Are more virtuous than big donors, but that still leaves the no donors with less of a say.

We have the market to determine the money outcome of preferences. The political system should be based on equality of access.

The political system should be based on equality of access.

I think there is going to be a public outcry to fix the election process from campaigning, to voter registration, to actual voting, and to vote tabulation. The TV coverage has been revealing, and the many exposés that have gained wide circulation on the net have been also.

But political equality is probably not going to be maximal anytime soon unless legalized bribery in the form of campaign finance and lobbying is at least restrained to a minimum. A billion dollars spent on a presidential bid is ridiculous.

All human beings are equal as persons, but they are not of the same weight. Politically, some people are a lot weightier than others. The question is whether this weightiness is determined by wealth, power and privilege, or by character and ability.

looks pretty good to me after 8 years of bush.

I did inhale.

and see what the upgrade to a TARDIS costs...

but it's time to be a *lot* more ambitious. Just putting it back to "the way it didn't work properly before", which were the conditions that produced the Bush/Cheney interregnum, is in nobody's interest. You deserve better.

One ding too many on an old, rusty fender; put away the Bondo, it's time for a new fender.

I think that is the signal that Rober Rubin was sending today by co-writing an op-ed piece with progressive economist Jared Bernstein.

Obama will inherit quite the mess.

Not everything can be blamed on bush either.

But it's hard to understate how bad a president he has been.

Worst in my lifetime.

I did inhale.

agreed.

have you seen hugh's list?

http://www.netrootsmass.net/hughs-bush-scandals-list/

Hundreds of cases of criminality, malfeasance, fraud, abuse of power - where would a new president conceivably start? It would be so much easier not to investigate or prosecute so many offenses.

One is to try and get to that magic land where we put up houses and people bought the debt from making them, and allowed us to by toys and tvs with the money. And if we all just wish reaaaaally hard the Great Pumpkin will come and distribute unity ponies to everyone.

The other is to actually work through the mess. Signs are that Obama and much of the Democratic Congress will try the first. So figure 2020 some time when there's a chance for real change. Maybe 2016 if the Republicans defeat Obama early and elect a real stiff.

I don't want them to be defeated at the polls, or even crushed. I want them to dissolve themselves, to march off in the history books as America's most dangerous, anti-American, incompetent, divisive, pernicious political force ever, unfit even to be a party in perpetual opposition. They have inflicted the greatest amount of damage on America, both long term and short term, of any political party in our history. They deserve oblivion, or obloquy of the most severe kind if we must be reminded of them.

Maybe today the voters will start this process by sending them into permanent exile. It is conceivable; the Republicans may be so imbued with racial prejudice, intolerance and especially hypocrisy that they can no longer field a slate of candidates who will appeal to the general voter. If they are sent to the penalty box as a party that can only survive in the old Confederacy, let us hope no one arises who reshapes them into a multi-cultural political force ready to compete on the national stage. They don't deserve a comeback, and the rest of us don't deserve putting up with them ever again.

That would be like saying you want Germany to be dissolved for allowing the Nazis to take over.

Democrats were also spineless in their role as the opposition party. It goes beyond that. They enabled the Neocons.

Some Republicans--Ron Paul and Chuck Hagel come to mind--fought bush tooth and nail. There are decent people in the Republican party and they won't be going away.

Prediction: one of Obama's biggest hurdles will be a Democratically controlled congress.

Corporate powers sensed the changing of the tide and have been forking money into the Democratic party with front end loaders.

I did inhale.

They can go elsewhere, supporting a new conservative party that believes in the Constitution. It is the Republican politicians, with the very few moderate exceptions who have yet to be purged from the party, who need to go home and find some other line of work.

...

I've heard him address energy issues and he has also spoken of an infrastructure development program. So I'm waiting before passing judgement.

He did flunk the bailout (takeover) test.

The democratically controlled congress on the other hand has shown a propensity to do exactly as you say. Afraid of stepping on someone's toes (as in bush and his cohorts).

In the end, congress will be tasked with much of the heavy lifting.

If they don't get it right, I fully expect Republicans to regain control after two years.

Momentum from bush's policies will be hard to overcome (the worst is yet to come) and the public will become impatient with Obama.

I did inhale.

my friend Hugh has been keeping that list so that no one has an excuse to forget. i guess that includes a new president.

Also see:

http://agonist.org/forum/category_george_w_bush_administration_controversies