Did any of you watch President Obama's "State of the Union" address last night? I watched on and off. Some things I liked and others I didn't like at all and chose to switch to another channel. These political speeches are all predictable: The incumbant brags on any successes since they took office, blames any setbacks on the opposing party, and tries to stir hope in the masses that can allegedly only be fulfilled by a second term in office. Then comes the disssenting response from leadership of the opposing party . . everything is terrible since this President took office, they are leading us in the wrong directions, and things will only get worse if they are elected to a second term. Blah, blah.

While I would like to think U.S. is on its way back, I seriously doubt that. The Democrats get all excited by a fraction of a percentage point drop in unemployment (even if that drop can be attributed to a temporary cause, such as the Christmas shopping season) or a slight drop in foreclosures (even though the drop was artificially created by govt. mandates that slowed processing of foreclosures).

U.S. just has too many problems and not enough solutions to "be back." Principal among those, in my opinion, is the huge national debt that continues to grow, not just from interest owed, but by a U.S. that continues to run trillion+ budget deficits year-after-year. Another major problem is the large, starting to retire, no longer working but collecting pensions and needing increasingly levels of expensive medical care "Baby Boomer" generation. These things aren't changing under ANY administration. Regardless what happens to other aspects of our economy, those things alone can sink us.

As we were duped into the "global economy", and with the European Union appearing to teeter on the brink of disaster, U.S. isn't safe even if we can deal with our own problems. Together, the EU is the largest part of the world economy, so if they fail, the West and much of the world economy fails. Folks like Brandon will insist that things aren't as bleak as I am describing. I wish that were true . . Americans could use a little realistic hope right now. But how we will come out of this, at least in this decade, or the next, is something I just do not see occuring.

I don't know if America is back, but Americans are to be back soon from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, is the current government in Iraq any better to its population than Saddam Hussein's?

And in Afghanistan, the Taliban are to be back in power as soon as Westerners leave. The Afghans will again be proud of themselves as they are the only people to have defeated the Soviet Army and the coalition of Western powers, led by the United States.

As a conclusion: These two wars have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, have costed trillions of US$ to American taxpayers, and led the world into the current crisis, to not even achieve any of their goals!

Marseil.

Did any of you watch President Obama's "State of the Union" address last night? I watched on and off. Some things I liked and others I didn't like at all and chose to switch to another channel. These political speeches are all predictable: The incumbant brags on any successes since they took office, blames any setbacks on the opposing party, and tries to stir hope in the masses that can allegedly only be fulfilled by a second term in office. Then comes the disssenting response from leadership of the opposing party . . everything is terrible since this President took office, they are leading us in the wrong directions, and things will only get worse if they are elected to a second term. Blah, blah.

While I would like to think U.S. is on its way back, I seriously doubt that. The Democrats get all excited by a fraction of a percentage point drop in unemployment (even if that drop can be attributed to a temporary cause, such as the Christmas shopping season) or a slight drop in foreclosures (even though the drop was artificially created by govt. mandates that slowed processing of foreclosures).

U.S. just has too many problems and not enough solutions to "be back." Principal among those, in my opinion, is the huge national debt that continues to grow, not just from interest owed, but by a U.S. that continues to run trillion+ budget deficits year-after-year. Another major problem is the large, starting to retire, no longer working but collecting pensions and needing increasingly levels of expensive medical care "Baby Boomer" generation. These things aren't changing under ANY administration. Regardless what happens to other aspects of our economy, those things alone can sink us.

As we were duped into the "global economy", and with the European Union appearing to teeter on the brink of disaster, U.S. isn't safe even if we can deal with our own problems. Together, the EU is the largest part of the world economy, so if they fail, the West and much of the world economy fails. Folks like Brandon will insist that things aren't as bleak as I am describing. I wish that were true . . Americans could use a little realistic hope right now. But how we will come out of this, at least in this decade, or the next, is something I just do not see occuring.

Well the economy goes in cycles- and it can't stay at the rock bottom forever- people may not buy things for a while but eventually things where wear out and must be replaced- then people buy new- and factories and stores hire more people to meet the demand- and so-forth. I think we are reaching that point now so there is a upturn in the economy- but when if ever it will be "back" to what it "was"... I doubt.

