelated stuff in it that he refused to sign. The rest of your arguments are questionable as well. Cite some solid sources next time, and make people will seriously consider your points.

You are right on target. Obama is continuing the disastrous policies of the last 10 years: waging undeclared, unnecessary war, wasting money overseas while we can't get money for things we need here at home.

Well, he did run on Hope and Change and Change we can believe in....As to his tax return. He made $1,700,000.00. After taxes he has $1,250,000. 00 left...golly, he's rich! Wonder if he will punish himself for being rich?

Cardog...You give GE as an example, you do know that GE's CEO is Obama best friend. Just wondering. But the ultimate oxymoron is Obama pushing for this tax cut to expire on the rich yet he is also touting reforming the tax code which drops the highest tax bracket to 25%. Whats it gonna be?

Well, I certainly cant tell the difference between Democrat and Republican anymore. The ineffectiveness of the GOP to stand for anything these days has pushed me into libertarian territory. Bush and Obama, on paper, are 2 peas in a pod. Cant tell a difference.

WOW, hilarious

Wow, BS.

Yep, that methane is from big O's BS...

Methane is a "global warming" gas, too. So, that means less Obama is better for the Earth.

He has to continue to campaign. He has nothing positive in his record to fall back on. Hell, he hasn't quit campaigning since he started for his first term. He has made it obvious from his comments that he would seek a second term.

He has to campaign, thats all he knows how to do. Contry can go south, government can run amok for what he cares, Hes interested in his image, being El Presidento thats all. Think he cares about America and its people? think again

All presidents seeking re election are doing exactly what Obama is doing. I don't buy into the BS that it is suddenly Obama's fault to be campaigning while being president. And that includes ALL Republican presidents that seem to be given a total pass on the same issue here.

He officially launched nearly two years before the fact and you don't find that bizzare? It's obvious WHY he is doing it, he's in a fight for his political life, but he could be a little more subtle about it. He did promise to be the great uniter after all. LOL!

The role of the President will be played by Bill Clinton; the same guy that BHO turned the official press conference over to because he was running late for a party.
LMAO

MountainMike,

I think the difference may be that previous Presidents have planned their campaigning around the obligations of the office. Whereas President Obama appears to be planning his work at the office based on his campaign obligations.

Wow, you are going to be one sad puppy.

Love the pic...

Warms my heart...

because it isn't McCain doing it.

Yeah, it warmed my heart when Bush did it too. They all do it.

Of course the limo has a electric engine. We wouldn't want to be burning any of that nasty oil.

Hello?

Party of "NO" and all?

The outrage should be in robbing you and giving the spoils to the rich but you'd rather point your anger in a wrong direction.

Renewable energy nits in its infancy, nothing has been proven yet. at best its 20 to 25 years away not Now. I go buy me a windmill and plant on top of my car so I can go back and forth to work. when winter comes we just bundle up and freeze to death

"The outrage should be in robbing you and giving the spoils to the rich but you'd rather point your anger in a wrong direction"

And just who has owned congress for four years and the white house for two? Democrats! Who passed ALL the Bush tax cut extensions? Democrats!

Who has prospered during democrats tenure? Banks, wall street, unions and government workers. Who has suffered? The lower and middle class.

Open your eyes, Boss, ignroe the leftist propaganda a take a look at what they have actually done. Nov 2 happened for a very good reason.

Solar electricity has just this year become cheaper than nuclear, according to the DOE. It is a real winner but a low interest solar conversion loan program needs to be implemented to overcome up front costs. If it weren't for that, I'd be all over it.

The problem is it can only be used to fuel electric cars and they are half dozen years from viability. Even then it takes 17 years to turn over our rolling fleet, so we need a bare minimum of 25 years of oil, more likely 50.

We need to drill baby, drill AND begin transitioning to alternatves. Don't shoot one horse until you can ride the other, (and make sure you HAVE another in case you have to shoot the first!).

Valhalla Phil

You have conflicting statements. You support solar energy in one sentence and support drilling in the next.

As far as who had control, it was indeed democrats. But you left out the Blue Dogs. A handful of dinos and every one of the republicans had control. If they didn't, you'd have a public option.

What a suprise of course it would be Bush's fault..... Washington has a spending problem not a taxation problem... I would even go back to Clinton'stax rates if the government would go back to the spending rate.. P.S. I would rather have us killing terrorists over there than over here! You know what I''m saying?

