Reply #34: I agree with everything you say. However, to play devil's

[truckin]

advocate, I would guess that if you could have a frank discussion with Obama he would respond like this. Job creation is the number one priority in this broken economy that he inherited and to get any kind of jobs bill through he needs to avoid some of the issues you mention. As for the drone attacks he said he would use them in Pakistan when he ran. This is a policy he clearly favors. One of the bigger disappointments to me is his stance on medical marijuana. This is a no brainer that most of the country supports. It seems to me he is afraid of being labeled as a drug loving leftist by the hard core right if he supports this. Very disappointing.

As for the voting machines I believe that no politician on the national level, other than maybe Rush Holt if you consider him to be in this category, will take on the voting machine issue. They will be labeled as conspiracy nuts and besides, even if the machines are rigged, it worked out for the elected officials. It is a sad state of affairs and it will be a slow uphill battle to change this. But it can be done if enough people join and stick with the movement.

In summary the saddest part about Obama's actions are that even if most of his inaction is to try to build a coalition to pass some jobs bills, he is failing miserably. The people he is trying to appease will cut him no slack and all of his posturing is wasted. One of my biggest dissapointments is that Obama, with a Democratically controlled House and Senate could not let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. If we can't even do that with "our" politicians in control, what is the point.