Barack Obama

[karadan]

That's an incredibly refreshing graph to see, Sophus.

[Tank]

That's an incredibly refreshing graph to see, Sophus.

I agree, it's a good trend. I would however raise one red flag. Are the jobs that are being created productive (manufacturing, teaching, research etc) or consumptive (civil servants, service industries like insurance and the like)? If they are predominantly consumptive then the USA is on the same slippery slope that Margaret Thatcher started and Tony Blaire greased in the UK. The German economy has just had it's highest quarterly period of growth in 20 years and its been fuelled by productive industries which the Germans still have. If a country does not have a backbone of productive or extractive industries that add real value then it's just an economy written on paper. If the US is going down the route of 'paper jobs' then the capitalist system will fall in due course as the rot will have set in on the powerhouse of real productivity. We'd best all start learning to speak Chinese.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I think that Palin on the Republican ticket in 2012 would guarantee President Obama a second term.  I think that Republican strategists are well aware of this, and we won't see upper levels of the GOP encouraging her to run. Ducking out of her term as Governor of Alaska to make speeches to Tea Party groups and swan around on Fox?  That leaves her with little credibility when it comes to middle of the road voters, in my opinion.

This, I think, is spot-on.

[notself]

I recently got a call from the Democratic Party asking for $.  I told them no until rendition was stopped and the prison in Guantanamo was closed.  This explains:

WASHINGTON â€" The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists....

The CIA first publicly hinted at the existence of the Binalshibh tapes in 2007 in a letter to U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Virginia. The government twice denied having such tapes, and recanted once they were discovered. But the government blacked out Binalshibh's name from a public copy of the letter.

At the time, the CIA played down the significance, saying the videos were not taken as part of the CIA's detention program and did not show CIA interrogations.

That's true, but only because of the unusual nature of the Moroccan prison, which was largely financed by the CIA but run by Moroccans, the former officials said. The CIA could move detainees in and out, and oversee the interrogations, but officially, Morocco had control.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/1 ... r=Politics

[not your typical...]

That said, President Obama is such a huge improvement over his predecessor that any fault I find in him seems very minor in comparison.

Second that!