Well, you can thank Bush for many being very relieved that his reign is over. Because of him, any geek in a suit is a welcome relief.

SEEAM60,

What??? Did you fall and hit your head??

Oil prices reached $4.17 a gallon in 2008, Bush's last year in office. But I guess all the Republicans here are giving him a pass for the same situation.

In case you want some good on topic reading about what's happening, try Matt Taibbi's, The Great American Bubble Machine about Goldman Sachs.

Try page 5 where Matt gets into explaining Bubble Number Four.

By the beginning of 2008, the financial world was in turmoil. Wall Street had spent the past two and a half decades producing one scandal after another, which didn't leave much to sell that wasn't tainted. The terms junk bond, IPO, sub-prime mortgage and other once-hot financial fare were now firmly associated in the public's mind with scams; the terms credit swaps and CDOs were about to join them. The credit markets were in crisis, and the mantra that had sustained the fantasy economy throughout the Bush years — the notion that housing prices never go down — was now a fully exploded myth, leaving the Street clamoring for a new bull@!$%# paradigm to sling.

Where to go? With the public reluctant to put money in anything that felt like a paper investment, the Street quietly moved the casino to the physical-commodities market — stuff you could touch: corn, coffee, cocoa, wheat and, above all, energy commodities, especially oil. In conjunction with a decline in the dollar, the credit crunch and the housing crash caused a "flight to commodities." Oil futures in particular skyrocketed, as the price of a single barrel went from around $60 in the middle of 2007 to a high of $147 in the summer of 2008.

That summer, as the presidential campaign heated up, the accepted explanation for why gasoline had hit $4.11 a gallon was that there was a problem with the world oil supply. In a classic example of how Republicans and Democrats respond to crises by engaging in fierce exchanges of moronic irrelevancies, John McCain insisted that ending the moratorium on offshore drilling would be "very helpful in the short term," while Barack Obama in typical liberal-arts yuppie style argued that federal investment in hybrid cars was the way out.

But it was all a lie. While the global supply of oil will eventually dry up, the short-term flow has actually been increasing. In the six months before prices spiked, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the world oil supply rose from 85.24 million barrels a day to 85.72 million. Over the same period, world oil demand dropped from 86.82 million barrels a day to 86.07 million. Not only was the short-term supply of oil rising, the demand for it was falling — which, in classic economic terms, should have brought prices at the pump down.

So what caused the huge spike in oil prices? Take a wild guess. Obviously Goldman had help — there were other players in the physical commodities market — but the root cause had almost everything to do with the behavior of a few powerful actors determined to turn the once-solid market into a speculative casino. Goldman did it by persuading pension funds and other large institutional investors to invest in oil futures — agreeing to buy oil at a certain price on a fixed date. The push transformed oil from a physical commodity, rigidly subject to supply and demand, into something to bet on, like a stock. Between 2003 and 2008, the amount of speculative money in commodities grew from $13 billion to $317 billion, an increase of 2,300 percent. By 2008, a barrel of oil was traded 27 times, on average, before it was actually delivered and consumed.

What we have right now is a repeat of speculation driven oil/gas price increases, the same thing that happened in 2008. The only difference is that now super fast computers are used much more often for trading. Taibbi talks about a barrel of oil being bought and sold as many as 27 times before reaching the customer of gas at the gas station through several days of trading. Now a barrel of oil can be traded back and forth 27 times in minutes on computers.

Speculation on oil needs to be banned. When the price of fuel goes up, there is a direct relationship with nation wide inflation. It needs to be taken out of the reach of speculators so this never happens again. That would result in an instant stimulus to the economy without taxpayer bail out. The cost of gas would be cut in half without speculation involved.

‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878

Sorry, speculation cannot be banned. We do not rule the world, we are not the only trading floor, perhaps not even the most powerful. Oil is a commodity, even OPEC has largely lost control of pricing.

I'm pretty sure that if you were to poll the speculators, you won't find a single liberal in the crowd.

RallyForge,

Kind of hard to "go green" when youv'e got no green.

This agenda of Obama's is in reality an assult on the middle class. What's even worse, is his tendency to just stumble along from one crisis to the next. Make another pretty speech, and then stumble on. Like a drunk just making it from lamppost to lamppost. No direction, no forethought.

How do the long term unemployed view his rhetoric?? His inaction on all our problems??

Amazing he was elected in the first place.

Assault on the middle class? Obama? BS.

And here is the Bush legacy (which Republicans gave him a pass for and now ignore):

Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html?hpid=topnews

For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism -- there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.

