So to me, it's clear the GOP really didn't want the presidency in 2008. It was clear that what was offered in the running was supposed to lose; a final smack down of McCain, and his despotic maverickism, and of course, Sarah Palin, nothing more than a bee sting for the left, and the center, and some loctite for the extreme right. "Keep em down at the farm, the GOP always sez".

But, why wouldn't the GOP enlist other rising stars? like Pawlenty? or even Powell? why didn't they do that? it's really clear, The monumental mess that Bush left couldn't be handed over to a Republican president; no, there would be the same criticism now, but only there'd be a clear legacy to the previous president and yes, the ruling party.

Why would they want to fill in the various and sundry holes they dug from 2000 on? of course they wouldn't, better to leave this mess to an acolyte, a neophyte, one clearly marked in the election as an in-experienced light weight, so the criticism could continue.

It took nince years for us to achieve the present fork in the road in Afganistan; and in my view the McCrystal verbiage is a decoy for a different plan. Look, we aren't going to debate nation building again, and certainly not in that "Ungrateful Volcano" as Churchill called Afganistan.

On the subject of being backwards looking, Afganistan is is the Smithsonian of sixth century thinking; and of course, we bristle in horror at corruption there, well, there's corruption in Italy too, that cute little misogynist running the country won't step down even though he's facing a firing line of corruption charges, Nor should we judge; the evidence is still out on the crowning of a prince president by our own SC in 2000. Whether is the Holy See anointing a King or a court appointing a president, it's all the same to me.

But I digress; the financial toilet we found ourselves in, was not the making of a Democratic president, it was the making of a laisse faire minded, Ayn Rand worshipping, acolyte named George Bush; and why did he win in 2004? fear and the fact that the job was not done.

I heard that more than any other statement when I campaigned for Kerry back then; people who were voting for Bush said "he started this, let him finish it", it was more akin to a punishment than a privilege.

But now, we see the fecal matter of the past eight years being smeared on another acolyte; only this time, this one has the support of most of the world, while here at home, he is vilified by comedian, court jester, and politician alike; all with the same opinion, all with the same five cent wisdom.

Of course, it makes for fine entertainment, but when you look at the calculus, this was supposed to happen; the GOP could never have cleaned up the mess they created, but they get a "get out of jail' card to cavort again in the mid year elections, that slow, painful climb back to the top of the garbage heap.

I believe that the GOP should thank the Democratic party for promoting Barack Obama, I think the GOP should thank the Nobel committee for recognizing Obama, and I think the GOP better run some solid, competent, and fair minded candidates. If they don't, I am sure the stink will follow them, for a very long time.

Regards

Pace

Here I am surfing the BOTF of a Sunday morning, and the next thing I know, I have coffee coming out my nose! "The Smithsonian of sixth century thinking" - not even Churchill came as close as that. Thank you for a wonderful description.

And I agree that the GOP bailed out in '08, leaving the Democrats to clean out their Augean stables of corruption, debt and financial mismanagement, not to mention two wars that need never have been undertaken.

and that's exactly what the GOP did in '08, why would anyone give them political head to do it again?

It makes absolutely no sense to me, and the images they are projecting are downright laughable; these clowns are at the scene of a forty car pile up, bodies strewn everywhere, and they're worried about the camera angles and the lighting.

It's stunning,

Regards

Pace

going to join conservatives in laughing at the clown prince you liberals put into the Oval Office? It's entirely your fault you know.

You did not have to pick a first term U.S. Senator with zero meaningful experience to lead this nation and the free world, but liberal misogynists just could not stomach the notion of having a woman president . . . someone who had been training to become president via her husband and his advisors for at least a decade and who had enjoyed previous national and international successes.

So you non-thinkers, you emotion junkies decided to go with a clown for president and now you want to wail and moan because it's obvious that the job has proven to be too much for him to handle. Yeah, what a surprise in both respects.

Obama might yet become a decent president, once the right finishes exposing the rest of the communist czars he put in place to help run the nation. Aside from Van Jones they just discovered and exposed another one, the Communications Czar, who's an outright communist and who admires Hugo Chavez as a great leader, and who believes that the best approach forward for the United States is to destroy capitalism.

