President Obama has accomplished more within his first two years than any president has had in that short of a time span. President Obama has undone a portion of the damages inflicted by George Bush.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Republicans will never support any effort the president puts forth. In 8 years, they will fight, fight, fight. I have to admit, the democrats have not promoted anything by their silence while the Republicans controls the messages based on lies. The only voices I hear come from Rep Weiner, Clyburn and a couple of other representatives.

I don’t believe much of the apathy the Republican party is waiting for will be from the Democratic party, but more so from the Republican party. Once President Obama makes the call to vote, many of the independents and Democrats that seem to be sitting on the sidelines listening to all the rhetoric will get out the vote, because they realize “the urgency of now”.

No one wants to go backwards after the gains we’ve accomplished. Truly, the only person I see that wants the country to grow and prosper is the president himself.

I watch my President last night announce the end of the combat mission in Iraq. Personally, I thought he was way to kind to previous administration that got us into this war to begin with. The right was to claim credit for this. Bull Sh!t. President Bush could have pulled our troops out anytime while he was in charge. He did not and continued his mismanagement that ultimately lead to 4,403 dead soldiers and tens of thousands wounded.

The Iraq war was built on a pillar of lies by the Bush Administration, not only to the American people, but to our Armed Forces and his own administration. As far as this old sailor is concerned, I lay the deaths of our most precious blood at the feet of the Bush and Chenney.

Bush lied about the connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda

Bush lied about the connection of Saddam to 9/11

Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction – Iraq had none

Bush lied about Saddam being a threat, he was defeated by Desert Storm and was bottled up where we could watch him. He was no immediate threat at all.

Bush lied about the development of Nuclear Weapons in Iraq and the purchase of Yellow Cake and other material needed to develop Nuclear weapons

Bush lied about Mobile Biological Weapons – No Biological Weapons ever found in Iraq

Bush lied in 2003 when he declared Mission Accomplished

Sorry GW, you get NO kudos from me.

Rather than writing on last night’s speech, Maureen Dowd instead focused on the redecorated Oval Office.

I just read her article on the redecorated oval office. She is stunningly not clever. This was the day the war in Iraq officially ended and as usual, Dowd spends her time writing this nonsense. She is dreadful.

Yahoo Headline: Obama Address Stumbles in Signifigance.

AP factcheck: Obama blames Bush wars for deficit. However, the deficit in 2007, after 6 years in Afghanistan and four years in Iraq was $161.5 billion. This year? $1.5 Trillion.

They balme it on the spnding. So do most voters.

Immagine my 'shock and awe' this morning to find that the Repubs criticized the speech.

I mean, can you IMAGINE??

Republican Party v Democratic Party, there simply is no doubt that neither is perfect. Both exaggerate, embellish and ‘puff there wares’; like in advertising it is just part of the game. Then by necessity, because huge amounts of money are regrettably required just to survive in politics, they all solicit and give considerations for the support gained. There are major differences though and to ignore them is a mistake that can be the result of being conned, of having creative appeals to biases, prejudices and self-interests successfully manipulate emotions and block rational and objective discernment. Then decisions may seem satisfying but they are very likely to be against people’s own best interests.

Both parties have their ideology and subjective goals that need to be measured for value in conscience, in who they actually benefit and in honesty. Is what they say a con, just a corruption of the truth to favor them, or is it actually conscientiously true with real value for the people and does their history support their promises, both stated and inferred? To get caught up in their words, which is their intention for us, is likely to then be blinded to reality and to be emotionally swayed – to be conned.

Under Bush-Cheney the Republicans clearly demonstrated a history and a philosophy of concentration on benefit for Special Interests and the powerful, influential and very wealthy few who strongly supported them, while they gave only apathy, the costs and an abundance of subterfuge to the majority; that literally cost this country and most of us greatly. Today, with their faulting, obstructing and lack of any responsible effort, with the Tea Party Movement (like ‘Swiftboat’, being a fully supported 3^rd party effort to manipulate public opinion), with the unconscionable antics of the likes of Palin, Beck and Limbaugh and the arrogant irresponsibility of the likes of Boehner, McConnell, Kyl and McCain, they make it clear nothing has changed – they have put their political ambitions above all else, at any cost, are still firmly focused on being ‘puppets’ for the few and remain arrogant in expecting to manipulate public opinion. When we have our emotions checked, their consistency and gross dishonesty become totally apparent and actually insulting. Their whole intent is to return to ‘more of the same’ that cost us so much and they will just say/do whatever to accomplish that, with the totally aggressive support of those they benefit.

As already stated, the Democrats are not perfect, not even close, but with a rational, objective and unemotional evaluation differences do stand out. Their solutions really need (bipartisan) fine tuning yet they are conscience driven and not just favoring their strong supporters while offering only deception to the people. Democratic representatives are not intimidated and coerced to maintain unity as the Republicans are, they instead can and do differ according to their individual consciences. While the Democrats are motivated to achieve their goals, which some may see as socialistic, those goals are aimed to benefit the many and not just the few who provide active overt and covert support, contributions and even promises for after office compensation. The scare of Socialism is what the Republicans are trying to sell, yet, as the pendulum swings both ways, we really need to come back from not enough government and not enough (responsible) spending that has caused so many problems while greatly benefiting only the select few. If government now fails to intervene or stops spending before things are stabilized, then we will return to ‘more of the same’ and even worse.

Some may not be able to rationally see all of this but then maybe they really need to focus their own conscience and check their motivation – understanding that con artists depend on being able to appeal to people’s greed/self-interests to sell the con and to gain benefit. It usually isn’t hard to see the truth but often it can be hard to check emotions and to be objective; that is when the con is easy.

First of all. Has anyone checked the Charlotte, NC local news to see if anybody named "Michael Thompson" jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge yesterday? Whew. What a hate-filled lefty that guy is. His whole diatribe seemed to be based on what was a central theme of Obama's campaign: "I wish everyone would come together". In politics, this translates into: I want to bring everyone (people who aren't smart enough to know better) around to MY way of thinking.

Collapsed Joe from Albany, eh? Good job. All that did was make me stop at it and open it up to read it. You people are so predictable.

I respect Maddow and Olbermann's opinions even though I think they are sometimes headed off the reservation on some meaningless rant. But on two occasions now I believe they have unjustifiably excoriated our president because he did not fulfill their unrealistic expectations. They roundly dismissed his speech at the height of the BP oil disaster even though what he subsequently delivered in terms of planned compensation, reserves and focus on fuel alternatives was unprecedented in American coporate history. And they (particularly Rachel) went apoplectic last night when he gave a gracious nod to president Bush and his support for country and troops. In both instances, they believed he should have acted forcibly, irrationally, unreasonably. Rachel seems to think that his job as president is to beat up on all things Bush, scorch the earth with civil and criminal investigations against the prior administration and then, and, only then will he legitimize his presidency. I am no fan of Bush, his deliberately false march to a needless war or the lunacy and potential criminal propensity of his administration, particularly Cheney, or his lack of smarts or insight. But there is nothing that Rachel's Maddening approach to government will accomplish at this point. If anything, the so-called Progressives in our ranks better focus on marshalling their resources behind a pragmatic presidency because divisiveness serves none of us well. Their desire for a perfect peace, love and granola candidate should not be the enemy of a good, intelligent, pragmatic candidate that is light years ahead of anything the opposing side has to offer. And, while they might not be in lock step on every issue, they should realize that the alternative is way too disturbing, dangerous and inhumane. So Rachel, Keith, get over yourselves and reset your expectations to suit a more pragmatic, centrist American society. Otherwise, start a PAC, hire some advisers and hit the campaign trail.

