Well, we've about beat this thing to death anyway.  And it probably is time for me to get some work done.  So, I'll leave any continued pummeling to the rest of y'all.

Enjoy the Christmas season.

Really? Well, I am taking your word for it. Why is that so? Better funds? Then the funding of “government run” institutions should be improved too.

Typical socialist answer--if public schools suck, they must be under funded.  The reality is throwing more money at them makes them more expensive, not better at educating kids.  D.C. schools prove that dramatically.  As the president of the teacher's union stated, "I'll start caring about kids when they start paying union dues."

Why?  Private schools do not have union teachers so they can fire the non-performers.  They can compete for the best teachers and compete for the best students by competing with other schools to offer the best education for the buck.

Brendan,

I'm glad you reminded me.  I appreciate it...

Thank you for your service to our country, Henry.

What an assanine assumption. I suppose, if you believe I have such a fixation, then you have very little (or less than most by your own account) to worry about on that front.

I give you "A Republican Theme Park" as a parting gift.

Allow me to continue the article (it's from Reuters, by the way):

But Republicans said it was another attempt to distract from what they see as Obama's failed economic record. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accused the president and his fellow Democrats of resorting to "cheap political theater."

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, in an interview on CNBC, said Obama's policies made him the "finest food stamp president in American history" because more people will end up getting government aid than new jobs.

This time, Obama sought to channel Roosevelt, a Republican who provoked deep anger within his party with his landmark "New Nationalism" speech in 1910 that hailed the government's role in promoting social justice and warned against the abuses of rich business interests. Roosevelt lost the 1912 presidential election running as a third-party candidate.He was also seeking to revitalize his liberal base amid fears that an "enthusiasm gap" could cut into Democratic turnout and cost him a second term.

Obama sounded themes of economic inequality and corporate greed that have driven the Occupy Wall Street protest movement that was spawned in New York in recent months and has spread to other major cities and even other countries.

"President Obama is attempting to energize Democrats for the campaign, define himself as something more than a passive president and take populism back from the Tea Party," Princeton University political historian Julian Zelizer said.

The risk for Obama is that tougher rhetoric against Big Business could turn off some of the centrist voters he needs to win re-election. After his Democrats suffered major losses in the November 2010 congressional elections, he launched an outreach to the business community to try to mend fences.

Obama used his speech to accuse Republicans of suffering from "collective amnesia" about the recent financial crisis, and he strongly defended his Wall Street regulatory overhaul that many Republicans opposed and want to roll back.

He said he would call for legislation to toughen penalties against Wall Street companies that break anti-fraud rules.

"Too often, we've seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there's no price for being a repeat offender. No more," Obama said.

He again prodded Republican lawmakers to extend the expiring payroll tax cut beyond this year.

Many Republican lawmakers are skeptical that it will spur job creation, but party leaders, fearing a possible backlash from voters in 2012, have expressed a willingness to find a way to prevent the tax cut from lapsing.

They remain at odds with Democrats on how to fund it.

The entire context is probably important, Bren, don't you think? I did like your subtle tool of bolding the parts you found important, so I did the same.  Nice effect, I think.

And don't you find the writer's choice of wording evocative? Obama isn't a champion of the middle class; "he portrayed himself" as one. His speech didn't echo Roosevelt's; it was "meant to echo" it. And why should  Obama's speech have to be "part of a strategy to cast the Republicans as the party beholden to the rich and blame them for obstructing his efforts to boost the fragile economy and slash high unemployment"? If it was a matter of truth for all to see, why the artifice?

Everywhere in this piece, Obama is "attempting to" do this, "casting himself" as that, and "seeking to" do the other. In other words, Obama is trying to do what any actor does -- fool the audience. Unfortunately for us, in this particular case, he's trying to play president. The writer of this piece might not have intended it to be, but it's basically a movie review. Obama's performance? Looks like 2 stars out of 4. Not exactly a blockbuster, now is it?

Oh yeah, it’s only class warfare when workers start to fight back, not before, I know.

You don’t get it, as usual. Your president doesn’t need success. Any candidate who isn’t completely nuts could win the next elections against Obama, that goes without saying. With that performance! And no government is re-elected during this crisis anyway. Except Obama.

The repugs don’t have a single candidate who is NOT completely nuts. More precisely, all they have is the stupidest of looneys. And there are some pathetic old men who fantasise that one of these looneys could win, and that this would be a good thing. Haha, these pathetic losers!

This would be a pathetic attempt at humour in any case.

The 1% aren’t covering their fair share of expenses. They will be made to do so.

If you avoid this forum 24/7, 365, you will be on the safe side, whiner. Don’t believe we hadn’t got why nobody tried to shoot a hole into your brain, double asshole. They couldn’t very well use a microscope.

Wouldn't have thought that regardless, but that's a cool list, Alan. Your dad must be something. Bet your school science projects were second to none

“der idiot”

Haha! Double asshole whiner can’t even get the gender right. Sits in the glasshouse and shouts “idiot”. How pathetic.