I had a feeling Jr was # 5, Rod was referring to.

uh oh.

No wonder Rod didn't sell. just a million! come, it is a easy senate seat, with the very likely chance of multiple terms! I respect Rod for not under-appreciating the value of being an American Senator. (mild sarcasm)

Jackson is giving a news conference shortly 4:15 PM ET...

I guess the nut doesn't fall too far from the tree...

I want everyone involved in this to be exposed and publicly shamed. I can't wait.

As for Obama's approval ratings, I am surprised and happy that they are so high. I know that even my dad said he was "very impressed." And this is from a guy who really really hated Obama during the run off.

Both my R and D friends have all said how nice it is to have someone who seems so thoughtful and can articulate his thoughts well. I think the contrast with Bush might be helping Obama more right now more than it would be if it had been a different president.

But as they say, the higher you are, the harder you fall. I do worry that people might have too high expectations that will be hard to live up to no matter what.

I was thinking the same thing UnDave.

I don't see how Obama can do anything wrong. He's already backtracked from many of his campaign promises, his cabinet is very much a middle (almost middle right), and yet no one is disappointed. As long as he is more articulate than Bush, I don't think anyone will care what he does.

"Blagojevich "stated he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided ROD BLAGOJEVICH" with something "tangible up front."
So far, that's Blagojevich only, no evidence of anything offered by Candidate 5 - let's wait until there's actual evidence of wrongdoing before we start convicting the Jackson family.

I don't think lack of speaking skills were the cause of Bush's consistently low approval ratings, but I'll wait until Obama's actually the president to get excited about his ratings - though I understand that people are very pleased to have SOMEONE acting as if they're interested in leading us right now.

Dave, was the "nut" intended?

"I don't see how Obama can do anything wrong. He's already backtracked from many of his campaign promises, his cabinet is very much a middle (almost middle right), and yet no one is disappointed. As long as he is more articulate than Bush, I don't think anyone will care what he does."

Either everyone is tired of being critical of Bush for 8 years and they just want a break, or the kool-aid was extra strong.

"Dave, was the "nut" intended?"

whats wrong with his nut?

UnDave, I tend to find that the people who think that Obama has back tracked are people that didn't take the time to see where he stood to begin with. Yes, if you bought into the "most liberal senator" spin, then you will be surprised by what Obama has done so far. If people actually took the time to see his priority of being pragmatic with policy, then people would not be so surprised.

I don't...agh! It's cool that Obama has high approval ratings, but I think that's about as dumb as people who are already slagging him. He's not even the dern president yet, so let's all just hold off judgment, good or bad, until we have something to judge.

Given his voting record (what little there was), I have a hard time thinking that he is anything but the most liberal President elect ever. We'll see if he continues down that path, or grows new stripes. Most tigers find it difficult to change their stripes though.

I never thought I would hate the word "kool-aid." And yet.

UnDave, I do think people on the left are disappointed. But I think that people on the far left (and far right) are, uh, few and far between.

It's probably accurate that about 80% of people are near the center so it's a sign he's appealing to them.

As for wanting to save the approval ratings for when he's president, the article pretty clearly states the the ratings are specifically for how he's handling the transition. In some ways it's silly to get approval ratings for how a transition is handled, but clearly they have done it for prior presidents so I don't think this is unique to Obama.

Can we please have a moratorium on the word kool-aid. It would improve my blood sugar. Thanks.

kool-aid, change and hope.... can we agree to a moratorium on all please?? If not, No deal.

You all need to change the Kool-Aid back to Red.

Sure hain. I never wandered about talking about change and hope. I'm completely content not hearing any of them anymore.

"Given his voting record (what little there was), I have a hard time thinking that he is anything but the most liberal President elect ever"

If you read his policy positions you probably wouldn't be thinking that. Obama has been upfront about his positions, many people chose not to get their information directly from the source.

Why would Obama want to 'change his stripes', most liberal President ever (are you a student of Presidential history or is this hyperbole?) or not?
I don't know anyone asking for their vote back and no one expected people who didn't vote for him to be enthused about anything he did.

I don't believe that Jesse Jr. would risk it. Sorry I'll pass on this till I get cold hard facts.

IF Obama is so liberal why is his cabinet center-right?

Not everyone defines his cabinet as center-right. But why don't we just wait and see what he does once he's actually president? This obsessive need to label everyone right or left gets boring.

Well his cabinet definitely isn't liberal and they have a lot of intelligent people and strong personalities.

They're not Dennis Kucinich liberals, but that doesn't mean they're center-right. If you consider your comment that they 'have a lot of intelligent people' and compare it to recent 'right' cabinet officials, it's clear that being intelligent is NOT a definition of center-right.

What has jesse jackson jr ever did besides be the sone of Jesse Jackson?

He's been in Congress since 1995.

I wouldn't be completely surprised if Candidate # 5 is Jesse Jackson Jr.
Some of the liberal blogs, need to stop thinking about ideologues and start being pragmatic. Once you're elected and become privy to sensitive information, it's pretty hard to keep some of your policies no matter how much you want to.

I thought that some independent research firm did a study and he had the most liberal voting record or maybe the second most. But he campaigned more middle of the road.

So people can look at his record and see that he voted a certain way and come to a conclusion, and others can look at his stated platform and come to a different conclusion. Because they aren't aligned in some cases.

I voted for him just crossing my fingers that he would stay towards the center even after the general election. Time will tell.

