The stimulus package has swallowed up Obama's agenda. And he is now getting blamed for the vast expansion in the size of government, which, of course, started under Republican leadership. It's time for Obama to recalibrate and get serious about the federal deficit.

Chris is right . . . he just doesn't explain it . . . taking on two wars, a crippled economy with trillions committed to failed banks and financial institutions, a failing and expensive health care system, and the global call backed by science to address climate change is extremely difficult and politically challenging. In the face of all of these huge challenges, the Republicans have come forward with . . . um, hmmm . . . almost nothing. Their contribution to these national challenges has been to fan the flames of fear and unrest among the American people. Tea parties, birthers, Michelle Bachman, Dick Cheney and Joe Wilson are hardly the foundation of political rebirth. Stirring up the most vocal anti-Obama elements of our country doesn't translate into real momentum.

Chris knows that the poll numbers he cites are of little meaning when it comes to President Obama, his re-election is three plus years away, a political eternity. And he also knows as a former candidate and party leader that proclaiming Senator Murray's political standing without an opponent is of little value. If Murray is as vulnerable as Chris suggests a mere 14 months out from her election, then where are the meaningful declared, or even publicly mentioned, Republican candidates to oppose Senator Murray?

Democrats will surely pay a political price for engaging on such difficult and challenging issues as demanded by the circumstances overseen by the previous Administration and 10 year Congressional Republican dominance. According to a US Census Bureau report released last week, President Bush is the only two-term president to have overseen a decline in median income for Americans. During his tenure, childhood poverty increased and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. Maybe that's why Chris' warnings of political vulnerabilty for Democrats speak only about Democrats and nothing of the Republican alternatives.

Until Chris and his Republican colleagues rejoin the debate with a meaningful series of ideas and a vision for the country, all this is just noise and babble designed to discredit and obstruct those who are facing the tough issues and trying to provide some leadership and direction for the country.

A lot of people who voted for Obama expected him to be a uniter and to govern from the center. It was a rude awakening when he put Reid and Pelosi in charge of all of "his" programs. Every voter outside of his leftist base is now experiencing buyer's remorse.

Does the GOP really need another outlet for their propaganda? It's not as though there's any scarcity.

I really want independent media to thrive. I support (with money) a couple outlets today (e.g. firedoglake.com, salon.com).

When I visit crosscut.com and see this crap, I'm strongly discouraged from revisiting. And more precious than my money is my attention.

I'll try again in a few months. See how you're doing.

"By the end of August those numbers had changed dramatically, to 51-46."

So, Obama's "low" point hit right around his margin of victory last November. Release the GOP hounds!

Which birther or deather will be nominated to run for President in 2012?

Btw..
"If we simply take the three polls at face value and average them together (6.7 points), they in fact point toward a statistically strong likelihood of a bounce. Concluding that there is no bounce on the basis of the ABC poll, as some smart commentators appear to have done, while ignoring the other polling, is not objective, plainly put. There should, however, be plenty more data out before the end of the week to help settle any arguments. "
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/09/bounce-yes-game-changer-well-see.html

Let's face it, Obama was never in for a cakewalk. While I didn't have a lot of use for many policies of the previous administration and was part of the 49% that cringed for 8 years, I am typically optimistic and willing to give the people in charge the benefit of the doubt. I mean, I don't command all of the resources to make the judgments needed to create policy. So I have to respect that they are - presumably - more knowledgeable than I am.

The greatest concern I have at this point is not whether Obama is a one-term or two-term President, but if we as a nation can get to yes on health care reform, get past the current stimulus expenditures, agree to a coherent foreign policy and establish some benchmarks on climate issues, trade, the environment, etc. that impact the globe and the long-term survival of our species.

At the end of the day, however, it IS politics - and it often takes the screaming and prodding of the most driven among us to get the rest to pay attention. I just hope - and not in a Northwest Nice fashion - that we can have civil discussions and disagreements and don't have to show up packin' at rallies to get our respective points across.

Calling the President a Nazi for a 'cult of personality' and saying that his address to school children smacked of fascism is WAY over the top. Just like trying to bury the CIA for its use of interrogation techniques in a 3-year investigation is ludicrous. . .

