Every candidate runs for office as a uniter, Doug. That's standard election-time feelgood propaganda. Besides....who doesn't think, in his more optimistic moments, that he can unite the country behind him? Would anyone run for president who didn't think that he could unite the country behind him?????

When they get into office, however, they must serve huge vested interests such as major corporations, banks, the Dept of Defence, etc....NOT the public. They must. That's the way the $ySSTEm works. This is why they cannot unite the country. They're not serving the interests of most of the people IN the country. And besides...there's always that pesky other party, which will make it pretty well impossible for the one in power to actually get much done most of the time. It's a situation 100% guaranteed NOT to unite the country. The only thing on Earth that can unite the USA is a sudden and vicious attack on America by some foreign power (or someone pretending to be some foreign power). 911, for example. That united the country for awhile. So did Pearl Harbour.

You're dreaming when you say Obama's "liberal". LOL!!!!! His policies would certainly not be seen as liberal anywhere except in the USA. He is somewhat right of center, Doug...a little bit right of center. But he is essentially exactly what he "pretended" to be. He's a centrist. The reason Mudcatters are disappointed is because he has, indeed, proven NOT to be a genuine liberal....he just sounds like one. (He's an excellent speaker.)

Sounding like a liberal, of course, is all it takes to fool any American conservative into imagining you're the next thing to a blood-drinking Communist, because they don't even know what a liberal is. ;-) It's a phantasm that haunts their dreams and it bears no resemblance to reality.

p.s. - I'm not a bit surprised at what is happening either, Doug. It's about what I would have expected.