And the net worth of American households -- the value of their houses, retirement funds and other assets minus debts -- has also declined when adjusted for inflation, compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s.

And it is no great surprise that after 8 long years of Bush, tax cuts to the rich, stagnating situation for the middle class, and two unfunded trillion dollar quagmires in the Mideast, a Democrat was elected president.

And it is no great surprise that after 8 long years of Bush, tax cuts to the rich, stagnating situation for the middle class, and two unfunded trillion dollar quagmires in the Mideast, a Democrat was elected president.

And what did that get you? A president good at giving speeches with little results!!!

"I'm pretty sure that if you were to poll the speculators, you won't find a single liberal in the crowd"

That's a lie. Take a good hard look at Obama's campaign contribution list.

"Assault on the middle class? Obama"

Instead of leftis propaganda lets check some facts shall we.

Bush/republican congress - 4.6% unemployment, record dow, deficits averaging $130 billlion, (with the EXACT tax code!)

Then democrats took over congress. What's happened since?

Obama/democrat congress - 8.8% unemployment with a record 22 months of 9%+, stalled dow until republicans took back the house, deficits averaging over $1.5 trillion.

Obama is purposely devaluing the dollar with his outrageous deficits. The rich can buy commodites like gold, silver, etc. so they are immune from inflation. The poor are stuck. You are damn right Obama has declared war on the middle classs.

I just read a couple news articles on this. Apparently it's very common for gas station contracts to stipulate that prices go up with the daily market, but only come down once higher priced deliveries have been used up. This protects gas station owners from market fluctuations, and coincidentally guarantees maximum profit to the industry and maximum prices to consumers.

I marvel at an industry that doesn't have to absorb margin erosion. Most industries eat cost increases as long as they can and leave price increases as a last resort, because it impacts sales. The gas/oil companies reprice hourly and consistently have record profits (and the highest profits in the world) when raw material costs spike or supplies tighten. Nearly any other business would feel a pinch, under those conditions. But in a percent-driven model, without margin pressure, gas/oil flourishes.

Percent-driven taxes means the political motivation is to support higher prices too. Higher revenue = more tax (generally). Higher pump prices = more sales tax (unless it's flat per gallon, which is common).

Gabbhayes60

I understand the defense of Obama since he's getting attacked from every direction almost as badly as Bush did now, but you can't make those comments with any intellectual honesty if you don't acknowledge the actions of this President did in fact impact the price on Oil/gas (see monetary policy, energy policy)

Obama pushed through banking reform legislation to get it passed despite Republicans being paid millions of dollars to obstruct or water down the legislation. It eventually got watered down and passed. However, it did have new regulations over oil speculation. Then the House majority went to the Republicans and Frank Lucas became the chairman of the AG Committee. He hired Ryan McKee, an anti regulation lobbyist, to be director of the CFTC, the commission in charge of using those regulations to hold oil speculators accountable.

Lobbyist In Charge Of ‘Trying To Kill’ Financial Reform Hired By GOP Chair To Oversee Financial Regulations

Guess who the anti regulation party is. Hint: it isn't the Democrats.

The moment you acknowledge that Frank and Dodd were reponsible for the economic collapse by not reigning in the banks after repeated requests by Bush, you will have some credibility, till then you don't have a leg to stand on.

Not all those finanial "reforms" were good. Now I get an extra page with every statement, 33% more trees have to be cut down. I also lost a great service with Home Depot because they were no longer allowed to offer it. That reform did me far more harm than good. Just more Obama incompetence.

Well Time4aPurge,

Those are just worthless Syrians. No oil there.

And with a Republican president the prices won't ever go up???

Maybe a Republican president will let us drill.

Of course Obama is very worried about unemployment......his own.

And with a Republican president the prices won't ever go up???

In 2008, the price of gas went up as high as $4.17 a gallon. That was Bush's last year in office. But he got a pass from the current Obama critics.

And the Bush employment program was enlistment for the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. And he is currently getting a pass by Obama critics for two unfunded, multi trillion dollar quagmires on the other side of the planet.

Republican president letting us drill? There are 32 leases of federal land in the Gulf that are not being actively drilled in the Gulf. Why? The companies all have cost effectiveness studies and they will not drill until the price per gallon of gas reaches a certain point. Which may be the same thing as buying up leases and sitting on them to drive the price of gas upward. Then you hear about the Bakken Oil field on the bord of Utah being so huge, but the oil is dispersed over a huge area and is mostly shale oil. Oil corporations also do cost effectiveness studies before they go into a shale oil field for extraction. And the big gamble right now is the chemicals they are using for breaking down the shale are toxic. Nobody really wants them to mine for shale oil in their neighborhood.