There is plenty of blame to go around for any perceived or actual mess we, as Americans, find ourselves in at any time. That's why elections, theoretically, keep everyone honest.

"....I loved seeing thousands of passionate citizens show up this Summer to debate the role of government."

Ah yes, with their AK 47s, pictures depicting our President as Hitler, the cries for revolution. My God, Joe McCarthy would have been thrilled.

Chris, if you are attempting to consult for Republicans, you must once again put aside your right wing philosphy, at least try to look like a moderate, and help your wounded GOP regain its image as half of our two-party system.

I am an independent moderate. I've voted for Republicans before when they seemed to be the better choice. But the wing-nuts have indeed scared me to the point where I will no longer vote for a Republican until the GOP makes a concerted effort to disassociate from this extremist, un-American lobby. Your article/advertisement didn't help.

I applaud the editors for giving Mr Vance a platform here. I think presenting both sides is healthy and honest unlike some other outlets that claim to be "fair and balanced". Like my uncle once told me, if someone spends most of their time telling you how honest and loyal they are, they are probably neither.

As for Mr Vance's assertion that the President's actions belies his liberal agenda, I have to say the Republicans have won the battle for public opinion through their tactics of spin, rumor and character assassination. In one breath they accuse Obama of being a socialist, Nazi and the tool of the corporations. Lies about Obama's life and policies dominate the media and yet he is the one accused of lying during an address to Congress. The irony would be laughable if the strategy wasn't so successful.

Mr Vance's eagerness to accept his party's fearmongering is indicative of the lack of civility of the opposition during this new Presidency. I see hatred for the President himself, lack of respect for the Office and an unwillingness to talk rationally. Logic and reason does not work. Confusion and fear rule the day. Mr Vance is right, Republicans will make a strong return next year if this continues.

The best weapon the current administration has to stem this tide is success. Passing a health care bill, progress against the Taliban/al Qaeda and economic recovery are all things that can keep the Republicans down. Expect the Republicans to fight tooth and nail regardless of the issue. That it has been so dirty maybe shows how desperate they are.

This kind of thing is hi-larious. So, the voters Chris references didn't mind when Bush made it "legal" to disappear American citizens in the middle of the night and torture them for months or years while holding them incommunicado, but now they're worried about Obama's "Big Government" agenda?

But if they weren't worried when Bush almost doubled the national debt, why would they worry now? If they weren't worried when Medicare Part D passed in the middle of the night, why would they worry now? What could Obama do that Bush didn't do?

Oh, that's right- Obama could enforce existing law. With Bush we got all the expense and inconvenience of big government, but none of the benefits, like equality before the law, or clean air to breathe and food that was safe to eat.

So I can see why people who depended on the law not being enforced would be worried about Obama. But being told you can't just dump your poisonous waste in the river anymore is not creeping socialism, it's modern times.

Chris Vance is longing for that balanced debate in which some people say the earth is flat, and some people say it's round, and the media reports on the argument rather than the facts. You can see how he might feel that way, considering where the facts leave today's Republicans.

While Mr. Vance's statistics are undoubtedly correct -- there is no question President Obamas's approval ratings are in decline -- Mr. Vance’s conclusions about the causative factors seem more the product of Republican wishful thinking than of careful analysis.

Take for example Mr. Vance’s focus on the gender gap: only 41 percent of the Caucasian male electorate voted for Mr. Obama, and in the South -- which is still Ku Klux Kland despite the fact the sheets and pillowcases are now (mostly) kept in the closets -- the pro-Obama white male vote was only 31 percent. In other words, amongst white men -- notably the most racist and generally reactionary demographic group in the nation (not surprisingly since this is the category that includes both the ruling class and its various goon squads) -- there is little change.

For details of the statistical sources of my argument, see the Pew Research data, especially http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1023/exit-poll-analysis-2008 .

Moreover, and Mr. Vance’s claims notwithstanding, the real change in public opinion seems to include little or nothing to favor the GOPorkers -- the very people who long before World War II had begun leading the evisceration of this nation’s founding principles. Instead -- especially when one looks beyond the deliberate chaos inflicted by the Republican goons hired by Big Business to protect and multiply the obscene profits of the sickness speculators aka “health insurance companies” -- what emerges is growing likelihood not of a GOPorker restoration but rather of third-party rebellion: probably rebellion of a magnitude unknown since the Communists’ ascent to near-majority during the 1930s, quite possibly rebellion of an intensity unique in U.S. history.

