Barack Obama

Today, President Obama welcomes Mauricio Funes, the president of El Salvador, in what is his first meeting with a Central American head of state at the White House. The Center for Democracy in the Americas has reported on the development of the Funes administration from the time we monitored the elections which brought him and his party, the FMLN, to power through his inauguration to the early successes of his term.

Tea Partiers & Birthers continue to claim their Tea Party movement is not based on racism, dispute all the evidence to the contrary.

As Obama’s first year in office wraps we have to wonder how he squandered such a great opportunity to produce real “change,” the theme that inspired his campaign. Those who expected it are disillusioned; those who didn’t gloat on the marooned administration. The election rhetoric made many believe something was coming. In the final stretches of the campaign he indicted a failed generation of neoliberals that began with Reagan for taking us on the wrong course. But now Democrats frantically read focus groups and polls, perhaps even tea leaves, to keep their jobs.

When our esteemed Martian anthropologist visited America this month and filed her report at Central Station in Tharsis on Mars, she noted that the current buzzword in the capital of America is “reconciliation”–which she said is defined currently as the act of bringing disputing parties together.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, MSNBC Washington Correspondent Norah O’Donnell, and “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane appeared on “Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday. The panel weighed in on everything from Obama’s failure to communicate to financial reform, waterboarding, and Sarah Palin’s son who has Down Syndrome. Spitzer had tough words for Barack Obama on and his constant search for bipartisanship. “Fundamental reform doesn’t come from bipartisanship. And it seems to me bipartisanship has become appeasement.

Sarah Palin will always be a Hail Mary Pass. She is a last-ditch, slapdash shot for a win. Regardless of facts, faux pas or folly, conservatives will continue to tout her as an asset as long as she continues to act like a battering ram to their opposition. If she still throws jabs, utterly doe-eyed to the implications (i.e. ripping on teleprompters in a prepared speech), the dreaded “elites” of her party will still use her for what she’s worth.

John McCain has recruited his former running mate to campaign on his behalf as
he faces the strongest challenge yet to his US Senate seat.

Sarah Palin’s Sleight of Hand

Liberals had a blast mocking Sarah Palin last weekend when she was caught addressing the Tea Party Convention with a cheat sheet scrawled on her hand. Even the president’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, couldn’t resist getting into the act and treated a White House briefing to a Palin hand gag of his own.

Robert Gibbs pokes fun at Sarah Palin from his presidential podium. Giving a high profile dig to someone not in office, running for any office, or having any official role anywhere in the country. That’s a lot of attention for someone who supposedly doesn’t matter. The White House getting a little sloppy with their arrogance. It’s not like Sarah’s viability has spiked. A new ABC/Washington Post poll finds her unfavorable numbers at 55%, with her support among Republicans down.

With nearly three years to go before the 2012 presidential election, President Obama’s hold on the White House appears to be in jeopardy, according to the results of a Gallup Poll released Wednesday. Registered voters nationwide favor Obama by a slim margin — 44 percent to 42 percent — over a generic Republican candidate. That gap is within the poll’s 4 percentage point margin of error. Three percent said they would vote for a different candidate, and 11 percent had no opinion.