Thursday Open Thread

I made a commitment not to respond to the constant and to my mind vicious personal attacks posted by some people, here.  However, I do think that such attacks are designed to intimidate and deter honest analysis.  When those posters self-identify as Republicans or Conservatives, I believe the motive is to attract all the anger and frustration that Democratics on the blog feel.  That energy, then, does not go anywhere and is not politically  constructive.  It reinforces the notion that such "vetting" actually accomplishes something.  It doesn't.  

There are some bloggers who self-identify as Progressives or Democrats and whose comments include personal attacks on people who post any comment that is not first of all a vicious attack on conservatives, tea partiers, Republicans, etc. and second, do not repeat the standard Democratic  party line.  IMHO, the motive of such people is either to reinforce the notion of "group think."  Group think is destroying the Democratic Party.  Of late, I have wondered if such people may not be "Progressives" as they claim, but another example of how Republicans/Tea Partiers/Conservatives infiltrate blogs, groups, etc, with the motive as described in the first paragraph. 

I think that the Republicans are in a position to recapture all the favorable public opinion that they lost with the Cruz tactics and the government shutdown, because all that was claimed about the ACA websites and costs evidently hold a great deal of truth.   

The President evidently has surrounded himself with "adoring" staff that shielded him from what is going on.   In his first adminiatration, he chose experts for staff and advisors.  He seems to have replaced them with "students" and "interns." His press conference yesterday ( or was it Tuesday)  pissed me off.  That was crap. He mirrored his comments on the IRS problems and NSA scandals.  "I am the PResident and I am in charge, but I knew nothing." Crap.  You have to work real hard "Not to know."

I am reminded of some incidents that I didn't like:

1) In 2008 campaign, Obama was in Colorado and we were told he wanted to speak to some Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.  I was not able to go.  But, I had friends went down and were "placed" on the stage behind Obama.  He never really talked to them at all.  They were "props," for his speech on public service.  They were very knowledgeable people, and all had spend two years in the developing world - in many different countries. I think he missed an opportunity.

2) During the  first debate of the 2012 campagin with Romney, it was obvious that Obama did not have a clue about how the ACA was going to work, and Romney did.

I anticipate excerpts from that debate will be used in the 2014 campaigns.

3) As I have said over and over, making the OFA a non-partisan issue organization was one of the dumbest mistakes in political history,

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