Pajiba

How will the GOP combat this? Will Mitt attempt to sing again? Because if the election becomes "Candidates Got Talent"? They got nothin'.

You realize that it's the sight of that many African Americans in the White House...and not as staff...that upsets people like Pat Buchanan.

It's a beautiful thing.

"I just Obama’s reluctance"

I think you accidentally a word there

B-

I think you could have put more effort into writing this column, Rowles.

I hope that once Obama is done providing the circus he get get busy baking the bread.

I swear Obama's launching a Charm Offensive, whispering in our ear, "Remember, baby, remember when you couldn't get enough of me? When I was strong and our love kept us warm? Look, you know I love you. I hope you still love me. You want me like I want you, don't you, baby? I'm sorry, baby, I know I've hurt you, but I'm only human. I did the best I could. I never stopped loving you. Come dance with me, baby and let's move on together. Oh yes, baby, we can. Come with me now."

Lame, I guess that kind of leaves you no one to vote for.

@ Lame

So you're saying Obama is pulling the wool over my eyes? Garnering my vote with shear charisma instead of political substance? That I herd him sing and forgot I'm not a Republican?

Well, I think that's a baad assessment. Ewe really offended me.

I hear Lenin liked to sing too. Rumor has it he was a pretty mean baritone.

Lame - so you're calling Obama a shepherd? Rather an ironic compliment considering the religious implications of the term.

Martin,

Yours is a very interesting theory that I had never heard nor considered before. I have to agree with you. I guess the main point is that the winner of the presidentially is usually (almost always) the cooler of the two (or three) candidates. That doesn't necessarily mean the winner is "cool," but simply cooler than his opponents. For all the hatred and animosity toward W, I think most people would admit that they would rather hang out with him than Kerry and Gore. The guy is hilarious, although maybe not intentionally.

As much as the righties hate Obama, even they know, deep down, that he's one cool mutha. . ..

His "coolness" won't lower my mortgage debt or create any jobs. He needs to take a lesson from Bill Clinton on how to be president AND be cool. I get the feeling I'd be a little more impressed with his antics if there was anything in the last few years that made me feel like I didn't waste my vote on rhetoric.

And, Mrs. Julien since when is disagreeing with you, missing the point? You call someone a troll for being abusive and ignorant, not for looking at things in a different way. I mean us plebes don't mind you being so naturally superior to us we just want you to be so in a little more clever way. A couple of other commenters were a little corny but not so "paltrowesque" as calling someone a troll.

Now before you go disecting my comment and pointing out how uneducated and unsophistocated I must be, keep in mind that I never claim to be anything more.

This year's election should be decided by who gets the most pairs of panties thrown at him on stage.

So, 2008 all over again?

@phatgirl

Insofar as the "Rule of Cool" is concerned, I'm not making a value judgement, just observing a trend. I obviously think that the country would have been better off with Gore or Kerry from 2000 or 2004, but, alas, they were less cool than their opponent, somehow.

Can I surmise from your criticism of Obama that your disappointment is coming from his left? Either way, you can certainly disagree with the guy all you want, but the one point that I hear all too often and which is patently, provably untrue is that he hasn't DONE things.

This is the most accomplished progressive presidency in 50 years. I'm sick of typing it out on the internet, but the laundry list of things he's done include:

-Passing substantive health care reform that Democrats have pined for for generations.

-Actually ending combat operations in Iraq (to be fair, following timetable recommended by GW Bush) and setting drawdown date for Afghanistan. The troops are actually, really coming home.

-Killing Osama Bin Laden and killing or capturing 18 of the top 20 Al Qaeda leadership, crippling their organization worldwide.

-Saving the US auto manufacturing industry from bankruptcy and all but assured disappearance and recouping taxpayer investment at a profit.

-Passed sweeping reregulation of the financial sector.

-Cut middle class taxes and payroll taxes while lobbying for higher taxes on the historically undertaxed superrich.

-Outlawed predatory and unfair lending practices by credit card companies.

-Stopped torturing people.

-Ended Don't Ask Don't Tell and directed the DOJ to stop defending DOMA in court. He speaks softly about it, but this is the most aggressively pro-Gay Rights president in history.