Here's another TOOL! What the hell is wrong with these people? It was only a couple of months ago or less that I heard a Republican in Congress compliment him on a fine job, AND, on Fox news too. Both of these jackasses (Jackson Jr. and the Gov.) need to be tared and feathered as far as I'm concerned.

I did not call in (Gay) today although I am a homosexual, a nice one too. No offence to my brethren but I'm going to fight the good fight more productively. It's quit ironic how even though I am against Prop.8 I have also clashed just as intensely (intellectually)with homosexuals over the issue as I have supporters of Prop.8. Protest all you want but as soon as you lay a finger on some one to do harm simply because they're Christian that hypocrisy is just as dangerous to our community as any bigotry we have been effected by. IMO the Gay community needs to refine it's answer to this issue and our so called leaders need to step to the plate because their fragmented response after the election was pathetic.

As for President Elect Obama damn he hasn't had a chance to get his hands dirty yet, lol. I'll reserve my judgment for after the first three months.

>What has jesse jackson jr ever did besides be the sone of Jesse Jackson?

>He's been in Congress since 1995.

Steph, I see why people don't like you. You're always bringing up FACTS and REALITY. God. You're such a b*tch.

"If you read his policy positions you probably wouldn't be thinking that. Obama has been upfront about his positions, many people chose not to get their information directly from the source."

Obama has changed alot of his positions coming to the center on them. During the campaign, he changed positions on the wire tapping bill and he got on board legal gun ownership after DC vs Heller. The radio interview from 2001 where he noted that it was unfortunate that the Supreme Court followed the Constitution too closely and didn't redistribute wealth would paint him as being a far left guy, and he backed that up with what he said to Joe the Plumber. But now, he is talking about leaving the Bush tax cuts in place, even for the rich. Also, he backpedaled on "don't ask, don't tell".

It's no secret that Obama ran to the left during the primaries and then came to the center for the general election. While we could both agree that some of his policies are centerist, it's hard to say who the real Obama really is. Has he come to the center because he's really moderate, or is it because he knows he won't get re-elected if he is too far to the left?

"kool-aid, change and hope.... can we agree to a moratorium on all please?? If not, No deal."

Sorry, I didn't know we had to come to you to make a "deal". But...mmmmmmkay.

Wow, did someone call Stephley names for mentioning that? I must have missed something on this thread!

"Given his voting record (what little there was), I have a hard time thinking that he is anything but the most liberal President elect ever"

Is it so hard to believe that a politician will look at his constituents and vote for policy accordingly? Being an IL senator I'm sure he would be more liberal in his voting record and policies to champion than what he is doing now. Also he is trying to actually unite a divided country, and obviously taking those kinds of steps now. If in your striving to continue to hate Obama you complain about him being more centrist than you thought, or supposedly going back on campaign promises you completely disagreed with anyway, then you are pretty entrenched in your hatred . Stop hating haters! Get over yourself!

Oh and if I hear that freakin kool-aid remark one more time I'm going to go postal and start getting ugly on here.

I do agree that it is hard to figure out what kind of president Obama will be. His voting record is very liberal but his current policies are more central. I refuse to get excited for his current policies until I see if they stay in place after he's been in office for a while.

Pop, Nobody called Steph a name, since I didn't respond to Steph, Truesong was doing so in my place, I guess? People would be more apt to comment at all if everyone didn't get their undies all in a knot.

Ah Beavis, when you just take conservative sound bites and run with them, you don't get the full picture.

It is so funny because during the election I kept telling people he wasn't as uber leftie as conservative commentors were trying to suggest. Now they are shocked and scratching their heads trying to suggest that HE has changed. No, you just didn't pay enough attention to his political philosophy in the past. All you are finding now is that the facts don't mesh with the right wing manipulation of them.

So you disagree that Obama appealed to the left during the primaries, came to the center for the general, and is backpedaling on some of his general election positions now? I don't think those are soundbytes, those are reality. What I deduce from your post is that he was pandering to the left as a centrist.

Unless I read something screwy, Obama went on record supporting the United Electrical,Radio and Machine Workers Union in Illinois... effectively supporting the nationalization of the banking industry.

Seems pretty left-ist to me.

amydia is drinking the koolaid. I guess I can say it as much as I want since I don't have a deal.

AI agree Beavis. That has always been my biggest problem with Obama is that I never knew who he truly was. He was new to the game and didn't have much history to go on. We had to trust him, but in order to gain trust you have to show character. Honesty is big and that is how I decided. What he said during the campaign was a lot different from his platforms when running for illinois state senate or even running as a senator.

Beavis, you could easily flip your assessment to 'right' instead of 'left' and it would apply to John McCain and George W. Bush. Maybe you didn't drink the 'strong Kool-aid' but you pretty sure are drinking some pretty strong haterade. Do you really want him to be super lefty with all his policies so you'll have more venom to spew and your hours of listening to Rush will be more entertaining?

"Oh and if I hear that freakin kool-aid remark one more time I'm going to go postal and start getting ugly on here."
I guess this doesn't apply to you I see.

I'm calling bullsh*t on your Hainan, seriously? His character was why you didn't vote for him? Not because he wasn't a right wing ultra conservative like all your idols? You cannot tell me that you loved all his policies and platforms but just couldn't trust him so that's why you didn't vote for him.

Seriously, pretty weak. You will vote republican for the rest of your life because you are drinking their kool-aid. Pretending any different is ridiculous.

you already said you weren't going to have a 'deal' so why do you care?

I didn't even vote for John McCain. You are weak! You don't even know me and stop acting like you do!