and the Republicans have been dumping on him for THAT too- even though it's 100% true. Bush left him a huge mess and has had to try to fix it despite the Republican pit bulls biting (and hanging onto) his legs for the past 4 years. He's gotten some good things accomplished and he was able to turn the tide of the recession and point us in a better direction but obviously we haven't gotten back to where we need to be. We're still headed in the right direction though. It makes me sick to my stomach to think where we might be now had the Republicans actually been trying to help govern during the past 4 years.

What I also don't like hearing from the Republicans about Obama is his supposed "failure to lead". Now that we know that they planned-from the VERY beginning of his Presidency- to obstruct him to failure, it's pretty hard to argue that if President had just said or done the "right" thing, he would have won over the Republicans and get them to help.

most of us are not even used to being OFFERED Multi-Million dollar jobs!!!!

I do wonder, however, with all of the changes that states have made since 2008/2010 and subsequent challenges if anybody will be able to accept the election results in November- whatever they may be. I believe that we need to eventually adopt some kind of uniform voting system in this country, at least for federal offices. These state-by-state patchwork of laws, voting methods, and attempts to purge voting rolls, require identification that some people don't have an easy time getting is starting to create a mess for our election system and, with close elections like 2000, makes it difficult for everybody to fully trust the integrity of the voting process. Why do we have to make it so complicated in this country- and then wonder why a lot of people have just given up on voting and participating in the political process. It's particularly creepy that there is a group of people out there that willingly admit that they don't want "certain people" to vote- knowing that they won't vote in their favor. That sort of attitude ought to be denounced and villified, not codified into law IMHO!

Yeah, sure, there were no more terrorist attacks SINCE 9/11 (well, wait a minute, that's not entirely true- Anthrax anybody?) but I don't get how keeping more people from dying (oops, well, he didn't quite do that since he sent 5K Americans to their deaths in Iraq- a pointless and unnecessary war if ever there was) since 9/11 is such a "victory", particularly when it took 3K Americans dead to finally make his (mis-)Administration finally notice that Al-Queda was a threat to us.

Never forget 08/06/01: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US"- PDB

He might have noticed the turnaround!

the problem (for me at least) is that "the other side" is spewing so much hate and vitriol that it's impossible to listen to the other side. Is there anybody on the right that is even remotely tolerable- that is willing and able to advance their viewpoint without lying and/or hating on our side?

If Obama is for it/does it, it's Eviiiiiillllll!!!!!

Things are far from ideal but where's the failure as far as President Obama is concerned? The economy is recovering, albeit slowly, the previous wars are being rolled up, we have new consumer and health insurance protections. The only things I really worry about are Republicans continuing to muck around with the economy, gutting our new protections, and us getting dragged into an unnecessary and messy conflict with Iran, all of which are near certainties under a Romney/Ryan WH and (likely) Republican-controlled Congress.

Things are far from fixed yet, especially in regards to the economy but on just about every front, things are better today than they were in 2008. It is disheartening, however, to think about how much BETTER things might be today if he had not had to spend so much time during the past 3-4 years dealing with Republican obstructionism plot and their absurd and unreasonable "Tea Party".

I'm not really talking about progressives or other Democrats whom voted for him in 2008 whom are somewhat disappointed in him but will almost certainly vote for him again this year but rather the "independent" and Republican-leaning voters whom the corporate media tells us voted to put him over the top against John McCain in 2008 but have since abandoned him (or will be doing so in November).

What is their real beef with him? What horrible things has he done that would make them do an about-face and go Republican in 2010 and, likely, in 2012? Why are they so disillusioned with President Obama that they are actively considering voting for- if not pledged their support for- Romney/Ryan? Is it that some of them became so freaked out and unglued about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for VP in 2008 that they ignored everything else they might not have liked about President Obama and their own political instincts and voted for him anyway- but now feel comfortable voting Republican since Sister Sarah is on nobody's ticket for VP this year? Are they easily malleable (i.e. "low-info" voters) and have gotten brainwashed by Fox and the Republican Tea Party? Are they just thinking to themselves that things aren't getting any better under President Obama, so they think that maybe this Romney guy has some better ideas (though nobody knows precisely what they are because he won't tell us)? Are they just fickle? It seems like a lot of these people soured on President Obama really quick post-Election for no easily (at least for me) discernible reason.

What are some of things that you've heard about these people and why they jumped off the Obama bandwagon, in some cases rather quickly, after voting for him in 2008? My own personal theory is that a lot of them were "soft" supporters mostly freaked out about Sarah Palin whom voted for President Obama but then quickly got sucked into all of the Fox News and Republican Tea Party lies about the Stimulus and, especially, health care reform being "socialist" and thought that President Obama is too "radical" despite his obvious (at least to me) centrism.

What does everybody else think?