The issue is the backbone of the Obama negative spin and for Booker to have drawn a false equivalency between Bain and Rev. Wright must have had Rove rofl'ing for hours.

And did Booker look like someone whose political aspirations for higher offices were swirling down the toilet on Maddow's show last night?

And yes, people who gamble they can save a company want a big return to make up for the times it doesn't work out.

In the meantime Obama and his minions can whine that life isn't fair but the government will make it fair...

...as in the Zimmerman one, or gun rights, for example, I don't find this to be Talk Left but Talk Right.
These things aren't all black and white,....

But what happened was people took the Booker hook and went "Obama SUX."

That was incredible to me.

The Supreme Court?  War? Secrecy and spying and drone killings and civil liberties and the economy and entitlements and income inequality and the 1% v. the 99%?

All of the above?  None of the above?  

I guess you are prepared to argue, if not heartily for Obama, then certainly vociferously against Romney, but the truth or the reality is that many of us don't see a whole lot of daylight anymore between the policies of these two parties or the ultimate trajectory of life here in these United States.  That's what almost four years of deliberate blurring of the partisan divide - which used to exist for the good reason that we don't all believe that middle ground is the best ground - will get you.

I'm almost 59, BTD, hoping against hope that one day I can retire, that I will finally get my health care under the single-payer system that is Medicare.  Do I have any confidence anymore that Democrats understand and are looking to safeguard my not-so-far-off future or that of my children?  Not when I keep hearing them talk about "fixing" and "strengthening" entitlements, or when I see Dems cozying up to the likes of Paul Ryan and Tom Coburn.  Or when I hear Dick Durbin arguing that Bowles-Simpson is the intelligent, reasonable way to attack the deficit.  Or when honest-to-God Republican talking points come out of the mouths of Democrats.

Do I want Romney to get a crack at solidifying the conservatives' hold on the Supreme Court?  Of course not.  But do I have any confidence that if Obama gets the chance to nominate to a seat that is currently conservative, he will swing the Court the other way?  No, I don't.  For one thing, he really doesn't seem that enthused about the liberal world view, and for another, this is an administration that needs the conservative point of view to maintain a lot of the policies they've carried over and worsened from the Bush years - why would Obama want to risk all that coming apart under a liberal-leaning Court?

The choices are terrible, and it makes me madder than hell that it's come to this, where, as someone said recently, it's not about the lesser of two evils, but the more effective of them.  On that score, I think Obama will be more effective - which is horrifying to me.

You may be right, that writing for a group that includes people like me, who just aren't going to be able to bring any pom-poms to the party, isn't going to be much fun.  Then again, it isn't much fun for people to be told they're blithering idiots for not being able to read between the lines of a short post, or that they're too stupid for you to waste your time with; if your goal is to persuade, it might not be too effective.  For me, well, I already know you don't think much of my opinions, but that's okay - I don't participate here looking for a pat on the head.  

I'm sorrier than you know that I don't have any enthusiasm for the coming campaign, that it's going to be day after bloody day of listening to more hypocrisy than will be good for my or anyone else's blood pressure, as two parties that are increasingly just two shades of the same color pretend they have something different to offer.  I wish we had a Democratic party that still espoused in actions the kinds of populist talking points they just dust off and wave around every election season so they can keep their jobs, but I don't see it.

We're certainly not going to wean ourselves from them overnight, but the trajectory desperately needs to be altered to deter the further intensive concentration of capital in one primary locale along the eastern seaboard, and prevent the further entrenchment of a self-serving and self-enriching oligarchy. The large financial institutions need to be broken up, and the Glass-Steagall Act needs to be resurrected in its 21st century form. With some political pressure, that can happen with a second Obama term, provided we also get a Congress willing to cooperate.

Conversely, the type of reform we need sure ain't gonna happen in a Romney administration and a GOP-controlled Congress. Quite the opposite, in fact.

To wit, I've lived out here long enough to become intimately familiar with Hawaii's well-documented, decades-long experience under the thumb of an entrenched white-male corporate / military oligarchy during its territorial days in the first half of the 20th century -- and trust me, it's not a pretty story.

In many instances, resistance to oligarchical rule led to tragic and sometimes bloody labor situations, such as the infamous incidents in Hilo and Hanapepe (Kauai), in which non-white workers attempting to walk off the job were fired upon by white police and troops, who killed several score of them. It ultimately culminated in the imposition of martial law during the Second World War, and its continuance long after the immediate threat of a Japanese military invasion had subsided.

(Just because you weren't taught any of that in school during history class, doesn't mean that it didn't happen.)

Not surprisingly, memories of the abusive quasi-colonial experience that non-wealthy islanders of color endured under the heavy-handed rule of a minority white oligarchy are still somewhat raw, even today. They are the primary reason why Republicans have never comprised more than one-third of the legislature at any time since statehood was finally achieved under Democratic leadership in 1959.

Native Hawaiians are a proud people whose cultural heritage rests upon the oral traditions that have been passed down over the generations through the Kumulipo and other historical chants, such as Kaumana Na Pua ("Famous are the Flowers"), which was composed in 1895 and serves to remind the maka'ainana of exactly what happened to their nation at the hands of rich white people. "Hilahila 'ole keia po'e haole," they would learn to say -- "White people are shameless."

Ergo, non-white people out here tend to have a very long political memory -- and that's why Obama polls at 72% in his home state.

I'm right there with you on the need for deep systemic change in the way we do things, not just here, but worldwide