Michael Pingree said all that needs be!

I'm happy to be voting for Pres. Obama again, and especially now that that the GOP has been fully captured by the most violent and the most extreme forces in our country. The future existence of social security, of medicare and medicaid, protection of clean water and air, and any progress in improving access to health care, all depend on President Obama's election in 2012.

Strangely, I don't have the same youthful enthusiasm I had last time around...

All you need to do is envision what happened at the state levels (and the House) after 2010 happening on a national level after 2012. That's enough for me.

Not super enthusiastic about Obama, but he is sure-as-heck better than any alternative, including 3rd party alternatives.

I am enthusiastically supporting President Obama.

I am eager to work to re-elect President Obama.

At this point I am defaulting Obama since no Republican looks reasonable. There is no enthusiasm for me this time around.

I can be quite enthused that we have ended DADT, passed a beginning to HCR, passed a financial regulation bill with consumer protection, put two progressive women on the Supreme Court among other accomplishments. The line could not be clearer now. The new GOP budget calls for a phase out of Medicare and Medicaid, and a lowering of tax rates for wealthy individuals and corporations. Imagine a future with no govt. health care coverage for seniors, disabled, or poor children and the sick.

I will not be voting for Pres. Obama in 2012. I will be voting against the Republican nominee.

I really have a hard time understanding those who say Pres. Obama "has done a great job." Whatever happened to "the fierce urgency of now?" The reforms we have gotten with Obama have been more in spite of Obama not because of Obama. He is acceptable the same way Eisenhower was (i.e., a steady hand in good times). The problem for Obama's is that he is not governing in a time of relative peace and prosperity like Eisenhower had the luxury of doing. Obama is faced with incredibly large problems (global warming, 2 wars, economic collapse, skyrocketing health care costs, polarization of the classes, massive budget deficit, crumbling infrastructure) that require major leadership and bold ideas to take on. Obama has shown himself to be unwilling to lead or present bold ideas.

I will be voting against Obama in the primary for two reasons. First, I want to register my discontent with his unwillingness to lead or push for bold reforms. Second, I want to be part of a larger message to future Democratic politicians, that you cannot abandon your base once elected and expect no consequences. This is not a purist point of view. I am willing to accept a lot (and have), but my tolerance level has bounds. And Obama's extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich was my breaking point. That act, along with the extension of Bush's wars, is more destructive than everything else he has done. Obama is better than Bush, but that is the only standard by which Obama cannot be considered a failure.

Obama is the clear favorite to win in 2012 due to the embarrassing field of Republicans, but his major achilles heal will be people like me. People who went door-to-door for Obama, gave him money, and dragged our friends/family to the polls to vote for him in 2008 who will not do any of those things in 2012 or may even stay home (like they did in 2010!)

I would say it also begins this weekend, when the Repugs shut down the govt. and hold our social security checks, medicare payments, and other essential government services hostage to their extremist ideology. John Boehner has said that the teaparty decides what passes and what doesn't. So the GOP doesn't give a fig for what the American people want, only the Koch brothers and their rent-a-mob.

My focus in 2012 will be to get the best slate of progressive Democrats elected to all levels of government. I worked very hard for Obama in 2008, but this time my energy and $ will go to House, Senate, state and local candidates in Oregon and in key battleground states. Obama will get my vote, but not my energy and enthusiasm.

I am hoping to have the chance to vote for a decent Democrat in the primaries. I will obviously be voting for Obama in the general if he, as is most likely, is our democratic nominee. I will be doing so under duress however. In my opinion he has not been doing a 'great job' at all.

No vocal support of the HCR bill. Still too many troops and contractors in Iraq and no real change of policies in Afghanistan. He allowed the Bush tax cuts to go forward without a whimper of protest. After promising to support the working people of this country he has still not gone to Wisconsin. He has allowed his economic polices to be dictated by Summers and Geithner.

All of that, and more, outweigh his nominations of 2 female supreme court justices and his (finally) passing the DADT repeal. I can't think of anything else truly outstanding that he has done and even DADT took way too long.

Since I don't believe in the Presidential Fairy who can, with a wave of his or her magic wand, bend Congress to his or her will, I am going to enthusiastically support my President, who has had to not only fight the party of NO but also significant chunks of his own party every step of the way. He got HCR passed, which no other Democratic president has managed in the last 80 years. In the face of an unprecedented conservative tsunami election last year, he used the lame duck session to negotiate the best deal he could with the Bush tax cuts, and saved us from far worse had he allowed the present congress to legislate it.
He out-strategized his opponent and his supporters by legislating the repeal of DADT, rather than merely grandstanding. Is he perfect? NO. Has he lied to me? Not yet. If 2010 didn't scare the pee out of you, and if Wisconsin didn't scare the pee out of you, and if you can't, if for no other reason, think of every disadvantaged man, woman and child who will suffer in the coming decades under a Republican regime, rustle up some enthusiasm for next year's presidential election, then the fault is not President Obama's, but your own.

It's a good thing that apparently most voters live in the real world and are more concerned with actual policy questions that affect them and their families rather than the various ways their ideological purity is insulted and offended.

Without President Obama to veto it, the death of medicare and medicaid await the American people. Here's a fresh economic analysis of the Rep. Paul Ryan "death of Medicare" plan that is now being adopted by the GOP in their coming budget resolution as their map for the coming decades:

The CEPR paper, titled "The Ryan Medicare Plan: Winners and Losers" was co-written by Dean Baker and David Rosnick. http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2011/04/dean_baker_gut/ This paper shows the implication of the CBO analysis of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's plan for overhauling the Medicare system. According to the CBO analysis, rising health care costs will quickly make a Medicare equivalent plan unaffordable to most beneficiaries. Also, since costs rise as beneficiaries age, a Medicare equivalent plan will become less affordable to the same beneficiary as she gets older. Finally, this plan implies a huge transfer of income from beneficiaries to health care providers and insurers, since the cost of delivering the same quality care will be substantially higher under Representative Ryan's plan than under the existing Medicare system.

I, too, will be voting against Obama in the primaries. As a registered "No Preference" voter, I'm sure I'll have some fine Green Party candidate to vote for. Of course, I'll vote against the Republicans in the national election -- I just want to register my unhappiness in a way that will not bring down the Democrats. Voting Green is one way to do that.

I have a hard time hearing folks heart felt commitment to social justice and progressive values dismissed as "idealogical purity". Everyone is also familiar with the Boogy Man argument. Yes, the Republicans play a deadly convincing part in the play, but this President has lost his voice and seemingly his conviction. He is weak and gets rolled. It hurts. I seriously believe the pro-Obama folks– who's mission is critical– will stack higher hay with a conversation with the base that admits they have some valid anger and feeling of betrayal.