Obama at his finest . . .

Now this is Presidential! I think all Presidents should do this on a regular basis before a television audience with the opposition in both houses of congress. What I think is remarkable is that President Obama, in all his speeches and Q&As, seems to be a rational, straightforward and believable person. He seems like the only one that gets it at times and that's why people in general like him and at the end of the day trust that he has the public interest at heart.

I completely agree with him that the congressional Republicans have painted themselves into a corner with the way they have portrayed him . . . they've made their base fear him. This has made it nearly impossible to work through any issues and get anything accomplished through bipartisan agreement. How can you make a deal with the devil when you've been telling your constituents he's evil and will eat their souls? Any agreement with him make Republicans politically vulnerable. I also agree with him that Republicans, although not in power, won't meet Democrats half-way on any issue. His example of the Recovery Act is a perfect example. Republicans would have supported 30-50% of the package but because they didn't agree with 80% of it there was no way they would support it. Here's the problem Republicans are not in the majority, they don't get 100% of their way and they don't set the agenda.

Lastly, where were all these wonderful ideas to reform healthcare when Republicans were in power? They complain now that the bill was a bad idea and Democrats won't listen to them . . . why didn't they fix healthcare with their brilliant ideas they presented today 6 years ago? They had their chance to reform healthcare and they decided to do nothing. Just sayin' . . .