Obama is not “tricking” the right. The only question in this budget is what will be cut, nothing else.

The “right” isn’t who he is trying to trick. He’s setting up a budget fight. He’s trying to trick the middle.

Obama has already abandoned the ‘left’ and many of them have been calling him a liar for two years now.

To the extent this is true, is simply indicates how childish and silly the left is. He hasn’t abandoned them. He simply has’t been able to toe the line they want, and they are having a hissy fit.

So you think the reason the Republicans cut off welfare under the Clinton years because they wanted to do…. what, increase the dependence of welfare slaves on the government or white rich class?

When talking about symptoms, one needs actual… symptoms.

I meant the budget is kabuki, though I will agree that many of our politicians from both parties put on a good show as well.

I know some of this is normal in politics -even absolute despots like say, Stalin, sometimes have to put on a show. But I think our current congress(on both sides of the isle) and current President have taken it to new levels, and even when they’ve discussed important matters such as war and peace, the discussions have been carefully framed and certain facts and reasons left out. The Tea Party isn’t quite as corrupt , nor are a few senators (Ron Paul comes to mind) but their influence is currently muted. Check out Pauls recent hearings on the Federal Reserve, for instance, as an example of some thing that should be getting much more press and political attention but isn’t.

In short, I suspect we disagree in that you think the kabuki is all one way and focused in or on the character of one very corrupt and somewhat inscrutable man, whereas I think he is merely a symptom of rot which is really too wide spread for either of the two major parties to curtail because they are both too complicit in it.

I apologize. I should have been more clear and said some of you guys. Unlike views that I’ve thought you’ve held in the past (the importance of foreign policy vs domestic) I was thinking more of some of the commenters here rather than you. And to be fair there’s a fairly diverse group here in that although most of the people here arrive at a similar foreign policy conclusion they do so for different reasons.

For instance, take Art’s posts. I probably disagree with his conclusions half the time, but even when I do, his posts are long, thought -out , and usually contain at least some nuggets of fact, so it’s not usually a total waste to at least skim them and I often read them through. And that’s why I come back here at least a few times a week. Sometimes it’s fun to go into the “lion’s den” and test one’s courage that way, and I can do so here. I can also sometimes have nice pleasant conversations and learn things as well.

You’ve got a good blog going.

He’s got it dim to save power. Must be.

*Snickers* Sure, like how he abandoned Rev Wright, his grandmother, his political ally Bill Ayers, and all the rest.

Funny how Obama keeps getting more extreme Leftist people to abandon after they said he just abandoned some previous ones. They keep rotating in… from somewhere.

sort of a reverse canary..

Here, you & I are in 100% agreement. Obama wears many masks and assumes many identities. However, he is a hardcore, true believer in the ideology of the left.