"Lotta angry liberals posting. They are not bragging about what Obama has done but just hammering Repubs for their beliefs. Some still blaming Bush."
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That's all they do. No imagination and no real brains. No life experience. It's what somebody else said about this area. When you live here your entire life, and do only one thing, or two, your brain pretty much ossifies. And they don't have the sense to admit that. These people need to travel a bit, and some should stay wherever they go and not come back.

Those troops would limit their missions to training Afghan troops and hunting down terrorists.
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Regarding the terrorists, start with the French.

"We will be able to transition over these next two years to a point where the Afghans themselves can govern and secure themselves," he said.

What a bunch of crap. Bet his eyes are brown. Those simple idiots will never be able to govern themselves, and there is not one good reason we should be there anymore. The reason was Al Queda, and I no matter what the media says, they are not there anymore. All that is left is a bunch of pissed-off Afghans that want to kill us, except for the smart ones from Kabul that can make a buck off of us.

Good grief - the GOP and their history of lying!
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Pot to the kettle: "You're black."

Kleej, starve the beast, I like that one, that's a well put strategy. I got sucked into both parties at different times of my life but like you educated myself and now I can see through it. Very liberating.

Eagle1, right back at ya! It took a self-directed education to see the light, and I'm learning more everyday. We gotta starve that beast!

noob,

Rgarding Gitmo, yes Obama signed an order closing it. He had a Democrat majority in both the House and the Senate-republicans were powerless to stop it. It was Dems who kept it open-and will keep it open indefinitely.

BTW, where do I get my free obama cell phone? Can you help me out?

Kleej, you said it perfectly, thank you for being a person that isn't persuaded by the flowery partisan rhetoric and can see through the BS.

Ezoner; the entire gov't system is the problem! When principles are compromised, chaos ensues!!!

As I see things today, the Senate is the problem. They wont bring things to a vote at all. The Dems are afraid they will be held accountable for votes up or down and the repubs dont have a strong enough front and bipartisan pressure to bring a vote. I am trying to fogure out the heck the senate has done for 4 years. Bascially nothing.

The house -- whether you agree or disagree has brought things forward. Held votes. Proposed solutions. You may not like them -- but they have at least done work. So even those that disagree with their proposals should recognize -- unless your purely partisan that the Senate is the problem.

Eagle1, you pretty much described it all in one word; "insanity". And, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. If you look at the mindset of some of the posters in here, it could almost look hopeless. It's easy to point the finger at the democrats or at the republican's, but at the end of the day, both sides are in the same business and the more we all play the blame game, the more power they get. People need to be educated on this stuff. It's hard to fight for something when we don't even know what we're fighting for.

Bowlgal RE:state of union address -it sounds like he took artistic license -on areas such as head start, jobs #.

However, he doesn't have any yellowcake on his hands. Good grief - the GOP and their history of lying!

I find it interesting that many posters on here discuss the lack of solutions proposed by the conservative side. They seem to forget that House Republicans have put forth a budget (none from the Democratically controlled Senate for four years), have put forth a plan to reform Medicare (also nothing from the Senate), have put forth a plan to reform social security (also nothing from the Senate). The problem does not lie with lack of solutions from the Republicans, it lies with lack of action from the Democrats. You can only have dialogue about an issue when both sides are willing to come to the table. At this point, the Democrats are unwilling to come to the table, yet cry about the Republicans refusing to negotiate. Take some time to do research and you will learn that the Democrats are taking advantage of your ignorance on the issues.

Boy the fact checkers are having a field day with Obama today. He has become a joke onto himself.

n00b, so basically government is too big to get this stuff done, since congress is interfering? And yet we continue to vote in parties that increase this mess. Insanity.

noob,

Closing or opening gitmo are utterly irrelevant. Jobs. Economy. are number 1 A and 1B.

Climate change and gun control are smoke screens-a debt laden economy, out of control govt spending-and federal solution to raise taxes, increase spending and borrowing, on any and every issue that impacts human lives-whether here in the USA or out of the USA.

A govt big enough to give you everything you want is large enough to take away everything you have.

@MATTHEW516, I like that! "Our own collective ignorance is the food that feeds the govermnental beast"

Eagle1,
January 22, 2009 The president signed an executive order closing Guantanamo within 1 year. Many congressional actions caused this order to never reach fruition. Not due to lack of presidential effort.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-22/polit...
Seems to me we are out of Iraq and well on the way to being out of Afghanistan. Much to the chagrin of many in Congress and the Senate.
And he just made a presidential stand to NOT enter into Syria's ground war.

reasonintellect,

U6 data is govt data. These are real people. 5.5 Million people dropping out of the workforce-are not retirees. 12.9 Million unemployed are not retirees. The issue i not the number-if anything the real unemployment is worse- not better than the 17.1% unemployment rate.

