Free Republic

Barack Obama used to call himself a "hopemonger," mocking skeptics who thought the young presidential candidate was entirely too hopeful. No one would accuse him of that anymore. President Obama has done more than anyone else during the last two years to destroy trust in Washington. His administration is the latest in a series of blows to the credibility of the system. First, there were the Bush administration failures in Hurricane Katrina and Iraq. Then, the financial collapse. Finally, a president who got elected promising a new, bipartisan way of doing business and a pragmatic approach to governance, who has...

The 2009 political year began on a high note of "change" and "hope" and ended in a thud of stalemate, despair and public fury over the economy, health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. No wonder it may go down as the year of the angry voter. Americans will remember 2009 as much for the grassroots protests - at "Tea Party" rallies and town hall meetings crashed by conservatives to demonstrations by public-option-favoring anti-war progressives - as the Beltway grudge matches that characterized President Obama's first year in office. In California, residents endured months of bitter, partisan battles in...

SENECA — What happens in Washington, D.C., these days doesn’t translate well back home. That’s a message Sen. Lindsey Graham’s media coordinator can take back to his boss. Kevin Bishop faced a tough crowd with tough questions Thursday as he tried to explain recent goings on in the nation’s capital to the Oconee Alliance, a public-private partnership organization that promotes the county. “Does Sen. Graham and the rest of Congress realize the American people are ticked off?” Ray Stamm, a retired Fortune 500 CEO who has lived in Oconee County for 19 years, asked Bishop. “Washington seems to think it’s...

Sorry to bother you again about this, but I think it is important to read. Another strange story via the BBC news service - now it's about allegedly missing postal votes, and not a small quantity either. Your thoughts? flaggie (London).

WASHINGTON — Angry voters — the people who brought the nation Ross Perot, Newt Gingrich and Jesse Ventura — are back. At least in California, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's resounding recall victory demonstrated Tuesday night. The big question is whether they are resurging enough to throw out other governors or shape the coming presidential election. Californians' passion against a litany of local woes and a distinctly unlovable governor fueled their historic decision to fire Gray Davis and replace him with a Hollywood hero untested in politics.That could herald a national movement in the presidential election and perhaps among others of the...