I say this because the polls show that despite the constant (and constantly racist) opposition of white males, Mr. Obama’s overall popularity margin prevailed until his intended betrayal on healthcare reform finally became apparent even to dunces and dullards -- never mind that before the new president took office, his appointments had already served notice that “change we can believe in” was never more than a Big Lie.

From the pre-inaugural appointment of Rick Warren (which reassured the ruling class the government would continue to facilitate our subjugation into a one-party, theofascist state) through the present healthcare impasse, the Obama Administration has repeatedly made it clear it will do whatever it deems necessary to preserve the neo-conservative/neo-liberal (i.e., neo-fascist) status quo. All that the 2008 election changed was the figurehead: it replaced an inarticulate ignoramus with someone who is eloquent, erudite and therefore more acceptable to the civilized world as well as to civilized peoples within the United States.

Which the electorate seemed to accept, however begrudgingly, until it became clear that “healthcare reform” had been deliberately transformed into a new form of permanent enslavement -- mandatory payment-or-punishment insurance -- that would provide the speculators-on-sickness an estimated windfall of $60 billion every year even as it ensures everlasting immunity to any genuine change. Match the poll results to dates and events -- Mr. Obama’s obvious betrayal of healthcare reform and Employee Free Choice (the pivotal issues for the vast majority of those of us who voted for him) -- and connection to his rapidly declining popularity becomes obvious.

The fact that we are at last awakening to what was done to us in 2008 is underscored by the steadily growing majority who again -- as under the GOPorkers -- believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. Whether this will actually lead to the emergence of a viable third party -- actually a second party as Mr. Obama is proving that in truth there is but one party (of which Republicans and Democrats are merely separate cliques or factions) -- I cannot say. But the conditions for such an explosive development are fast approaching critical mass -- no matter what Mr. Vance would like to believe.

I am not surprised at the passion here. It is indicative of the main point I was trying to make: we are back to being a nation deeply divided.

I hope people will understand that it is not my intent be a polemicist here, or when I appear on KING TV. Of course I am a Republican, but I am trying to offer analysis, perspective, and most of all, facts.

Murray voted for the bailouts, the Sunstein confirmation, and continues to support government run healthcare that currently is on life support. She continues to lavish praise on the Obama policies and shows no independence. She is directly responsible for some of the worst government policies since our founding.

I have a personal problem with Senator Murray (ranking member of Dept of Labor Oversight Committee), when her aide supported looking at investigating OSHA's claimed lack of jurisdiction over website MSDSs, but dropped the support when he couldn't pin the blame on the Bush Administration.

Veteran Groups Oppose HR 3200, which Murray supports.

On July 30, several veteran groups sent letters to Congress expressing their concerns on proposed health care legislation. On behalf of 24 million veterans they wrote “We are writing to express grave concerns about HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. As currently drafted, we would oppose this legislation because it could limit the health care choices for veterans, increase the cost of health care for veterans, deny coverage to dependents family members of veterans, and threaten the quality of health care offered to veterans through VA health care system.” The letters, which I received 9/3/09, run several pages. The pdf documents were provided to me directly by the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) association, and include official signatures of: VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars); AMVETS (American Veterans); DAV, Blinded Veterans Association; Jewish War Veterans of the USA; Military Order of the Purple Heart of the USA; Vietnam Veterans of America; The American Legion; Wounded Warrior Project; and Paralyzed Veterans of America. Among the issues of concern are: Penalty Tax for failure to enroll in an “acceptable” health insurance; disincentive for employers to hire members of the Reserve components; multiple health care options; independence of the DoD and VA health care systems; third party reimbursements for treatment of nonservice-connected conditions; and penalty tax on Reserve components Federalized or activated by the Governor. These are real concerns by real patriots and should not be dismissed as rantings of an ill-informed few.