-Pulling economy out of violent contraction in which we saw negative growth of -8.9% and were losing 750,000 jobs per month (in Bush's last month)to sustained economic growth for over 10 quarters and two straight years worth of sustained net job growth.

To say that, over his term, Obama's White House has LOST jobs is to blame him for the first few months of his administration when the country was losing close to a million jobs a month, before any of his policies had been enacted, which is like blaming a pilot that takes the wheel of a plane in a tailspin for the altitude of the plane once he levels it out.

I'm sick of people saying Obama is "all rhetoric". It's lazyminded and untrue. You can disagree and/or hate what he's done all you want, but don't say he hasn't done anything.

I'm still waiting for him to bust out the break dancing.

We Brits are always going to like Obama cos we've been stuck with Brown and Cameron oh and Clingy Clegg. At least Obama seems like he's be up for getting hammered and busting out 'My Girl' on the karaoke. Sigh.

Martin - not to mention he's managed to severely improve the opinion of the US in the eyes of its allies. And that he manages to do it with humility (which is probably the reason you have to keep reiterating his actual accomplishments in the first place).

Wait till his second term. US presidents who take over from a predecessor of a different political stripe are always stuck fixing the previous POTUS's mistakes for their first term anyway.

Wow. Martin, you have an admirer. I'm new here, & it's a pleasure to see such sharp, smart comments from people who appear to be using their own brains rather than parroting things they hear every day, & can't be bothered hurting their fragile sensibilities with facts.

I second Obama/Martin 2012! Will there be a bumper sticker?

Oh, & Mrs. Julien? Please don't shut the hell up. You are a scream & I loved your posts.

Haters gonna hate.

PS I LOVE that header photo.

Martin, let's not forget that universal health care for the United States was first proposed by Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican.

And it was also suggested by Richard Nixon, another Republican. If I recall correctly, Nixon tried to get Teddy Kennedy on board with the idea. How's that for bipartisanship?

I've been Republican since I was old enough to vote, but I have been, and am currently, appalled by the candidates my party have put forward since the 1988 general election. The current quartet and the ideological bent of the party faithful itself are, if not terrifying, at the very least deeply troubling.

Opposing Obama doesn't make anyone a hater. The irony of the left is that anyone who disagrees with them isn't just wrong, but is evil, racist, stupid, etc. Yes, the party of progressives have become the party of the closed-minded.

And Martin, well-played, sir. You make it seem as if Obama has been anything but a major disappointment to both right and left.

He has taken a page from the Clinton playbook and highjacked the agenda of the GOP in almost every major policy decision since taking office: Iraq, Guantanamo, Homeland Security, Afghanistan, gay marriage, the auto bailout, Wall Street reform, middle class tax relief, and this week, corporate tax relief.

Where he has opposed the GOP - healthcare reform (rammed through with little to virtually no public debate), the Keystone oil pipeline, union bailouts, allowing gas prices to climb thru the roof, taking crony capitalism to whole new levels (see Solyndra, Beacon Power, SunPower, Nevada GeoThermal, all major donors and all bankrupt or on the verge after massive federal government loans) - he is widely opposed by a majority of Americans.

Still, there are major differences. Obama supports increasing federal government presence in everyday life decisions, continued massive deficit spending (his total deficit spending in his four years will more than double Bush's deficits over eight) with no slow down in sight, and the hypocrisy of the most secretive administration in Washington since the Nixon years (this after promising to be the most "transparent").

I'm confused (again).

Everything the Republicans do is bad and evil (because they are) and they suggested universal health care, so it's ... a good thing?

I mean I get this, but I hate everybody, so, more evil - yay! And what's with the Nixon love? Oh, wait, I get it. We're all evil now.

Carry on.

@snake - I'm pretty sure most "Chicago politicians" (seriously? What does that even mean? why do the GOP nutbags want to alienate the entire third largest city in the country? idjits) are better at using punctuation than you at least.

@ harold ballard's ghost

I hear ya.

I'll not support a tyrannical assassin of American Citizens, including children, without trial. His pet Holder and his gun running scheme is only the tip of this administration's many Obominations.

He signed Indefinite Detention into law on New Years Eve. Took a multi-million dollar Hawaiian vacation only come home and jack the deficit up another couple of trillion dollars.

We won't even get into the economy.