At this point I am fantasizing about a president in 2013 with large enough majorities to clean out 40 years of insane rules and laws. Repealing Obamacare. Opening all the places where there is actually energy to responsible mining. Opening the Yucca Mountain Repository for nuclear waste. Banning efforts at "fairness" in free speech. Finishing the border fence. A flat rate or other rational income tax. etc. Make your own list. The price of the next 2+ years will be great, but perhaps there really is a silver lining.

I am beginning to wonder if we will be able to survive till 2012. If we survive, consider all the damage that will have been done. Also, I am concerned that the fools that put this idiot in office have not changed in any way. They seem to be totally unaware of the impact he is having on every aspect of our lives.

@ David, I totally agree with your statement.

Now now, don't work yourselves up. Don't you know that a word--take "fraud" for example--means only as much, and no more, than Barack Obama intends it to mean at any given moment? How can we have the hope and change this country so desperately needs if our president can't warp reality by his mere utterances? You see? Fraud isn't fraud if Obama (or his minions) say it isn't fraud! Bankrupting the nation is change! Allowing the most evil terrorist regime on the planet to continue to kill Americans while building nuclear weapons is hope! It's so much easier if you only accept Obama as The One.

Tregonsee, I am afraid David is more right than you hope he isn't. Not much of a silver lining - and the 2 1/2 years left could destroy our Republic beyond repair. In less than 7 months EVERYONE'S taxes will be rising by a huge amount. That will mean billions of dollars out of consumer hands - which is 70% of our economy. Next, we all will have added to our taxable income the cash value of that portion of our health plan that is paid by the employer. This kicks in in 2011. For a family of four that could be an extra $10-15,000 on a w-2. He/she will have to pay taxes on this fantom income as if it were real income - yet the cash didn't go through your hands. MORE pain for the consumer and less consumerism!!! Next, take all this and extrapolate it to the entire domestic economy and you have an economic DISASTER!!!! No silver lining......... 15-17% real unemployment and businsses closing down for lack of....BUSINESS!

Obama ignored professional advice and imposed the drilling ban purely on ideological grounds. All those rigs will disappear, allowed to drill in other countries' waters, they may never return. Ironically some will go to the North Sea and Brazil, two areas that supposedly have higher safety standards than the US does. I can't see any Western foreign company daring to commit drill or to do new business in the States while the North American Chavez is in power.

Perhaps Obama's BP Jihad is simply a ruse to offload BP's assets onto more favourable business partners, such as Petro China or Gazprom.

Jimmy Mac has it dead right. This isn't about safety or science. It's about politics.

Bobby Jindal related the contents of a conversation he had with senior WH adviser Valerie Jarrett. Jarret asked Jindal "why the rigs simply wouldn't come back after six months."

We have dealt with incompentence in Government before, and we have dealt with radical progresssivism in Government before. But I don't think we've ever seen such a unique and poisonous combination of idiocy and progressive radicalism.

It is a truly "historic" presidency, indeed.

When you think about everthing this guy and his administration have done, you have to say that they are either the stupidist people that could be collected or they are intentionally trying to irreparably harm the US. If harm is intended, it is meant to be something we can not recover from. The economy, health care, business, energy, foreign policy have all been targeted and either subjected to complete incompetence or intentionally undermined to the point that recovery will not be possible.