Why does Obama hobnob with so many outright racists and communists and former terrorists? Is he trying to tell us something? Or is he trying to tell you liberal fools something? You selected a relatively young man, with a socialist’s background, with a golden orator's voice and the ability to steal speech material from many different sources and NONE of you bothered to look beneath the hood. You simply swallowed the presentation and the two self-serving memoirs as FACTUAL in nature. Now you are crying because you got taken by a con man and his gang of liberal thugs.

Because liberals can NEVER accept responsibility for their own screw-ups you are blaming conservatives for setting you up. Well, both conservatives and Hillary voters tried telling you determined, blind, emotions driven sheeple that there was something seriously wrong with Barack Obama and you refused to listen. Hell you refused even to hear.

Obama is your screw up, not the Right’s and not the thinking portion of the democrats. You wanted him, you rammed him down the nation's throat; so enjoy your clown prince.

Keep crawling Gatewood, your vitriol has no effect on me.

I am stating a fact, the GOP didn't want to win, they betrayed YOU,

You should clean up your own backyard.

Regards

Pace

and other ardent liberal supporters of Obama as reality smacks you in the face. You are now blaming conservatives for MAKING you vote for Obama. Oh, that's rich!

Well, Pace, you deal with an economic collapse and two war fronts with the socialist president that you idiots put into office over the objections of the thinking portion of the voting pool NOT with the President Hillary Clinton or John McCain that you needed. You made this a reality not only for yourselves but for the entire nation and the world. So now live with it and deal with genuine reality instead of your assinine pie-in-the-sky, Kumbaya daydreams.

that's what I said, because they had the party, left the mess, for someone else.

sure partyers are admired by "your kind", I am more in awe of the broom handlers who sweep up after the party.

And that's what Obama is doing,

I don't doubt my vote for him, never have, but I doubt you guys have a clue, that the GOP duped you

Happy realization Mudfence, you've been had.

Regards

Pace

whisling past the graveyard going on here Pace. Now that even the mainstream media is STARTING to criticize Obama for his REFUSAL to recognize or deal with our ongoing economic problems and massive job losses and his REFUSAL to deal with Afghanistan in a timely manner, you liberal Obama supporters are beginning to lose it.

One notes that once again you have been flinging around accusations of racism in regards to any criticisms of Obama or his policies. That's the sign of a deeply flawed intellect and of someone who does not know HOW to defend Obama in regards to the president's increasingly serious domestic and foreign policy screw ups; and, mind you, these screw-ups were accurately predicted by Obama's countless detractors BEFORE you mindlessly eomotions driven idiots put the clown prince into the Oval Office.

are racist Gatewood, clearly, I haven't "flung around" anything, I've lasered in on you, and picked apart your posts,

You are sick racist.

Geez, thought the "mainstream liberal" media didn't matter to "you people".

Regards

Pace

I agree the GOP didn't particularly care if they won the White House in '08.

That said, this cracks me up..

But I digress; the financial toilet we found ourselves in, was not the making of a Democratic president, it was the making of a laisse faire minded, Ayn Rand worshipping, acolyte named George Bush.

It's as if you've never heard of the Community Reinvestment Act; White House pressure in the 90's to leverage Fannie Mae up to 50% in toxic loans; Clinton's old budget director Franklin Raines, then Fannie's CEO, looking the other way while busily cooking Fannie's books for loyalty and profit; Jamie Gorelick, of keep-the-FBI-from-talking-to-t­­he-CIA-and vice-versa-fame, shipped over to Fannie to collect her $26 million payoff without the word finance on her resume; Fannie bundling their half toxic mortgages for sale globally; Chris Dodd and Barney Frank pooh-poohing the Republican notion that Fannie needed some oversight.

Yeah...you're a laugh a minute. Ever tried standup?

<link>

Gramm crackers contributed to this mess.

Regards

Pace

nobody notices how you react to strong criticisms of Obama and his policies? You think that you are posting inside a reality bubble? That's rather cute in a pathetic sort of way.

