With all due respect to both of you (hogan and js55)
There is no reason to get personnel on the issues.
As for "in a delirium of naive hope" the world delirium was a bit extreme, but naive hope is accurate. Neither extreme is capable of balancing and repairing the country. Therefore it's a naive hope to think one man can do so.
As for elected, unfortunetly to get elected in modern times you've got to go with who got you elected. You have to tell them everything they want to hear, and none of what they need to hear. It's kind of like dealing with managment. They don't want to hear the negative, all they want to hear is it will be shipped on time, schedule and under budget. Well contrary to popular belief, not everything welds up right the first time, and there are matters out of the control of the production workers. So politicians in general have taken to pissing on our collective legs and telling us it's raining. This is not a party specific condition, if a congressional or presidential candidate is speaking, Vegas odds have them lieing through their teeth. It just so happened that obama and the dems wagged the dog more efficiently by scaring the hell out of the American people by convincing them the sky is falling.
So lets talk about the American populace. Penn and Teller I believe at least look at things logically, even if it offends them. So lets take this first link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw&feature=relatedSo the people in this video mindlessly signed a ban on water. These are the kind of people I believe Jeff was refering to. Unfortunetly, there are a lot of sheoples in the country now. They cannot think for themselves, and will follow the crowd without a shread of research, not even so much as opening a dictionary. Facts are facts, these people exist, and they are getting closer and closer to being the majority as our educational system systematically indoctrinates our youth into believing the government has all the answers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhje8wepyg&feature=relatedAs mentioned on the first video, the indoctrination is utilizing political correctness to corner those with a different view, and paint them out as devils if the "DARE" disagree with the liberal left take on reality. By the same token, the ultra right will and has done the same thing and would again if they can get away with it. Everyone wonders around scared of their jobs if they utter one offensive word. Problem is, it's hard to keep track of the latest and greatest in whats offensive. Now the government is stepping in and legislating what is offensive. Those on the right did it with porn, language, and other things like that, those on the left did it with global warming, and social ideals. With both of them we are going to find ourselves so afraid of offending our neighbors that we no longer speak to them. When that time comes how the hell are we going to communicate when half the langauge has been deemed offensive? The average citizen is having their first ammendment rights slowly but surely stripped from them in the name of political correctness. No wonder we no longer have the stomach for a fight. We can't even fight with words, much less arms with the stranglehold of PC in place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNu7ldL1LM&feature=relatedThey make a lot of sense to me on the second ammendment. However; people don't want to hear that. They prefer to go after guns on the basis of duck hunting. The stark reality is the second ammendment was written for the very distinct purpose of protecting the country from a tyrannical government who took to much power into itself. It didn't a thing to do with duck hunting, nore restriction of the publics rights. This is yet another victim of the uneducated PC elite.
So lets all keep at each others throats, lets all forget what being polite to each other means, and while we are at it, completly disregard all of written history and repeat all the same mistakes all over again. Have at it.