The Sunday News shows provided nothing very new, for the most part. I guess the one tidbit of brand new information was in a comment by I think Pat Buchanan on the McLaughlin Group. It could have been Mort Zuckerman, but my memory is that it was Buchanan. The discussion was about whether or not Obama's foreign policy was going to significantly help him during the election. The current elections, which have just taken place the last few days, in Tunisia came up. Buchanan, I believe, said something like, "looks like those aren't coming out that good."

Well, I hadn't heard anything about the outcome of those elections yet. In fact, this afternoon on NPR's
"All Things Considered" they discussed the Tunisian elections, but never ventured a comment on the results. A comment that things are coming out so good means to me that the Muslim fundamentalists have done well. This is the U.S. worst case scenario. As far as our government is considered, democracy is only good when our people get elected.

I thought it was interesting that Charles Krauthamer admitted that the republican candidates for president were "minor." I think that the republicans are positioning themselves to deal with an Obama second term. Can anyone spell Mondale?

I also thought it was interesting the level of discussion about Romney putting his hand on Perry's shoulder during the debate last week. I thought there would be more talk about it. There was some, and more than one show brought it up. But it shows that Romney can get rattled and do something less than great.

Another topic that was discussed on multiple shows was Obama's announcement that all U.S. troops would be taken out of Iraq by the end of the year. Of course the republicans are criticizing Obama for the announcement. But most U.S. citizens are happy about it, especially the military families.

McLaughlin himself said that he thought that it would be a significant political plus for Obama. I think he's more right than wrong. Everyone knows that the republicans won't say that much of what Obama does is good. But the republicans are playing a high risk game, and the odds that it will be successful are not that good. People know that Obama had a huge job when he came in, and that he hasn't gotten much, if any, cooperation from the republicans. He certainly hasn't performed as we all had hoped, but he comes off as trying, as being willing to talk to consider other ideas, and as sincere. For those that think Obama has "lost" the independent vote, you are likely going to be wrong.