Remove Obama from the picture and whoever is president will have the same problems.

If we want to convert to natural gas, the situation is different. America has huge reserves. Many of the city bus systems have fleets converted to natural gas because it burns cleaner and therefore there are less maintenance problems and it is cheaper.

Don't forget who controlled congress during Bush's last two years. Embarrassing to admit, isn't it.

Matt,

Wasn't it A British Oil company that had the oil spill??

Yep, good ol' BP, currently making billions in profits and doing some serious foot-dragging about reparations...that's the one.

Did you feel the same way about Bush? Nope?

This is really the favorite Republican game past time, pin the tail on the donkey. Always blame Democrats. It is sort of a parallel Republican universe they live in where Republicans can do nothing wrong and Democrats can do nothing right.

BOTH parties have their issues. Right now, Republicans are sold out to Wall Street and Big Oil and are therefore anti regulation. The Democrats are the lesser of two evils despite their faults and they will try to protect the American public from corporate exploitation. In the meantime, Republicans are protecting billionaires, billionaire corporations, military industrial complex contracts and excessive military spending.

Edward: Agreed. He ran for president, got elected and now gets to share the good with the bad...just like what Bush got to do. Giving Obama a pass is a double standard, he has the job and if he doesn't like the job he doesn't have to run for re-election.

It will be a sad time indeed if the republicans gain control of everything.

You, who have contributed all of your life to any social program will be, in essence, robbed.

You, who have children, will have public schools privatized, making K-12 as expensive as college, if they even except your child.

You, who was born of a race other than white or a religion other than christianity will see the repeal of civil rights.

You, who must find other employment because you make too much and a new guy can do it cheaper will work without the assurance of minimum wage, as it will be repealed.

Hail to the Chief Executive Officer!

Long may the Americorp flag wave!

Boss, we have been robbed our entire working lives. SS and medicare have been robbing us for years. I'd just as soon have had that money and invest it myself for my own retirement. At least then the government couldn't have stolen and use it for things it wasn't intended for.

Ah yes, investing it... it worked out so well... for the Enron execs and Madoff.

So, a country that is so broke, it must eat the elderly and handicapped to survive must give up more revenue to be even more broke?

Eliminate the gas taxes? What would be better is to ban speculation on oil. We would see the gas prices cut in half over night. We are near $4 a gallon nation wide, how would you like $2 a gallon? That would be a bail out of Main Street with no taxpayer money involved. All the products on the shelves in stores that require fuel for transportation would come down in price. All because we would be stopping the greedy slob speculators that are creating nation wide inflation.

A speculator buys oil on the stock market for the one and only purpose of turning around immediately and reselling it. A barrel of oil can be bought and sold like this more than two dozen times before it reaches the customer as gas. All of those dozens of speculators draw a profit off of that barrel of oil. And that makes everything dependent on fuel in America more expensive.

Wall Street created the white collar crime wave we are calling a recession. They have bounced 100 percent due to taxpayer bail outs. In the meantime, Main Street is just now struggling to recover. And the recovery is being compromised by Wall Street. Unfortunately, I do not think we will fully recover from the recession or be safe from the next recession until Wall Street gets ripped a new orifice.

Partisan BS.

ChasNY: Excellent comments :-)

The rapidly growing number of "former Obama supporters" have come to the exact same conclusions.

Clueless, ineffective, incompetent, LOST, 'over his head', pompous, arrogant and an endless list of his "very negative qualities" can be used to describe him.

While "those who continue to support him" are unable or unwilling to see just how incredibly bad he has been for the USA.

So sad..

peace :-)

As an independent voter I find it disturbing that when the president was first elected the top republican strategy which they openly stated was "that they were going to do everything in their power to make his presidency a failure and make the president a one term president". To what end??? If our president fails doesn't that mean we all fail? Are these really americans who would rally behind such a twisted strategy? it really sounds like a group of small selfish children saying "if we can't run the game then we're going to ruin it for everyone". So far I think the president is doing OK considering the disasters the republicans left for him to clean up(that none of the republicans posting here seem to remember or in all reality have the brass to "man up to".

