Channelling TR

President Obama traveled to the small Kansas town of Osawatomie today and channelled Teddy Roosevelt who, a hundred years ago gave a stirring speech in the same community for a "square deal" for the American people. 

Speaking to the audience at the local high school, Obama said “I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we are greater together than we are on our own.  I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules.”  He received a warm reception and enthusiastic applause in the very red state of Kansas.  The chances of Obama winning Kansas in 2012 are, as we used to say, between slim and none.  It was obviously meant as a national speech and began to define his 2012 campaign.  The speech, described by the Christian Science Monitor as "combative", took Republicans to task for their opposition to the extension of the payroll tax cut, their attempts to dilute or defund the financial industry regulations passed in the last Congress, their opposition to increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans and their opposition to the American Jobs Act. 

A good start...and one which needs to be pounded home every day from now until next November.  Obama may win the election for the Presidency but if Congress is still controlled by Republicans, none of these speeches will matter.  The Republicans in the Do Nothing 112th Congress have had as their main objective denying Obama a second term rather than solving the problems the country faces.  It's time to turn these misguided legislators out of office.  They have stood in the way of nearly every possible solution to the jobs crisis in this country...but somehow they have managed to convince people that the sad state of the economy is all Obama's fault.  According to the right-wing extremists now in control of the Republican Party, all we need are fewer regulations and lower taxes on the rich and let the free market solve our problems.  That formula has never worked and never will.