[PumaJ]

Miss Tick, I agree that things started to go down hill in a big way under Reagan, & have gotten progressively worse since then. Same thing happened in California during & after his governorship there. I moved to Oregon from San Francisco in 1977, but having many family members in California, I've more or less kept up with what happens there..very sad in many ways:-(

AtLast, I think that Obama has fewer Wall St. ties than many others, but I also think it is impossible in today's political world to not have some. It seems that he favors more regulation of the banks & financial industry than any other president since FDR, a stance that is not earning him any more points with many in the financial industry & certainly fuels a great deal of the negative press about him in the MSM. Overall, though, IMO, he needs to show more backbone & stop trying to be so damned conciliatory with those on the right. Perhaps we are seeing finally seeing some of that from him.

The fact that there are so many uber conservative players in the Repub field, hoping to become Pres. horrifies me. I cannot remember a time when this has been the case in our nation's politics. Obviously, the culture wars are alive & well. I was very happy to see that Santorum was booed in N.H.