fact is that we are winding down in Iraq, the economy has stopped it’s freefall, and you can’t depolarize the political climate when the republican response to every initiative is NO.

When the initiatives are wrongheaded, ineffective, and costly to the American taxpayer, the correct response IS no.

“It seems to me Republicans have a clear, simple argument to make in the 2010 elections.”

Yes. The last time they were in charge, they crashed the economy, cut taxes for the rich, and borrowed against the future to fund wars, while ignoring infrastructure, jobs, safety, and the environment at home.

Their argument is a simple one: If you like the policies and results under Bush, vote Republican!

As for Obama: he reached out to the GOP, and it’s THEY who are making things more polarized. The economy was in shreds and collapsing. Obama stabilized it and continues repairs. It took years to break and Obama’s already done more that what many thought was possible. As for the war, aren’t we pulling out of Iraq soon? Obama did promise to refocus us on Afghanistan and Pakistan (which he has done).
BTW, Obama has FOUR years to accomplish his campaign promises, not the 1.5 years you seem eager to allot him. You’re method is like giving someone a 4 hour exam, then trying to take away their paper and grade it after 1.5 hours.

Until Republicans come up with reasonable alternatives to Democratic solutions to the issues that face the country they will remain in the minority in both houses of Congress.

In the short term the ‘No Strategy’ is politicaly solvent because its a message that smal government conservatives buy into whole heartedly. The problem comes when small government has to find soltuions to big problems that would go unaddressed without government.

As the President pointed out last week, the Gulf state Republicans that three months ago were complaining about the size of government and denegrating government are now begging the government to come help clean up their precious Gulf. I say let them rot.

It just doesn’t seem like Pat Meehan has much to say other than “Vote for me because I was a big tough prosecutor.”

This debacle showed the limits of that strategy — while it may be true that the State Capitol is a “crime scene,” there is not a shred of evidence to show that his Democratic opponent had anything to do with these crimes that were committed while he was a private citizen. And Mr. Meehan basically admitted as much when questioned by reporters.

If Mr. Meehan has thoughts on job creation, oil dependency, national security, or any of the other pressing issues of the day, I’d love to hear him talk about them. But by throwing around explosive charges that his opponent is “unfit for service” without any real evidence to back him up, Mr. Meehan is just cheapening the debate.

Pat Meehan also seems to lack the ability to say to his advisers or contributors- no this is a dumb idea. That is compounded by the state republican leadership like Peliggi, Gleason and Orie being blinded by their deep animus of anyone who is outside of their “approved” mindset.
I have said before , Pat Meehan is being fed and slurping up pre-tested focus group refined national talking points. That is why on follow up Pat looks perplexed and almost Palin-esq.
The cornerstone of the Congressional campaigns should be a articulate focus the economy and how to revitalize jobs and businesses in Delco and the state. The vacuity of inserting Pelosi and Reid’s name into every sentence and the hammy reach for bonus-gate is not just annoying, it makes anything Meehan says about substantive issues to be insincere and long distance scripted by someone else who is pulling his puppet strings.

After reading Michael Livingston’s screeds, what exactly is “purple” about him? T^he Republican arguments have a lack of clarity except to oppose a moderate President who has offered to include them in every major policy decision since he was inaugurated. Their arguments have largely been bereft of facts. Their economic ideas have generally not been about fixing the Bush recession, but to prolong it.

Obama will, by the end of the year see more job creation in his term than the whole 8 years of the Bush/GOP fiasco conducted under their leadership from 2001-2007. Health Care reform is going to have a positive impact on job creation by drawing foreign investment to the U.S. to create products and jobs in our country and to stem some of the hemorrhaging of jobs and production to other nations.

U.S. troops have been drawing down in Iraq, and the only reason that Afghanistan has ratcheted up is from the complete incompetence shown by the Bush Administration to end their focus on the War on Terror and instead attack Iraq for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with national security for the U.S.

Livingston should just admit his red ness and stop the easily seen through charade of pretending that he has any ideas that are more moderate than what the tea bagger radicals spew.