From what I call the land of the weird, ironic and crazy political figures like Senator Al Franken, and Representative Michele Bachmann, President Obama gave a speech to an audience of 15000 people. The crowd was very thoroughly checked and 100% partisan.

The speech in this was way better than the union speech and similar to the one he gave at the join session of Congress. It had a mix and match of both parts. A firing up of his base and a fight back to the Republicans. There was no drama.

If you had gone or listened to both speeches though, chances are that you would get bored with this one. The story of the fire-me-up old lady was told again, the same speech to the senior citizens and the promise to go after Republicans should they misrepresent the picture. In fact, it would have been a repeat if they had let hecklers come through!

The biggest headline grabbing news was that there was a big boo which people thought were coming from the crowd degrading President FDR. I can tell you that this was not true because of the controlled crowd. You could not hear a word of dissent against the President in this crowd, the same way you cannot hear dissent on Glenn Beck at Tea Party rallies!

The point the President was trying to make was that when President FDR introduced Social Security, it was called socialism then, just like his programs are now. The crowd was booing the Republicans calling the President’s policy socialism. That was what happened.

However, there is an effect that needs to be noted. The real people that are going to decide what is going to happen in this bill is not going to come from the Left or the Right, the power is with the Independents. And believe it or not, they are having a very strong opinion. More than 60% do not approve how the President is handling the issue of health-care in America, but about the same want the public option in the bill.

I think that we are going into this way too early. I think that there should be other things that we should be thinking of, which the Democrats and Republicans are not coming up with. I would like to go along the ideas of a trade war or some way to open up en-masse competition. I think we should only have universal health-care as the very last option but I am open to it an know that it can work.

That being said however, should the President not have public option in the bill, the bill would need to be killed. It is that simple. I have no assurance yet that the President would want the public option in the bill. The reason is this; without the public option, our premiums are going to sky-rocket. There is no good alternative coming out at all to keep cost down.

If we have HR3200 without the public option, it would force everyone to have insurance, force people to be covered regardless and tax people that are not having any, we would have enormous demand vs the same supply. That would bring costs up. The only thing that is keeping cost down, is the cap on profits which can change at the call of the Secretary of Health and Human services, which is just too much power in one person that is not elected.

Lastly, the President just gave another speech when this articled was finished (1p.m., EST). It is about regulating financial services. This has sparked a war of words amongst think-tanks. We have not seen any legislation yet on this and we would get to this topic as soon as possible.

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Minutes of our last post, Van Jones was fired. Perhaps I should not have said that he would not last the month and said that he should not have last the day instead. But this debacle is really a shame to President Obama and a loud wake up call to his followers.

“Get rid of the politics of the old and get things done,” was a message that won a lot of Independents over. Yet, a simple swift-boat attack on the person best qualified for the job and he has fallen right into the Republicans’ trap. This is one of the most disappointed I have been in a President in a long time.

Perhaps, it is that I have personally went and heard talks from Van Jones that I know that he is not a racist or anti-capitalist. Or it maybe the fact that I have studied green technology enough, that this quitting has really made me angry.

However, it is the sheer lack of fight that is in President Obama that has disappointed me. He has lived up to his party’s mantle; the spineless Democrats. There was not even a hint of support coming from the White House over this issue. That has really got to be a disgrace!

It is going to be very difficult to find somebody that is going to be as qualified as Van Jones when it comes to shaping a green economy. And you threw it all away coming from a party where half the base think that global warming is a hoax.

The sad thing is that the President has a lot of good ideas that are going to waste if he does not stand up for it. Liberals wanting a public option can forget about it entirely! You have to wonder what other promises is he going to back down due to Republican opposition.

It is sad that America has a President that is missing something over the last 9 years. Be it the brains and competency in the President Bush (43) administration or the guts in the current one. Neither would have the ability to get anything done.

Letting Van Jones go because of the accusations is like letting Albert Einstein go because he looks idiotic with fuzzy hair, firing Steve Jobs from Apple because he is Buddhist or rejecting Alan Turing into the British army because he was gay! It is that absurd a choice.

I reiterate again, I would rather have Jesse Ventura as a Senator now rather than Norm Coleman or Al Franken despite him being a 9/11 “truther”. When is saying what you feel, bad in America? Hey, what about Governor’s Parry talk of secession? Should he be tried for treason? How far can you play this puck?

This is really a sad day for me. President has lost a lot of respect for not fighting for his nominee. Liberals have yet to learn, Conservatives have yet to change their political game.

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Senator Norm Coleman has finally conceded. Al Franken is now going to be a Senator from the state of Minnesota. Though this has been label as the magic 60th vote on the Senate, I really doubt that the severity of this event.

