But did you catch this?

When the President described the tax cuts that the middle class could count on, he said, "Not only the Bush tax cuts, but" also the ones from last year.  (that last phrase is not a direct quote, but it paraphrases his statement)

Is there any reason in anyone's thinking that he could not utter the words, "The Obama tax cuts?"

Anyone?

Seriously, I hope enough Democrats walk away from this to doom it.

How else can you explain the outrage of the President going on a State Visit?  Cost?  That is only the excuse.  I honestly think that these people object to this trip because there is an accepted "truth" among republicans that our President is just living in the White House, but he is not actually Our President.  How else can one explain the "Opt In" for students nation-wide to hear the message that President Obama gave in September?  Can anyone imagine anything equivalent with any former President?  Yet they get away with it.

This is more of a rant than a thoughtful blog, but I just want to register my opinion on this concept of billionaires using THEIR OWN MONEY to run for office. I have been struck by the way this has been portrayed, as though it stemmed from some altruistic motive of the billionaires to serve our country. How about reporting that most of the self-financing politicians run on the backs (and donations) of poor schmucks who give a hugely larger percentage of their income in the false belief that the wedge issue republicans are on their side.