Business are not hiring-at the pace required to maintain current unemployment levels-let alone see the number fall from 8.3% to 5 or 6% range as it was under Bush. The private sector needs to create a minimum of 250K full time jobs per month-every month-until the end of the 2nd term-for Obama to break even in job growth-10.9 million jobs lost since Jan 2008. Just imagine how truly bad it would be if the recession had not ended in 2009-almost 4 years ago.

Today GDP is shrinking and average quarterly growth since the recession ended is tepid at best. 1-2% quarterly growth. Bill Clinton called the HW BUsh economy the worst "since the depression" and GDP growth-grew at a rate 3 times as much as Obama.....

Obama wants more revenue-so he hike tax rates up on fewer tax payers-to reward his constituency-he likeluy will receive less revenue-not more. Result-greater debt. Tax revenues correlate with economic growth-not tax rates-Obama and the left does not see this. They harken back to the good ol days of Bill Clinton-before the tech bubble burst-when the economy was growing at 4-5% (the key is growth) and the corresponding income tax rates-and the left thinks they have the solution-raise rates on the 52% of net tax payers! problem solved. However, Obamas GDP is flat to declining. What do we hear from dear leader-its bushs fault. Thats Obamas leadership.

Remember-second terms are generally worse than the first term-look at Clinton, Bush, Reagan. Obama is headed down the same path.

I thought POTUS wanted to bring the detainees to an empty prison in IL, but the GOP was afraid to let them into the country.

donnaw, very true. What's ailing this country won't get fixed by the politicians. That's like telling the wolf he's in charge of the sheep. The answers lie in all of us. We keep expecting change from the political people (which won't happen) yet, refuse to humble ourselves and check our own hearts and start there. A good example is, the American people demand a balanced budget from our government, yet most American households don't have a balanced budget themselves. Lack of education (not schooling) and the unwillingness to get educated with practical life principles is what's hurting people. What we don't know, can and will hurt us. Sadly, our gov't (both left & right) are perfectly fine with that. Our own, collective ignorance is the food that feeds that governmental beast!

Obama Seeks 29 New Programs: ‘Nothing I’m Proposing Should Increase Deficit by Single Dime’

That's right, not ONE single dime....billions of dimes.

I have lost track of all the deadlines set by the President for ending wars bringing troops home, closing Gitmo, etc. wasn't this all promised during his first campaign? Hollow proposals fed to the masses that will feed on any rhetoric, same old same old.

woody...and just where are your answers to our problems instead of your negativity?

Lotta angry liberals posting. They are not bragging about what Obama has done but just hammering Repubs for their beliefs. Some still blaming Bush. I guess they have a short memory. When Bush was president the conservatives had to listen to their whining. Now it's the conservatives turn to whine. Liberals are the party of tax and spend. They never met a govt program they didn't like. Just my opinion folks, so don't get your undies in a bundle. And wil....kirch.....We smell your stench too.

>Guard our borders and forget the rest of world.

Sounds like someone wants to let China take over pretty much all of the Pacific rim and middle east. I guarantee that if we lose our influence in Asia and the middle east, everyone will be paying at the very least double per gallon for gas than today's rates. Stability is what keeps commodity prices low, and would you rather have the stability and preferential treatment of an American hegemony, or the stability and second-class status of a Chinese hegemony?

Not sure why you keep talking bad about Pelosi, Biden, Reid, and Hillary like that.

same OLD same OLD from the grand OLD party, withering away

I see those that echo the words of msnbc are the only ones with answers...from the mouths of the party of do as I say not as I do.

H A I L King Barry!!!!!!!!!

"Donnaw, wislady, and Retired Air Force that operate much the same as Fox news. They focus on the negative instead of offering legitimate answers to our problems."
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Exactly!

The Capitalists statement by Marco Rubio is the same ole stuff from grandpas old party (GOP). I have noticed the NEW interest in the poor people now. Is that a new plan from Karl Rove? I think most people with common sense can see right through that stuff.

Will_Kirchmayer: You nailed it right on the head. I too am a veteran of over 33 years and feel it is time to bring home our troops. I believe in a nation that works together and yet I see post by Donnaw, wislady, and Retired Air Force that operate much the same as Fox news. They focus on the negative instead of offering legitimate answers to our problems. It is easy to find fault in someone than to help find answers. It is people and news media like them that continue to push people apart instead of trying to bring us together.

TCB - the upper U-series numbers are not as reliable of an indicator as they once were since they don't account for the shifting demographics. For the past several years we've been experiencing a significant demographic change as the Baby Boomers exit the work force (this will continue for the next decade). The first wave were pushed out during the aftermath of the recession (side commentary: this is certainly partly age discrimination on the way out, and ongoing age discrimination that prevents them from re-entering the work force). So they reach a point of defeat and drop out of the workforce for retirement. Does this mean that represents significant damage to future economic expansion? Not necessarily. Likewise, illegal immigrants were leaving in droves during the aftermath of the recession - which gives the illusion they were unemployed/underemployed/etc. Is this damaging to the future economic expansion? Not necessarily. So there are a lot of problems with using the high U numbers as a predictive tool if you ignore the shifting demographic trends that significantly impact the numbers.

