1600 Treats

“smart; healthy in all kinds of ways; confident, as opposed to arrogant; a risk taker right when you’ve convinced yourself he’s terminally cautious; a quick study; competitive in a “bring out the best” kind of way; yes, profoundly responsible; refreshingly self-effacing; and fun to watch for the opposite of Bush’s deadly predictability.
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Thank you. I have my differences with the president, but that’s what I expect – no president is ever going to be as liberal as I want because most of the country just isn’t as liberal as I am and I’m not nearly as liberal as a lot of people.
But this is a good damn president. In fact, he’s such a good president I still can’t believe we got him after the last 8 years.
The people I talk to in real space, as opposed to the wonks who wander the virtual political world, are all puzzled as to why some people seem to have forgotten the Bush years, already, because they can’t seem to see how very much everything has changed.
It’s not just night and day, it’s fresh air after being locked in an airless box for 8 years. He’s not perfect, but I’ll tell y’all the bitter truth and you can think sbout it,if you dare: I have never seen a president so nit-picked in my life – and I have my own idea about why that is so and anyone who lacks confidence in Obama as president should look deep = past that barrier you’ve erected against things you were imprinted with by a predominantly white culture from the time you were born.
There’s a difference between honestly disagreeing with an administration/ president, and what we’ve been doing: anticipating disaster around every frakking corner because Obama won’t measure up this time, or so people seem to be saying that’s what they fear constantly.

Tena, you have said it so well, I have nothing to add.
Go President Obama!

It is nice that Bag New’s thinks the Obama’s are “nice”. I think they have tried really hard to improve conditions. I love photography and I look at a large amount everyday. I think when Obama loses his visible love of children, we have lost him. He is slowly frowning more in the photos I see daily. It appears that half of the people who once supported him have turned sharply against him. They really should have given him a couple years to “mop up” the mess he was left. That is another Obama original–”Don’t criticise the way I’m mopping; grab a mop and help me!” More people should, but I suppose criticism and apathy is easier.

When I was out feting Halloween in Washington DC — great fun in Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and U Street, I did wonder what was happening at the White House and hope that the Obamas were having just as much fun.
I noticed during our walks around the neighborhoods, that a lot of women were dressed in Cat Woman outfits and so I am thrilled to find that First Lady Michelle Obama was among them. Great photos!

Maybe a scholar will do a study on the expression of gender in Halloween costumes. I saw lots of cat women, pirates and milk maids.
I wonder if women are disappearing from public life. Hillary Clinton was more prominent as a senator than as secretary of state. And it’s not unusual to see a gathering of public figures with no women present.
So it’s milkmaids, cat women and pirates. Here and there, a smattering of good witches. Just imagine the uproar if Michelle Obama had dressed up as a pirate?

The lack of confidence in Obama has more to do with Bush than with Obama. It wasn’t until the Bush administration was winding down that people admitted to themselves what a buffoon he was.
Bush was a guy who didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t care. Anybody who followed him in office would have a tough time winning people over. And as you implied, there is the additional factor of racism.

“The people I talk to in real space, as opposed to the wonks who wander the virtual political world, are all puzzled as to why some people seem to have forgotten the Bush years, already, because they can’t seem to see how very much everything has changed.”
everything? like what? i ask, again: what, core operationally, has changed since the bush era? iraq? afghanistan? health care? patriot act? wiretapping? presidential powers? katrina resolution? guantanamo? wall street? michelle obama looking good in a cat suit and obama being comfortable around children does not count as meaningful change, btw.
what right does the american president, or america have to feel all relaxed and happy and relieved, and talk of “given him a couple years to “mop up” the mess he was left”, while their country pillages and kills and loots?
have you thought about how many people will get killed, how many gallons of fuel will be spent in the killing, how many trillions will be spent on war, how much damage will be done in that time?
“I have never seen a president so nit-picked in my life” – that’s because obama rode to power on the pent-up anger and dissatisfaction with what the bush gang had done and were doing; rode to power with, you know, “change you can believe in” “the audacity of hope”, etc.
and. then. continued. the. status. quo.
_that’s why folks (other than the birthers etc), are pissed. of course it’s a big ship to turn around; of course it wouldn’t happen overnight; but what i see is people so desperate to cling to, ahem, “hope” of, ahem, “change” that they ignore all facts to the contrary, and dismiss all counter-opinions as to the quality of their “fresh air”.
you know, i’d love to be wrong; i’d love for it to be that great change was afoot, for obama to be in the lions den, in deep cover for us, cleverly playing the game with a big end goal of systemic change for the better.
but it’s not what i see. prove me wrong, show me facts, show me meaningful progress that doesn’t PALE in comparison to the damage being done; go ahead, please – but belief, relief, hope, hype, and michelle’s latest outfit are not facts, they’re fluff, so you’ll have to use something else.

How can anyone show you anything when you so don’t want to see?
Lord knows, I don’t have the energy to wade through all that you posted.