G-Man: His actions early in his presidency, pushing an ideological agenda rather than addressing pressing issues is what has earned him the approbation. As to cleaning up after the republicans, he had a supermajority, he could have addressed the economy and jobs before spending over a year pushing a health care agenda that is now expected to cost 1.4 trillion dollars. Defend him but his priorities are confused, he blamed Bush for every problem, has broken most of his campaign promises and now has us in yet another war in the Middle East.

Stupid post!

Or George Bush Jr. a little bit unintelligent - lol. Sadly, I think as long as politicians are running things it will be the same sh*t, different day. The mess we're in is bigger than all of us.

It is appalling to watch the Republicans since the taking over the congressional majority in both houses in 1998 and then since Bush started. Bush was on a spending binge that nearly doubled that national debt while increasing the government/military payroll to gargantuan size. Tax cuts to the rich results in an enormous disparity between the super rich and the rest of us while the middle class and working class stagnated at a level of barely getting by. Then the Republican controlled congress passed the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and repealed the Glass Steagal Act of 1933 that was protecting us from Wall Street. They deregulated Wall Street. The following year, they passed the Modernization of Commodities and Futures Act which gave white collar criminals loopholes to exploit for predatory lending, derivatives fraud and the Enron electricity scandal. The infamous Enron Loophole was contained in this legislation, which was slipped into an 11,000 page omnibus spending bill and passed with no real discussion. Any random accident that the mastermind of the legislation was Republican Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, an ex Enron lobbyist.

These two bills that were written, pushed through congress and passed by Republicans were a direct cause of the 2008 recession, Bush's last year in office.

Now that Obama is president, the Republicans want to wrap themselves in the flag and strut around as spending cut experts. Where were the incumbent Republicans like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell during the Bush years? Eagerly voting for all of that Bush spending. Now suddenly the sky is falling and the national debt is Obama's fault. And (of course) the recession is Obama's fault despite the fact that it all started in Bush's last two years in office with the housing market collapse due to predatory lending and the economy collapse due to derivatives fraud.

Oh Josephi,

Oh thank you. I'll be sure to get the word out to all those unemployed people with hungry kids that have lost their house and maybe their marriage.

They don't have to work anymore. They are all idiots. But if they were smart, like josephi here, they would immediately learn to buy and sell stocks. They can then have all the money they want.

How easy and simple. THANK YOU josephi.

Its actually that simple. Sorry!

For every winner, there's a loser; Wall Street's a casino- and the house always gets its cut. The "logic" displayed by josephi is amazing- successful day trading takes intelligence, education, access to good equipment, access to even better information, and the fastest broadband connection you can afford. You can still lose everything- remember the day the Dow dropped about a thousand dollars in about three hours as an artifact of automated trading? That was scary proof that "black swan" events can take place on a timescale far to rapid for anticipation or reaction- unless you happen to have a few hundred million tied up in hardware and programmers- and, of course, the convenience of a seat on the Dow.

Josephi...... Stupid Post!

Edward - Its not the Federal Governments or my problem that you people can't take of yourselves and have to rely on Food Stamps, Unemployment, Subsidized Housing, Welfare, etc, to live. There are many, many very good paing jobs in our economy. It may require you to retrain yourselves, but make that investment. Wisely, choose a career where the sky is the limit. You'll be paid back 100 times over.

If you'd take care of yourselves you could learn to live on your own and not be dependent on "Government Charity" which I and others pay for.

Very well spoken. 100 million copies of this should be faxed to the White House.

ESAD yourself MF.

Stupid Post!!!!

Greetings Mr. President,

We realize that your predecessor spent us to recession on illegal wars and war machines. After his collapse of our stock market, it was you who found the means to sustain us and prevent us from a depression. Should you still be looking for ways to replace all that the previous president took from us, I have a suggestion.

Since conservatives place thier values on such a high pedestal, always "fending for themselves" and being "responsible for their actions", every one of them that voted for Bush should be willing to pay the country back for every dime he took from us. A donation plate should be passed around for the conservatives to fill and a blog on the White House's website so they may write the country a letter of appology.

I know the moral fiber in which they bask themselves in will persuade them to act responsibly and divide the cost of thier votes among them.

I also realize that you may play a huge role is solving the current gas prices. Although you have no control on speculators, you could submit a bill to simply regulate the gasoline industry the same way electric and natural gas is regulated. Since the republican house will be so remorseful over the last administration, I am sure they will be willing to pass such a bill for the People's sake.

Actually taxes are a fixed amount per gallon 18.4 cents per gallon 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel