Obama inherited the mess from Bush all right, but he made it worse instead of trying to solve it. That's the problem. Obama is an ideologue, and what you need in a recession is not ideology but simply the most pragmatic way to get the economy going which Obama didn't do. It doesn't fit in his ideology.

Furthermore I am not so sure Republicans created this mess. Wasn't congress Democrat since 2006?

She's a CFO??? I'm not sure those positions are exactly "middle-class." Isn't CFO pretty high up in the corporate food chain? Don't CFOs make a pretty penny? Did she waste all the money and not save it?

Obama is doing a fantastic job given the circumstances that were handed to him. No other president in the history of the United States has taken office with a recession/depression and TWO wars. All these delusional people thought "change" met magic, I guess they thought Obama was going to start pulling bunnies out of hats. Bush practically left this country bankrupt and now they want to blame him.

You know I think the Republicans are smarter than I thought. When I saw that McCain picked Sarah Palin I thought he was an idiot but now I think he did it purposely so he wouldn't win because he knew that no president would be able to fix this in one term. So they made sure Obama won so they could have a scapegoat for their mistakes.

Look at Obama's record he's done everything he's set out to do under the worst circumstances possible. Eight years of Bush's failed policies and people thought Obama would fix it in under 2 years, let's be realistic. Look at the problems that got us into this mess and whenever they started blame that administration. Obama's just trying to fix the mess and it took more than two years to get into this mess and it will take more to get us out.

Buy a ticket to Germany and see your favorite musical!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P8qCWh3Tl0

American politics has really become a broken record.

The Republicans and their anti-government, anti-gay, pro-military, pro-business cohorts who continue to insist that taxes are the problem and government should be drowned in a bathtub are still aggressively pursuing their ridiculous, insane goals. How can you spend millions of dollars campaigning for a job that your political philosophy consistently claims is an abomination? Is the official position "Any government job is a bad job- except mine"?

The Democrats have never had anything particularly going for them- except the people. Since changing over from the Southern Racist Party to the Champions of the Working Folk they became in the 60s and 70s, the Blue Dudes were riding high until Reagan changed the game. By cleverly aligning liberal/progressives with more radical lefty movements like Communism, the Reagan Republicans destroyed the Greatest Generation's Democratic-for-the-People Party, giving and getting favors to and from the rich and guaranteeing that they'd get more than favorable coverage from a relatively docile corporate media happy not to pursue stories like Iran/Contra, while letting corporations grow huger and huger and allowing wages to stagnate while jobs started to be trucked out of the country by the fistfuls under Two-Can-Play-That-Game, Corporate Democrat Clinton. Since then, with Bush's "Charge it to the grandkids!" patriotism setting the tone for almost a decade, the bottom has dropped out of the American economy, huge amounts have been looted from our Treasury while the superrich cart their undertaxed "earnings" off to the Cayman Islands in wheelbarrows.

There's no longer (and hasn't been for some time- 1980, y'all!) an actual race between a liberal and a conservative in a presidential election. The choice has consistently been a moderate and a conservative, with the moderates ultimately governing very much like their supposedly "conservative" counterparts- who tend to be more moderate in office than their campaigns would imply. But liberals in this country are massively underrepresented in the Congress and in the Oval Office.

So what the hell is going on? Why is the ridiculous outrage over Obama tolerated at all? He's just another, albeit stylish, eloquent and smart, Corporate Democrat like Clinton. Is this what we can expect from now on- that Republican Presidents like Bush are sacrosanct characters while Democratic ones are un-American Communists, no matter how much they try and play the Game? Democrats- get your sh*t together and stop playing RIGHT F*CKING NOW.

America, please get tired of this nonsense soon!

Yes!

While I like keeping the pressure on politicians, this incident is kinda silly.

"he didn't say whether these tough times are a 'new reality' or just temporary. 'He didn't answer that...'" What, you want Obama to have a crystal ball now? I think Obama is doing the right thing by not insisting things are all better, the way Bush used to always do for Iraq and the economy; "we're turning a corner! Mission accomplished! We handed over Sovereignty in 2004!"

When people ever get it though their brain cells Republicans and Democrats are one party? They work for big businesses and the lobbyists.

Republicans = dumb ass poor white people. Democrats = Dumb ass poor black people. Everyone else with a brain would realize you need a firing squad every four years with these politicians. You aren't doing a good job? Bullet to the head. Meanwhile, Khloe Kardashian is making millions and millions of dollars and living in the lap of luxury all cause her sister got peed on by Brandy's younger brother. Think about that. That is what America is about now.

And super-cretins like Gaga become policy "activists." No wonder the rest of the globe thinks Americans are stupid folks.

Well since it takes people to actually take interest in these people and watch their shows and buy their albums/go to their concerts, I might have to point the finger at the American population.

Most Americans like this kind of garbage and other tasteless things. This is what we are known for, unfortunately. We are a society of excess that promotes it every chance we get. Gross.

Well since it takes people to actually take interest in these people and watch their shows and buy their albums/go to their concerts, I might have to point the finger at the American population.

Most Americans like this kind of garbage and other tasteless things. This is what we are known for, unfortunately. We are a society of excess that promotes it every chance we get. Gross.

Kim just brought like 6 purses for $100,000!. That's right!

Just have to make a sex tape and act like idiots and your a millionaire.

...who is a Chief Financial Officer and has two children attending private school

Ouch. Of course she "has" to send her children to private school, because all the other upper-middle-class people in the district are doing it too.

I have one question mrs hart.

you're working right? then what are you complaining about.

easy choice, Work or no work. pick one.

if I've read in the other posters, she's a CFO in a volunteer org., meaning it may be non profit and may depend on public funds. I would be careful mrs. hart unless you think the conservative republicans will give you a job or money out of their paycheck. GASP!

Shocking that the Rag known as the NY Post would put the entire Monologue on page one...

That being said, other than GOP/Teabaggers, Does anyone really think Pres. Obama didn't inherit this mess?

S.D. stop down your mental aperture a little bit to get a deeper depth of field. Back in the Spring, Obama argued with Germany's Angela Merkel telling her that the West needed to spend more to recover from the recession.

Merkel said no, we'll recover our own way and went on to put in strict austerity measures and limited much more of their gov't spending, instead of increasing it. Germany is doing much, much better now while the U.S. remains in stagnation.

I'm a hard-core liberal and while of course I completely believe that Obama inherited this mess, I also am very dissapointed that he is not doing enough to turn things around.

His adminstration is to be applauded for helping stop the economic free-fall, but they have done FAR too little to turn it around. The initial stimulus was much too small (which competent economists knew at the time - but Emmanuel/Rubin/Geithner ignored that) and many of his activities are too indirect. Eg tax cuts for small business is nice, but when small business has no customers, they're still screwed.

We have a demand problem, a home foreclosure problem and an unemployment problem. THese need direct action to give people jobs, so they have confidence they won't be unemployed/bankrupt/lose their homes. This means government spending - to help states meet avoid layoffs and to hire people to do "investment/infrastructure" jobs broadly defined: mass transit, roads, home insulation, education, health. Things with long-term benefits.

We need some thinking like FDR and the WPA, not Rahm Emmanuel and Barack Obama watering down proposals to get Ben Nelson and Olympia Snowe and Washington media on board. Half measures are not working.

So Obama needs to step up. The Democrats in the Senate need to step up.

Don't worry. People who buy the post have a 3rd grade reading level. All those words are just a jumble of letters that are incomprehensible to them.

Good one. I buy the Post because it has the best sports section in the city... Everyone knows that.