Could the economy be better? Certainly. Do I believe that any President (either Republican or Democrat) has a significant influence? Certainly not. We need significant changes at the Congressional and Senate levels to actually impact the future of the country. Anything short of that is just mediocre management of the status quo (which has been going on this way for decades now).

Bring em all home-Why keep screwing around. In fact bring em from Germany, Japan, Korea and everywhere else. Guard our borders and forget the rest of world.

Not very Christian of you MB, I know you pretend to be one, but your comments and political leanings sure say to me that you are not a very good Christian. Have you read the teachings of Jesus Christ?

""food stamp statistics"" more beloved rhetoric for the right to demean poor people. What is almost always left out is that the great majority of people that recieve assisstance from the government WORK, many time multiple jobs!! Their wages have been affected in many cases by the private sector moving operations over seas, or lowering wages and eliminating benefits. The beloved private sector economy is as much at fault for food stamps and "entitlements" than anyone.

See WalMart, the largest private employer in Wisconsin and the largest participant in Badger Care as well.

Of course TCB the "shrinking of the economy" is more about the 22% 4th quarter decrease in defense spending than the private economy, not because of the "socialist" path that we are headed down
The mistake that you and so many like you make is that you believe that your "tribe" has all the answers and the other tribe is just all wrong. That is the problem with this nation. Most economists are calling for 2013 to be a year of growth.

http://business.time.com/2013/01/16/what...

http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking...

http://www.c-span.org/Events/CBO-Dir-Elm...

In the CBO's report, released last week, the agency estimates that the deficit will fall below $1 trillion in 2013. The last time the deficit was less than $1 trillion was five years ago
The report also estimates the U.S. economy will grow by 1.4 percent this year.

The funniest thing about your "point" is that the economy shrunk because of a very large decrease in government spending, funny how that works isn't it? Whats the Republican "responses" going to be tonight? We need to eliminate taxes on wealthy folks while poor people pay more and more? Wish I knew a republican plan that goes beyond generic talking points.

Tonight what word will Obama say the most I or we? My guess is I.

reasonable intellect:

The recession ended in June 2009 and last month alone-1.2 Million people dropped out of the Labor force and yet the official unemployment rate DROPPED to 8.3%. This means there are 5.5 Million people not accounted for and 12.8 Million unemployed. The U6 rate is 17%-are these lagging or leading indicators of the next 4 years? According to the BEA the economy is shrinking-down .14% in Q4 and down more than 3% from Q3. tonight we will hear what? We will learn about Climate change and Guns. Hope and Changed the subject.

People still watch baseball? Must be bored or not have a life.

ReasonableIntellectual, people dropping out of the work force. You forgot to compare the food stamp statistics.

wislady: "Record Unemployment"

During Reagan's administration, the unemployment rate reached highs of 10.8% in 1982 and 10.4% in 1983, averaging 7.5% over the eight years. Rates during the Great Depression exceeded 25%, and sets the bar for "Record Unemployment".

The unemployement rate during Obama's terms peaked at 10.2% ten months after he took office (caused by a financial crisis he inherited), and has been steadily dropping ever since. Please be factually accurate if you wish to contribute useful dialog to the discussion.

I am retired from 20 years active duty in our Navy and I for one, am glad we are pulling our troops out of Afghanistan...we have shed too much of our blood there in vain.

The time is right to pull all of Americas armed forces back to the 'world'...Garrisoning countries we fought and defeated 67 years ago is an expensive indulgence in a past long gone now.

I am interested in an America where polarization is not encouraged or celebrated...

...Where speaking the truth in regards to the grab for power by a monied and unprincipaled clan of misguided Americans can be seen for what it is...Fascism.

There once was a battered country where the citizenry was weary of the polarization and endless suffering brought about by economic collapse...They were offered to be saved by a group who promised to give them back their pride and take them back to a time when 'things were decent and right'.

Care to venture a guess which country I'm refering to?

wislady: Your normal postings do more to turn normal people away from the side of the conservatives as most folk can smell the stench of the TeaParty cancer when they see or hear it.

Politics as a hobby....meh...

Do you think the speech tonight will be another "You didn't build that" speech?

Some of us are interested in politics, some are interested in baseball. Frankly, politics is much more interesting than baseball.

2.6 Million in Poverty, 45 Million on Food Stamps, Median Income Down 10%, Record Unemployment & Gas Prices....it will be interesting how he paints that as the GOOD news.

You are the definition of persistent. Or bored.

"And Gitmo will be closed in one year."

Instead, they got a brand new soccer field.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01...