Quote from toc:
Politicians are liars and selfish cheats.........they should be the first ones to be made to account for promising and not delivering

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It may just be my ideological opinion, but I have a realist view on the world.
Almost every human act is based on a selfish desire. Even when you donate to charity, you do so because it ultimately makes you feel good inside. It's all self-fulling.
Now if you were a politician, you would do whatever is in your best interest. Sure you might care about others, but you will pick your priorities and certain groups will be marginalized when the "economic" pie gets divided.
It's easy for us to say what someone is supposed to do. If you were in his shoes, you would do what is in your interest too. If individuals donated money to your campaign, of course you will have to reward them. There's no free lunch.
I am not a fan of Obama, but he outright won the election. He has a mandate to follow his ideological beliefs.
To those posters that call him communist or w.e., look-up what communism means. The government doesn't control the factors of production (aside water in local areas). You guys are confusing it with fascism. A fascist country is one that is dominated by corporations. Think XOM, GS, HAL. These lobbyists control the government and Obama is essentially serving those that helped him where he is.
If you were a high level executive for Goldman Sachs, you would love all this TARP money being thrown around Wall Street. Plus you just killed off your competitors and your assets are still safe.
So who will account for these politicians? If corporations hold the power, how are they going to be held accountable? No one spending time on ET will make anything happen. This is not negative thinking, its being a realist. Instead of trying to revolt against the status quo, a better effort would be to try to join it.