Such correspondence illustrates just how unacceptable this legislation is. We need to slow down the legislative process to allow reasoned debate, and improve upon our health care system with better options, maximum freedom of choices, and implement fiscal restraint.

"we are back to being a nation deeply divided."

"We" are back from Republican rule, with Republicans having to acknowledge that there is an opposition.
The question, really, for Dems is: Why bother acknowledging the Republicans?
What good are they in the state they are in, all broken and conflicted?
The identity crisis provides an insecure culture and will only inhibit the confident act of risking political capital, that is in short supply, to make the effort to participate to the point of actually voting for any legislation.

Good luck hearding the cats, Chris.

Obama and his Democrats are the proverbian Scorpions who asked the Frogs (American mainstream voters) for a ride on their backs. "We're moderates" said the Scorpions, "We're not the tools of special interests". Climb aboard said the voters.

Now midstream, the scorpions reveal their sting -- funneling 2 trillion to their cronies, promoting unworkable pork barrel programs, and staffing up Washington with people who have wild notions of civility.

Having been only a Johnny-Come-Lately to Washington State Republican Party, it does surprise me (and was commenting on it with a fellow member at Black Diamond Days) that WA GOP had so much antipathy towards Bush. Being a new comer, I did not understand what family squabbles might be in the background, however, one thing I will say about many WA voters is that they are often a bit puerile in their expectations...always wanting their cake and eating it too. I know that's not what someone is supposed to say, but there it is.

RE: Mr. Vances's clarification, "It is not my intent be a polemicist here."

After you conclude with, "He is governing as a divisive, liberal change agent," how one not smile at the contradiction.

Politicians by definition are change agents. Edmund Burke himself defined conservatism as such, sans idealogies, and did not consider it a pejorative.

Neither party denies the serious, even crippling, systemic problems of health care in America, yet change for republicans remains intellectually limited with its one note drumming of "free market" and keep the government away. The capitalist model in health care is and has been dead for a very long time with oligarchical profiteers rapidly destroying their host, the American public.

Further, Obama's support of a Keynesian stimulous program is widely credited as necessary in the dust of the collapse of the vaunted Chicago School's "perfect markets" theories and its inability to account for or explain yet another incredible economic failure, this time the financial industry meltdown.

At least publicly, republican leadership has been nearly entirely to promote ad hominem and false claims. Without supporting facts, Mr. Vance, your conclusion that Obama is a "divisive, liberal change agent" is thinly veiled more-of-the-same.

Maybe a more interesting question can be found in your David Paul Kuhn link quoting H.W. Brand, "The legacy of FDR's liberalism was that 'government didn't simply prevent evil but actively promoted good.'" So, how are Obama's stimulous spending and proposed health care reform "preventing evil" vs. "promoting good"?

Over the past eight years we have seen lies,illegal wars,war crimes, deficits, corruption, incompetence and hypocrisy from the Republicans. What we don't see from the Republicans are clear pragmatic thoughtful moral ideas on how to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.

Mr. Vance is deluded if he truly thinks that the Republican base of ignorant white southerners, and the chamber of commerce is enough to restore the Republican party to power.

I doubt that Mr. Vance is deluded. I think HE LIES!!!

PS Anyone who thinks that Republicans really believe in free markets and the wisdom of Capitalism need only turn their gaze upon Safeco Field and Qwest Field and recall how they were built, who paid for them, and who supported that corporate welfare package. I'm looking at you Vance!

What President Obama has succeeded at is giving the Republicans something to unite against. They're out of power, they're still angry about last year's election, and they're terrified that Obama might actually keep his word and make changes that will help the country.

The 30% of the country that hates and despises Barack Obama and the Democrats is essentially the same 30% that stuck with George W. Bush right to the very end, no matter what. These people are LOUD and they live in a largely cloistered, alternate reality. (Go to Fox "News" one of these days and see what I mean; it's stunning.)

I know Chris Vance is HOPING that the Republicans can take this anger and rage on the part of this far-right 30% and turn it into a new majority. Sorry, Chris. Although the Republicans can still win a statewide election now and then, they are still largely a party of southerners, country clubbers, religious conservatives and other extremists. That doesn't win in most states.