Thank you "Mad in CT". I've been pulling my hair out at the left of my party going after Obama on issues of calibration, not substance. I don't know if either Olbermann or Maddow realize it but Obama is being slaughtered by the right in this country that never sleeps during a Democratic government. And the right wing forces have no mainstream Republican opposition  who will moderate the absolute nutjobs that now make up the majority of that party.  So for our folks to continue to shoot us in the foot because "they get to speak their mind" and will not rest regardless of who is our President shows why Democrats lose year after year, race after race. You would think that even their own egos would take a break, knowing the likes of Beck, Palin, Limbaugh and 'leaders' such as Boehner and McConnell. This isn't the Middle East Peace process where you think you can sway the President to become a left wing nut job by berrating him. Instead, you'll get Boehner, as the House Speaker and Mitt Romney as President.

They , Maddcow and Odorman should remain on the reservation and tend the pasture. That's where they belong.

We turned Iraq into a killing field, and created a deadly animosity between Sunnis and @!$%#es that did not exist before our invasion. We made Iraq a massive murder and mayhem field since our invasion, and it is still a human meat grinder even today. The Iraqis still don't have enough electricity and clean water, hundreds of thousands are still refugees in Syria, Jordan, and other countries, their cemeteries are full, hundreds of thousands are maimed, blinded, or became invalid from war injuries, and they don't know if the will be blown up the next time they venture out of the house to buy bread.

Sure it was nice for Obama to gloss over a George Bush blunter with words of "American heroism and sacrifices at "a mission unaccomplished." How about bragging on "fulfilling his campaign promise to end the Iraq war that he reminded us he opposed?" Why did he leave out of his speech the fact that we turned Iraq into a mess 7.5 years ago; it is still a mess 7.5 years later; millions of Iraqi refugees still in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere are terrified to return, and the U.S. "mission in Iraq is considered accomplished" when we leave Iraq in a state of quasi-civil war? Why 2 million Iraqi civilians and 4.500 American died for nothing? Plus,
35.000 U.S. servicemen maimed for life, while hundreds of others committed suicide. Does anybody see any success on this evolving killing field?

Fact check: George Bush used the WMD pretext to depose Saddam Hussein and use Iraq as the first Domino in subverting the anti-Western regimes in Syria and Iran in succession. As soon as the U.S. invaded Iraq, it started building 40 massive military bases for the aforesaid purpose. But when Saddam Hussein's "Sunnis" turned Iraq into a Moon landscape with "car bombs craters," the U.S. put all the Sunnis in its payroll to pacify them, and started planning "a face-saving" way out. The U.S. knew that it couldn't trust the Sunnis who had lost their political power, nor the @!$%#es whose paramount religious leader Moqtada El Sadr is virulently anti-American, and is hiding in Iran until the U.S. is fully out of Iraq.

Iraq as the first Domino to subvert anti-American regimes in Middle East has failed miserably. Obama dressed that failure as "a democratic success" of the U.S. effort in Iraq. He will need that phony argument next summer when he will have to dress Afghanistan in a democratic garb, and start withdrawing the U.S. troops from there too claiming "democratic success" for the Afghans as well. In 1974 Richard Nixon called the U.S. retreat from Vietnam “Vietnamization.” Obama’s speech last night was about “Iraqization.” And the “Afghanization” escape scheme is on the making.

I received two e-mail reminders from the White House not to miss Obama's speech. I didn't. Did I buy the “Iraqization" as a success? Of course not! Do I see the upcoming “Afghanization" crafted with massive CIA bribes - as it was widely reported last week, as another success in the making? Of course not. Ernest Hemingway had this aphorism about wars: "In a modern war.... you will die like a dog for no good reason." Can, then, national speeches gloss over war failures? Of course not! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

The looney left posters on this board must be the only ones watching Madcow and Opieman...their total audience is about 50 people...

Wow - all the right wing-nut posters on this board are out in force - Madcow, Opieman, Odorman, Osamaobama. You're all so very clever. Although I notice nothing is said about Bush telling lie after lie so we could invade Iraq, spending trillions of dollars, losing thousands of US military lives, not to mention innocent Iraqi women and children. Wonder why?