I’ve just about had it up here with every single one of them. Their attempts to torpedo healthcare reform and lack of compassion for 30 million people who would benefit from it are hard to take. Their efforts to attack the legislation with lies and propoganda, in direct opposition to the analysis provided by non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, are even worse. But this opportunistic tactic to benefit from a plot that could have cost hundreds of lives is the last straw.

Yes, our nation has become polarized. But that is solely one party’s fault. President Obama has tried repeatedly to enlist Republican support, first for his stimulus bill and then for national healthcare. But after accepting numerous amendments from the other side on both bills, the President was thanked by a party line vote based on political calculations.

And now this. The Republicans have no shame.

Of course, this was in stark contrast to the Republican amendments where the only goal was to obstruct action and try to pass a poison pill. Thus, Senator John McCain went against the typical Republican beliefs to save money by offering an amendment to “protect” Medicare. His sudden conversion contradicted stands he took in his own campaign and was only meant to destroy the necessary funding needed for the legislation to pass.

Well, at the least the debate has begun, and I think the American people are going to continue to see the Republicans do everything possible to obfuscate and undermine the process. I hope the result is a long period in the political wilderness with the rest of the right-wing nut jobs who form the birthers movement and tea party contingents.

During the Bush administration, we were beset by false assurances, cherry picking of intelligence and a general attitude of deception. We should give the new President an opportunity to define a new, more nuanced strategy, and wait patiently for it to work, or possibly, fail.

We should acknowledge that the President has undergone a far more deliberative process than we ever saw during the Bush administration and give him credit for going through the effort, despite Republican efforts to short circuit him and test his patience.

Of course, some details of the speech have already been leaked such as the size of the new force and the need to create benchmarks for the Afghan government to meet. But I would look more closely at how the President ties these items together into a cohesive whole. Does it make sense as an overarching philosophy? Are there sufficient safeguards in case things don’t go as anticipated. Is there a plan B?

I’m looking forward to hearing the results of President Obama’s deliberative process and hope he hits the ball out of the park, for the good of the country and the American soldiers sacrificing so much on behalf of it.

The power of these interest groups was clearly illustrated during the House debate when the Stupak amendment was needed to put the Democrats over the top. This amendment mandated more restrictive pro-life language on abortion than is usually the case.

Anyway, it’s somewhat of a miracle that Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to hold the fractious party together, if only for one vote. The Democrats are all, at least, willing to debate the legislation as opposed to the Republicans who will have none of it.

The old saying, “I don’t belong to any organized Party, I’m a Democrat,” still holds true today and augurs potential disaster down the line without continued compromise and horse trading. At the very least, I do not see how Senators Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln will ever vote for any bill containing a public option, though I think the other centrists can be persuaded, specifically Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson.

One possible solution would be to change the public option from an opt-out situation to an opt-in situation. This, perhaps, would satisfy the liberals and moderates alike, though there still may be some grumbling on the more liberal House side.

That premise, the possibility of electing Sarah Palin to the highest office in the land, would be an anti-intellectual reaction to the Obama administration. It is troubling to think the American people would fall for the same Joe Sixpack theory prevalent in the Bush administration.

Haven’t we learned the potential catastrophes possible with an incapable leader at the helm? The way George W. Bush mangles the English language, a capability shared by Sarah Palin, is the least of the problem. Think about what President Bush accomplished in eight short years: Hurricane Katrina, two foreign wars, a global economic collapse and more.

Yet Ms. Palin pushes blithely ahead, staying in the public spotlight, yet making no effort to learn about current issues, a lack of intellectual curiosity. She may be a nice person, someone you’d like to have at a barbecue, but that shouldn’t be the main criteria for the highest office in the land.

Many question whether the Katie Couric interview was an attempt to trap Sarah Palin or whether she exposed her real character and qualifications. Well, I suspect we will be able to come to some conclusion about that in the coming weeks.

The road ahead seems so fraught with peril; it makes me despair sometimes about the prospects for passage. Currently, we don’t have heros but anti-heroes; short-sighted ungrateful members of Congress like Joe Lieberman, a man who defied his Party solely for the sake of his own reelection.

