It looked and sounded like unthinking nostalgia going in, though I admit that I didn't listen or look closely since I have little but contempt for politicians. But, I hoped for something less crushingly dim witted since some folks that I had admired in part were enthusiastic. It was a bad idea in general to have all our eggs in one basket - one party in control of all branches - but I seriously underestimated just how bad BO was due to the above noted influences.

one thing has become increasingly, even irrefutably, clear: President Barack Obama is about as visionary as the guy who invented Dippin' Dots, Ice Cream of the Future. Far from sketching out a truly forward-looking set of policies for the 21st century, as his supporters had hoped, Obama is instead serving up cryogenically tasteless and headache-inducing morsels from years gone by.

On issue after issue, Obama has made it clear that instead of blasting past "the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long," (as he promised in his inaugural address), he's moving full speed ahead toward policy prescriptions that already had less fizz than a case of Billy Beer back when Jimmy Carter was urging us all to wear sweaters and turn down our thermostats. Instead of thinking outside the box, Obama is nailing it shut from the inside.

Noted. In future I'll be more careful about whose notions I'll allow to influence me. It isn't that anything would be different or better if I had been more scrupulously analytical, but it was an error in judgement to have entertained nebulous expectations of adequate, if somewhat unappetizing, competence. My concern was that with all government branches run by one party there would be inadequate checks and balances. That's true, but doesn't begin to engage the true mess we have created.