Of course the passage of the foolish Patronage Bill will be spun as a stunning success for the President. Few will believe him incompetent.

Wiki Guenther Hasinger- the German fusion power project, Asdex Upgrade, is doing 'better than expected'. Its main competitor, the other german fusion project, is still being built- in Germany. The Wendelstein project.

Wish I still lived in a first world country that could do that sort of thing.

(Or Wiki Letters from the Rhine, where I got this).

I am torn about all of this. Philosophically, I couldn't be further away from where Obama seems to be leading, but he IS our leader, and I recall only too well just how brutal Bush's philosophical opposition became. For as much as I respect you, Simon, I would put you in the category of "turnabout being fair game".

Call me naive, but I was hoping for some reasoned dialogue where we might give credit here and there. As an example, our current president has brought along many of Bush's advisors on foreign policy issues, and while he says he intends to close Guantanomo in a year, that should give him sufficient time to figure out a less contencious way to reach a more appropriate end result.

There is a fine line between voicing strong feelings and being obstructionist. Myself? I would like to see everyone do a lot more surfing and a lot less cliff diving.

There should be a more natural ebb and flow. Pick your wave carefully, THEN ride her hard. You win some; you lose some. Exactly as it was meant to be.

All this may not make for a good blog entry, but "Mother Nature"? That ole girl still knows how to rock and roll each and every one of us to our knees...if not our death.

Penny, the problem is that for all his words to the contrary, Obama did everything possible to shut down a dialog on the stimulus bill.

He was very competent when it came to that.

As an example, our current president has brought along many of Bush's advisors on foreign policy issues,

Advisers are one thing. Policy is another. Brining along advisers without adopting their policies is not helpful.

We saw that in the Pork Bill. Republicans were consulted and then ignored. i.e. he was trying to use consultations as cover.

In the long run - the next six months - it won't matter. As the policies fail - one after another - he will be seen for what he is: "Mommy LOOK AT ME. I'm the President. WhoooWeeee. I'm going to have some fun. Free milk shakes for ALL my friends."

The Maker help him when America's geopolitical enemies decide to give him a test.

Bush had finally figured out the solution to the Palestine problem: let the Palestinians make war on the Israelis and let the Israelis make war back: stay out of the way as much as possible. Barry has gone back to the failed engagement model.

Can't wait to see what he does in 18 months when the war restarts. If it doesn't restart before then.

bruce,

If we can get Obama to pick up Polywell we may get working fusion plants before the Euros ever get 1 net watt out of fusion with their tokamak monstrosities.

"There is a fine line between voicing strong feelings and being obstructionist"

When the bill in question is the most expensive bill in our nation's history, and indeed one of the most expensive undertakings in all of recorded histoy in the world, then it is our duty to question is it realy necessary and are there better less costly solutions.

Why is McCain voicing his opinion that it is full of pork and won't stimulate the economy "obstructionist" - pork is what he's always railed against no matter who is in charge.
Usually it's more to do with the observer than the observed. Both parties call the other "obstructionist", both say "we only fillibuster extremism, they fillibuster everything". They change their tune and use each other's arguments whenever they switch positions of power.

Simon - Obama won't invest in polywell or any other fusion technology for one reason - he is ideologically opposed to actually producing energy.

plutosdad - it's simple, really. If you're a D, and you're against a president that's an R, you're heroic. Swap it around, and you're an unpatriotic swine.

I wonder how he will do when his foreign policy test shows up.

It's already started.

They are too working.

HTML tags aren't working?

My comment should have read:

"I wonder how he will do when his foreign policy test shows up."

It's already started:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWJmZWFkZjY1YzJkYjA1NGUxNzJlOGUzYjRkYTY1ZGQ=

Incompetence?

Like, as in he failed at something?

My biggest fear upon his election was that he was going to be able to cause a major expansion of government - of government employment, of governmental authority, of government as nanny, of government as the focus instead of the tool. I thought that, in four years, he could do great harm.

Imagine my surprise when he had done all that and more - why, he had laid claim to all of the fruits of the country's productive capacity for decades, he had nationalized huge swaths of control, he had grown every form of meritless entitlement and he had paid off his political buds in palaces of gold - our gold - and . . . and . . . why, we won't even begin to suspect what more he's done for months until we've read and analyzed that Bill . . . .

. . . and he did this in his first few weeks!

I can't wait to see what happens in March. All I know is, I'm getting one of those "Kulak" T-shirts.

DMC,

Afghanistan is insoluble without coming to terms with opium.

I see three main avenues

1. Keep opium illegal, deal with criminals
2. Legalize - criminals out of business
3. Continue with current policies - let things go further into the crapper.