I don't think anything scares Republicans as much as the idea that President Obama might succeed and win over the American public. Much better to hope for the country to get worse, so they can regain power.

"Divisive liberal change agent." Let me explain.

President Obama has chosen to pursue policies such as cap and trade and a public option for health care which are favored by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. There are a lot of moderate Democrats who won't support Obama on these policies. Obama has chosen to push for dramatic change and in doing so he is dividing the American people.

Nothing wrong with any of this. FDR was a divisive liberal change agent. Reagan was a divisive conservative change agent. Both were popular and politically successful.

All I am saying is by choosing to govern in this fashion, polls show Obama has lost the support of many men who supported him who thought he would govern as a moderate.

And BTW, the polls I cite are in Washington State, not the south.

Here's a headline from this morning Mr. Vance. It sums up the current state of the Republican party pretty well.

"After Months Of Negotiations And Concessions, Senator Baucus' Health Care Bill Introduced With Zero Republican Support."

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the snaggle toothed (no health insurance) racists of the South are running your party. You have nothing to offer to improve the lives of Americans. Here are the messages I get when I peruse your websites. Obama is a Kenyan born Nazi Socialist Muslim white hating racist who wants to take away our guns and rape our women.

The Republicans have gone batshit crazy. When you are not hanging around airpoort restrooms offering up blowjobs to strangers or chasing around teenage congressional interns offering more of the same or denouncing gay people for threatening the holy institution of marriage you are taking bribes from corporations-just like the Democrats do.

Here's another one Mr Vance:

Loving couple divorces to stay afloat financially.

"For Mary McCurnin and husband Ron Bednar, money trouble has followed health trouble. In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery."

How do Republican slogans and shouts of "YOU LIE" help these American? Americans who work hard and play by the rules.

C'mon out of the public restrooms Republicans. Show us YOUR plan to make America a better place for all of us.

Here's another one Mr Vance:

Loving couple divorces to stay afloat financially.

"For Mary McCurnin and husband Ron Bednar, money trouble has followed health trouble. In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery."

How do Republican slogans and shouts of "YOU LIE" help these American? Americans who work hard and play by the rules.

C'mon out of the public restrooms Republicans. Show us YOUR plan to make America a better place for all of us.

BTW I don't like the Democrats much either. Senator Baccus has designed a giveaway healthcare "reform" package that will enrich the insurance companies and do little for the rest of us. They donated millions to him in bribes-uhh campaign donations-to do so. Both parties are corporate whores. The Democrats are slightly better than the Republicans at doing something for the American people.

Headline: "Californian man introduces amendment to ban divorce."

Now Mr. Vance is this man a Democrat or Republican? Perhaps he works for the insurance companies and is fed up with Americans divorcing to avoid paying their medical bills.

Or perhaps Mr. Vance, the Californian man is one of thos small government keep government out of my business Republicans that wants government in everyone ELSE'S business telling them who they can marry or divorce or what medical procedures they can have. You guys are just too friggin much. You have jumped the shark and except for snaggle toothed "right-to-work" $5 an hour, uninsured Southern white high school dropouts and the chamber of commerce are not worth listening too by anyone else.

Or perhaps Mr. Vance, the Californian man is one of those small government keep government out of my business Republicans that wants government in everyone ELSE'S business telling them who they can marry or divorce or what medical procedures they can have. You guys are just too friggin much. You have jumped the shark and except for snaggle toothed "right-to-work" $5 an hour, uninsured Southern white high school dropouts and the chamber of commerce are not worth listening too by anyone else.

I wonder if those gender-biased banner ads displaying all over the Internet that say "Obama wants to pay moms to get a college degree" with images of happy young female graduates and links to specific states that then peter out without providing any info may have agitated the independent-thinking male population's deepest, hidden worries about getting selectively, politically undermined in the midst of a deep recession. Especially when men have been disproportionately affected by layoffs, which they have been.

I think it's good to send moms to college, and the ads may even be legitimate though they seem to dead-end after harvesting click data-- but regardless, it would be hard to believe that a similarly selective advert such as "Bush wants to pay dads to get a college degree" wouldn't get called out and denounced. I have no idea who bought so much ad space on so many sites.