Obama’s “skill” is not as problematic as the right wing death grip on issues that matter. He is making headway where none would have been possible, and the intransigence in Congress has and will continue to backfire (that is my fervent hope). You think Reagan’s deal making and so called consensus was a good thing, in truth it brought about the beginning of the end for the American economy. Why you all are so all fired enamored of that, truly remains a mystery.

Obama would be a much more successful president if he could only grasp some of these skills that Reagan had.

For example, there were sweeps like Nixon is 1972 and Reagan in 1984, but that does not mean that the blue state infrastructure disappeared in the entire country durng those eras.

More meaningful when studying long term party shifts is what is happening from grass roots, to state government to Congressional and Senate representation, all combined. Taking those parameters into consideration, meaningful trend lines start to emerge.

Also, the division and bitter partisanship in Congress has more to do with the divide than the red state/blue state elections ever did and THAT started with Gingrich and it was deliberate. Reagan got Dems to work with him, Gingrich forced them to choose a side as he drove wedges that may never be healed and gerrymandering did the rest. Besides which, Obama has proven, twice now, that only Republicans “need” the south to win.

And finally, the very argument Mark J uses to assist his argument is the rant about the social issues ignorant people who spoiled the party have used. THAT is pure, unvarnished, unadulterated Gingrich, not Reagan.

I despised Reagan’s politics, policy, duplicity and faux populism but I will not blame him for the ignorant people Gingrich et al beat the bushes to bring in and have been hamstrung with ever since.

Thanks for the comment. I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.

Isreal is certainly NOT our number #1 ally. That title belongs to the British for a long time now. Moreover, I would say the Canadians and even the French are much better friends… Israel is merely our new partner in war crime.

OJ,
Initially I hadn’t thought that, but now as I look, everything fits. 0bama’s background: born to communist parents, raised by communists, mentored by communists, educated by communists. And now governing in a manner that could only suggest a desire to intentionally bring down capitalism.

How else could you explain a president who has increased the deficit more than any other president and displays no signs of stopping? How else could you explain a president who actually recruits people to get on public assistance? How could you explain a media that totally ignored his background and his irresponsible spending while hyperfocusing and destroying any conservative that could pose a threat.

Look what’s happening to Marco Rubio, the presumed GOP front-runner now?

then Russia is at or near the top of the list! Might be a more useful language to offer in schools these days than French or German, which have been losing their importants since WW II.

The Right’s neocon wing and Christian Zionist wing could take as an example our number one ally, Israel, which is trilingual country – Hebrew, English, and Russian.