I am one of the most effective critics of Obama and his policies posting on these boards and so to you I am automatically a racist. Carter-Cosby-Pace, we now have a trinity of pathetic little spirits spewing their fear and hatred everywhere they go in order to defend Obama from criticism.

Were you to dig deeply enough you might even discover enough functioning brain cells to legitimately offer up a defense of Obama instead of endlessly reach for your deck of race cards.

You think that nobody notices what you are doing; but they notice. They may not say anything to you -- particularly your fellow liberals, but they do notice; and everytime you spew force your racism garbage they detract one intellectual point from your ongoing posting tally. Thus you gradually remove yourself from relevance.

it's about YOU,

It's about your racism, that's what this is about,

Truly, you give me too much credit for collective think, that isn't at play here, your words are, and you have caught my attention,

YOU are an effective critic of Obama? in this little world you live in?

And it is little you know, like you

and your racism.

Regards

Pace

now you've got my sides are splitting...

Agreement Reached on Overhaul of U.S. Financial System
New York Times, October 23,1999

Full Story Here

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton Administration and top Republican lawmakers reached an agreement early Friday to overhaul the financial system, repealing Depression-era laws that have restricted the banking, securities and insurance industries from expanding into one another's businesses.

The deal was announced about 2 A.M. after a compromise was reached over the measure's effect on lending rules for the disadvantaged, the source of months of partisan bickering between the White House and Senator Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who heads the banking committee.

......White House officials withheld final approval of the agreement until aides could see the measure's language. But the officials indicated Friday night that, with broad support from Democrats in Congress, the measure was all but certain to be signed by President Clinton. As such, it will be one of the most significant pieces of legislation to be written by the White House and the 106th Congress, which began its term considering whether to remove Clinton and has had a bitter relationship ever since.

"When this potentially historic agreement is finalized," Clinton said in a statement, "it will strengthen the economy and help consumers, communities and businesses across America."

....The breakthrough in Friday's legislation came in a backroom meeting at the Capitol soon after midnight, when a group of moderate Senate Democrats -- led by Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Charles E. Schumer of New York -- forced a compromise between Gramm and the White House over the legislation's effect on the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 anti-discrimination law intended to encourage lending to minorities and others historically denied access to credit.

Dodd, whose state is home to the nation's largest insurance companies, and Schumer, with strong ties to Wall Street, have long sought legislation to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. Both men said in interviews Friday that they moved to strike a compromise after it became apparent that the legislation might be killed, as it was last year by Gramm, over the debate about the Community Reinvestment Act.

Gramm had maintained that he did not want anything in the bill that would expand the application of the Community Reinvestment Act because it was, he said, unnecessarily burdensome to banks. He had sought a provision that would exempt thousands of smaller banks from the law. He also wanted a provision that would expose what he has described as the "extortion" committed by community groups against banks by requiring the groups to disclose any special financial deals the groups extract from the banks.

But the White House found that provision unacceptable and had its own ideas about community lending. It wanted the legislation to prevent any bank with an unsatisfactory record of making loans to the disadvantaged from expanding into new areas, like insurance or securities.

The White House had insisted that the President would veto any legislation that would scale back minority-lending requirements. Four days of intense negotiations between Summers, Gene Sperling, the President's top economic policy adviser, and Gramm, while moving the two sides closer, failed to resolve the differences.

Such was the state of play Thursday evening when Gramm decided to force the issue by having the House-Senate conference committee vote on his proposed compromise, which the White House had already rejected for failing to block banks with bad lending records from expanding to new businesses.

When Gramm's measure was defeated by one vote, it quickly became clear that there would be no law unless Gramm could get some Democrats to break from the White House.

But Administration officials had spent all day making sure that the Democrats remained solidly against the measure until their concerns about the Community Reinvestment Act could be worked out.

Maybe you could get Letterman's job Pace.....[howling]

sorry, Boca, the Oracle of Rand, Alan Greenspan, has conceded that the global financial crisis has exposed a "mistake" in the free market ideology which guided his 18-year stewardship of US monetary policy.

the conservative ideology of deregulation and laissez-faire, let the market monitor and correct itself put us in the crapper. conservatism failed. it failed us.....big time.