And then, as if to justify his actions to himself, he insisted on campaigning for John McCain and, most egregiously, recently threatened to filibuster even consideration of the healthcare bill — due to his ulterior motive to defend his campaign contributors in the insurance industry, based in Hartford, CT.

And despite his attempts at justification, maybe even desperately trying to pull the wool over his own eyes, that’s what his recent stand amounts to. A reward to his campaign contributors and an abdication of any real concern about the lives of ordinary citizens, often mired in poverty.

And how can he claim to be religious with his unfeeling, callous actions towards people who are dying every day for a lack of health insurance.

But I have faith in this country. Someone will step in to the breach to help us secure the victory. Just like someone always has in this great land. The Joe Liebermans of this country are always vanquished by those with true vision — those determined to include all our citizens in this great experiment called America.

President Obama has expressed support for that option but hasn’t twisted any arms to get it passed. In fact, it almost seems like he would be satisfied to get any health care program passed.

As to the troops in Afghanistan, the more politically risky move would be to lead the country and say we’re not going to get caught up in this quagmire. But despite all the hours of debate, it seems like President Obama will acquiese to the addition of 40,000 troops as well.

The effort to rein in enormous salaries on Wall Street has so far been limited to just seven companies who received massive infusions of federal aid.

President Obama was elected on a mandate of change, but he often seems willing to go along with the crowd rather than exercise Presidential leadership. It is the quality of leadership that the country is hungry for, and we need it desperately.

Our national infrastructure is crumbling, the highways and bridges, yet the stimulus program does not seem to have addressed this critical need.

I have faith in President Obama and think he will eventually step up to the plate and exercise true leadership. Yet he hasn’t done so yet.

The feat may seem worthy of a Houdini, but I believe it can be done. Why? Well, it’s not because of the courage of our representatives — it’s because their jobs are at stake. There’s nothing like a little self-interest to propel the legislative process forward. If the Democrats can’t achieve this, despite the clear backing of a majority of the American people, and overwhelming political majorities, the results will be demonstrated at the polls because the Democrats will have proved themselves incapable of governing.

There will be a lot of noise, and a lot of jockeying for position, and many debates with sincerely held beliefs. But as the false supporters peel away — the insurance lobby comes to mind — the real question will become whether the election of President Obama means anything. He’s a smart guy and can read the tea leaves as well, so I’m thinking something will eventually be pushed through. However, nothing in politics surprises me any more, and there may be some unexpected developments down the road.

Stay tuned.

If you remember the main story before the Nobel Prize, it was the fact that the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan body, had scored the health bill drafted by Senator Max Baucus of the Finance Committee as budget neutral. The Republican Party had no effective response to this development; they were sputtering with excuses about why this bill designed to provide health care to millions should still be defeated.

Though it has become fashionable to decry the lack of action by the Obama administration, and I would agree the main body of his work should still be ahead of him, the President has accomplished a phenonmenal ammount in just a short period of time.

He has enacted consumer protections aimed at the credit card industry; he has expanded CHIP, the child health care insurance program; he has moved forcefully to put the auto industry back on solid footing; and he has prevented what looked like an imminent collapse of the world financial system. Not bad for a couple of months work.

So next time you hear Republicans yelling about the Nobel Peace Prize, tell them to get a life and do something positive for a change.

The general in question, General McChrystal, seems to have forgotten who is the commander-in-chief and the well-established rule in this country of civilian control of the military. His recommendation is acceptable, but granting interviews to the press is not and represents a clear breach of military protocol. It also makes it harder for President Obama to evaluate the situation and come to the best decision without undue influence from any side.

The history of Afghanistan is well known. It has rejected colonial influence from some of the greatest empires in the world including Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Before we attempt an ambitious project of nation building over there, we need to consider the unique factors of that rugged, inhospitable land, and how many soldiers, as well as resources that we desperately need in the United States, should be spent on an ambitious, uncertain objective.