I guess we can take the "He supports the XL" ...

[JoePhilly]

99. You think the GOP was going to vote for the ACA?????

Any version of it???

Let's go through the ACA. Let's say YOU are the President. Explain how YOU get a better version of the ACA passed.

Now, let's assume that the ACA is the current version, plus a public option (feel free to make other changes if that helps you). No Republican is going to vote for your ACA. And while you have almost all of the other Dems lined up, there are 6 bluedogs who are straddling the fence.

I'll spot you 5 of those 6 bluedogs ... you are such a better negoriator than Obama, YOU some how got 5 of them to flip ... you only need one more ... Joe Lieberman.

How do YOU as President get him to vote YES?

When you prove the current President is a bad negotiator by flipping Lieberman, please address these three points.

1) Lieberman ran against you and campaigned for your opponent, John McCain. McCain was going to make him SecDEF, or SECoS. You prevented this.

2) Lieberman is not going to run again, and has said so. He's already preparing for a 7 figure position with a think tank (A position that he now holds btw).

3) Lieberman is known as the "Senator from Aetna". His ties are so close to the insurance industry, multiple members of his family have careers dependent on it.

So please demonstrate how you as President get this one vote. Certainly, given you think Obama could have done better, you can handle flipping Lieberman.

As an aside ... on the NSA ... way back when the patriot act passed, I told some Republican friends that (a) it was too broad, and (b) no President was ever going to give back ANY of that authority because not one of them would be willing to risk a 2nd 9/11. Yet, Obama has actually pulled it back some. Bush wasn't using the FISA courts, Obama has. And the President is changing how the data is collected, and the scope of future warrents that go through the FISA court. That's far more than I expected from any President over the next 50 years, let alone within 10 to 12.

I focus on politics ... because, unlike some, I see the larger picture and its not so hard to spot the relevant trends. The perpetually disgruntled, however, spend so much time with their outrage meter pegged to 11, they have trouble focusing on any topic at all. And when their predictions of doom fail, they get even angrier.