How do Minnesotans vote? I really do not know. First there was a over-pumped wrestler in Governor Jesse Ventura (I declare that I am a fan though). Then there is a seriously messed up person in Representative Michelle Bachman and now a clown by the name of Al Franken is becoming a Senator. All courtesy from Minnesota. Fran Drescher must have tried to be a Senator in the wrong state!
(Relax Minnesotans, I am just kidding!)

In a serious note, with Al Franken being sworn in, the Democrats would have 58 Senators and 40 Republicans in the Senate. Independent Senators Bernie Sanders and Joe Liebermann caucus with the Democrats. It is with the assumption that there would be a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

I do not buy this for a minute. Even if we assume that all Democrats and Republicans are machine morons that vote by party lines, I really do not see Senator Liebermann kow-towing to Democrats. Remember how many Liberals hated this guy? He was very much with the right with regards to matters such as the Iraq war. That alone should take the magic out of the number 60.

Secondly, I think that there are many Democrats and Republicans that would vote….according to what they feel is right or what is better for them politically. For example, if there is legislation to ban M16s and AK-47s on the streets, I do not think that a Democrat with a lot of M16 owners would be for it. Similarly if there is a legislation to legalize weed, I think that Republicans with a lot of marijuana addicts would vote for it even if his/her party is against it.

This may even be a stumbling block for the Democrats more than a celebratory cause. Right now, they would have to get things done. They cannot blame the Republicans in the Senate at all. Everything is fair game right now. Any wrong move that the Democrats make, would be pounced on so hard by the Republicans. Knowing the backbone of the Democrats, I do not think that they would hold this majority till next year at all.

If I were a Republican, I would right now get my notepad ready and begin to jot down all the failures where I can attack Democrats on. It is time to hunt for the Republicans!

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What a stunner! A long time Republican Senator, Arlen Specter has jumped ship and is now caucusing with the Democrats. This infuriated the right wing and the Republicans and has also stunned the Democrats, many who have made his part of their sworn enemy list.

There area many angles to this story. Firstly, there is the most obvious aspect of the numerical shift in the Senate. With the case in Minnesota that most would agree would go in favor of the clown Al Franken, this would mean that there are 60 Democrats and her allies in the 100 person Senate.

This is a step closer to stopping any filibuster moves by the Republicans. That is still pending with the Minnesota debacle and the fact that not all Democrats would vote together. It is still the votes of 60 individuals.

That brings about another play to this situation. Would there be a 60 vote automatically? After all as a Republican, Specter only voted with his party 48% of the time. That is less than half. He also voted with the Democrats less than half the time ( the rest he abstained or was not there). So what kind of record would he bring to the Democrats?

There are already a lot of Democrats that are called Conserva-Dems. They are Democrats that are mildly conservative on either social issues or, more likely, financial issues. These people are not popular with the far-left base in the Democratic party. These include people like Rachael Maddow and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. They are not happy that a person that did not support the Presidential budget is now on their side.

This also speaks of the dilution of the Democratic party right now. To be fair, this dilution began during the President Clinton years and accelerated under President Bush’s second term. No more are there the agenda of establishing abortion as a recognized legality in America. No more talk of participating in the culture wars. Ironically, the Democrats have now created the President Reagan’s “big tent” for different thoughts.

There are still some bad seeds, like those that wanted to kick Independent Senator Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Caucus for supporting Senator McCain in the Primaries. However, the speed at which that that fire was put out suggested that the Democrats were going all out on reaching this big tent mentality.

That is also the reason that they are winning so many election so far. The Republicans are wanting to go more and more right. For all these loses, many of them said that the reason that they were losing is because they have “abandoned the principles of right wing ideology.” They are basically saying good riddance to Arlen Specter. Rush Limbaugh, viewed by many to be leading the Republican party, told him to take Senator McCain and Miss McCain with him. Are you kidding?

The Republicans must go back to pre- President Bush 2 era common sense. They should be in the capable hands of people like Senator McCain, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Chuck Hagel or even the first President Bush. They must get rid of their Sarah Palins and Michelle Bachmans as soon as possible. America needs that as there need be check and balances to an rampaging Democratic party.

Yet another perspective would be the personal reasons that got this defection in place. He was very straight forward in telling that he was 20% behind his Republican rival for the election in Pennsylvania. He would not have survived as a politician as the Republican base has shifted to the far right and he has not. That to me was the biggest reason that the move took place, though all factors mentioned earlier led to this.

To tie it all up, Senator Specter himself is not a person that is the stereotype Republican. For one, he is pro choice. He takes a step back from gun legislation and is a supporter in fighting climate change. So he himself is a person that is more independent rather than a Republican or a Democrat.

To round it all up, I think that the Republicans lost but the Democrats need not necessarily have won. There is also the sense that the politician that is Senator Specter has been exposed. His re-election would very much depend on President Obama’s approval rating during his campaign. If it is good, Specter stays, else I do not think that he would survive for much longer.

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