The problem was that much of our "booming economy" in recent years was built on debt. You can live high on the hog if you pay for it with borrowed money but that can only go on so long. Paying off this debt is going to be a long painful process. What's more we live in a different world now with China and other countries competing for our jobs. This is a fact we have to live with. The new "normal" may never be what it was. We Americans may just have to downsize our expectations of what is a good living- smaller cars, smaller houses, making do with less like our parents did.

I don't know if America is back, but Americans are to be back soon from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, is the current government in Iraq any better to its population than Saddam Hussein's?

And in Afghanistan, the Taliban are to be back in power as soon as Westerners leave. The Afghans will again be proud of themselves as they are the only people to have defeated the Soviet Army and the coalition of Western powers, led by the United States.

As a conclusion: These two wars have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, have costed trillions of US$ to American taxpayers, and led the world into the current crisis, to not even achieve any of their goals!

Marseil.

Well I certainly agree with you about Iraq- it was terrible mistake and I opposed it from the very start.

As for Afghanistan, the fact is the Afghans were hiding Bin-Laden- the guy who engineered the 9/11 attack on us and refused to give him up- so this was more justified but very poorly executed. Our sole goal should have been to kill or capture Bin-laden but before we accomplish this Bush pulls troops out of there to go into Iraq letting him escape. Bush is unquestionably the stupidest president we ever had. It's boggles my mind that so many people voted for him.

in your haste to blame Bush for everything.

Nat thinks America may never be back to the way it once was, or at least not for another couple of decades. So, you agree then that Obama is incorrect, maybe even insincere, in claiming "America is back"? Do you agree with me, that this was just more poltical posturing, or do you think a smart guy like Obama could be so naive as to believe that? Do you agree with me that this statement was merely a self-serving attempt to get elected to a second term? (No need to be defensive on this point -- all career politicians do the same . . will seemingly do or say anything to keep getting elected and riding the gravy train. Obama is no different. I was just interested in your take on this).

Well certainly Obama is making the most of some recent encouraging news on the economy. Now if you take his statement "America is back" to mean "the recession is over and the economy is back to normal"- ofcourse this is hyperbole. He would be more accurate to say "America is coming back".

On the other hand neither are things as bad and hopeless as the Republicans are saying so both sides are doing what politicians do- shading a situation to their best advantage.

And by the way, I'm not the Obama fanboy you think, I may even vote for Romney if he is nominated because I think he would be more pragmatic after elected than he has to pretend to be now to get the Republican nomination.

Why wouldn't you call it deception, or even lying, as you have accused Conservatives of doing? Cause no casually observant person can think that America is or will have a significant rebound within the next several years. So Obama must be saying something he cannot actually believe.

Come on Bob, this is bravado like sports fans shouting "We're the best! We're number one" even when they aren't. No one takes cheerleading like this seriously. If he said something specific like "unemployment and the deficit have been fixed" then you would have a valid gripe.

Again, because it is a Democrat, you characterize deception as a harmless, maybe even a positive, phenonmenon. This isn't a sporting event . . this is a guy saying whatever he can to get re-elected to the highest political office in our country. To you, when it is a Republican, they are either lying, or corrupt, or both. Obama promised hope ("Yes We Can!") 4 years ago, and now he says whatever suits his purpose, no matter how ludicrous, to try to get enough voters to believe that he even remotely delivered on that promise. Just imagine what you would say now, Nat, if McCain had won the 2008 election and the country were no better off than it is right now. That would be inexcusable in your eyes . . and any comments by McCain to the contrary would be characterized by you as "more proof of Republican incompetence and corruption." Admit it.

First off, Obama was handed a disaster. I said back in 2008 that anyone who even wanted to be president in 2008 was a fool because it was a mission doom to fail. Bush had eight years to wreck the economy with unfunded wars and unwise tax cuts and nobody could repair that damage in half the time. But I think Obama has done as well as anyone could especially when the Republicans have fought him every step of the way!

But I'm not wedded to Obama. You overlooked me saying above that I might vote for Romney if he's nominated. From what I know he was a good governor in Massachusetts who worked with a Democrat legislature and got a lot of things accomplished. The trouble is for anyone to even get nominated in today's Republican party you have to appear extreme right-wing when running. But I think once Romney got elected he would be a moderate practical president who would work with Democrats for the good of the country.