He doesn't represent me - he represents the people who want him to take money from me and give it to them. All he needs to do is take a more even handed approach and tell them he can't raise taxes all that much without ruining the economy so they'll have to accept less than a total free ride so he can keep tax increases to a minimum and use most of it to reduce the deficit. For example, instead of making the sweeping promise that there will be no cuts in SS or medicare and we'll just raise taxes on "the rich" to pay for it, he should tell folks we can't afford that and the retirement age has to go up and folks will have to work longer but that if they are disabled and unable to work it will be there for them early (still) and if those changes are made and there's not enough tax revenue to pay the benefits then we'll raise the income cap to increase revenues. That kind of pragmatism would bring me around...