Obama is a great leader.
i think this will change up everything
in our envirment,we finally have a black
president.thank god for everything

Remember we didn't always have unleaded gasoline, either. People adapted to it. We didn't have safety inspections for vehicles. People adapted to it.

Your analogies are extremely weak!

Germany is approx. 138,000 sq mi (just a bit smaller than the state of Montana) with a population of some 86 Million.

The US is approx 3.8 millon sq mi with a population just over 300 million.

It going to take a LOT longer and LOT more money to doanything similar to that in this country. Also, if I am to believe what you stated, they only got to 33%. So what are they doing to cover the oter 67% ?

On gas, the move to add unleaded gas did not mean your local gas station had to install an entirely new system. New pumps got installed yes, but you did not have to train people how to handle unleaded gas. Hydrogen is a much more volatile thing to deal with than gasoline. Oh and how long was it before say 99% of stations in the country had and unleaded pump?...answer...Years!

Electric Cars sound great, but try commuting in heavy traffic with them. If you facing a 50 to 75 mile commute around the greater metropolitan areas of Boston, NY, Washington Chicago, LA etc, these things are not all they are made out to be by the hype. Just like the idea your car is supposed to get the MPG thats on the sticker, most dont get that number anyway.

Simple example of why we are a long way away.

Chevrolet :

Aveo - under $13,000 with HGWY MPG of 34
Malibu Hybrid - more than double the cost for the SAME MPG!

I own a used Aveo, and im getting 33 to 35 MPG. There is no way I can possibly justify spending 26K or more on a car that does not do me any better in MPG than what I get with the used one I paid less 9K for!

I am not saying we cant get to the point we all hope for, what I am saying is it is not going to happen in 10 yrs!
Incentives are not going to make a big difference, if they did, we would already be well along the way on tihs road

My two cents... there is a U.S. company gearing up to RENT solar, kind of like a satellite dish. This is terrific technology. www dot dowattsright dot com

TampaLawyer: "His job is to be commander-in-chief, set policy and send legislation to Congress"

Its not the president's job to send legislation to Congress. Where did you get an idea like that?

The president does send a president's budget request. That's probably the closest thing you have to the executive branch sending legislation to the legislative branch. But the PresBud is a bunch of numbers. Its Congress that considers those numbers and then comes up with budgets in the forms of appropriations and authorization bills.

New presidents do often come with a perceived mandate, and his allies in Congress may well capture that mandate in legislation.

But the president 'leading' is really just a reference to the bully pulpit aspect of leadership in terms of having any direct authority over the nation or Congress. He is commander in chief - but again that's not a legislative function.

No where does "it" say the speaker of the House can't voice his or her opinions about what the House needs to do.

Politically it may be better for the Democrats to orchestrate less of her and more of him. But that's a party political decision - not a function of either's job.

Mike C - I don't agree the analogies are weak. Again, they aren't exact, but then they wouldn't be analogies anyway.

Yes, Germany is smaller. Not sure why that invalidates the analogy. It seems to me there is a good chance the average German uses about the same amount of electricity as the average American.

I never said Germany was completely independent of all non-solar energy sources. But what they have accomplished is impressive, and we can do that, too. We also can profit from everyone else doing, if we move fast and jump into this global market.

Yes it takes more money to buy enough solar collectors to make a similar dent in our energy proportions. But like you said we have a lot more people. And the bottom line is this is a private sector function. The government provides the proper incentives, and the private sector employs its initiative, innovation and capital. It took more money to build all our gas stations, too, since we have so many more of them than Germany.

My point with the adaptive remarks was that people can and do adapt. There was a time when we didn't have cars at all. People adapted to the technology available, and now most people have one. There will be a time when cars don't run on fossil fuels. You know that as well as I. It might be 20 years or it might be 200 years, but its going to happen. Again with the right government incentives, it can happen sooner than later, and our car makers perhaps can be among those exporting these cars to other countries - or we can buy them from other countries.

I think the auto industry is very important to our nation. I would love to be able to purchase a new well-designed AFFORDABLE and COMFORTABLE vehicle completely made in the US that gets at least 35 mpg and has air conditioning. Bells and whistles are not important and create future complications. We are still driving a 94 Buick and 87 Honda and both get over 35 mpg. Haven't found a new car we want to buy.

If the Japanese or some other society manufactures these cars, then they'll take over the market anyway. Why does anyone think they'll be made here in the states exclusively?

I don't think this country can even manufacture plastic bowls anymore. Why do we always fall into this trap that so and so is going to 'bring jobs'? Actually, they allow them to be sent overseas...and the American public buys up foreign-made stuff-and then complain that they don't have jobs. Oh, and complain about unions.

Until corporations are given the incentive to carry on profitable operations over here (lower or no corporate taxes) then they will continue to hire few, and/or move overseas and profit under more cooperative governments.

You can't have it both ways...sucking the dollars out of companies in order to punish their leadership for getting wealthy and to fund disastrous social programs while at the same time expecting to employ more Americans.

Also, as soon as more jobs become available, the Mexicans will rush in and undercut American workers.

Without dealing with those fundamental issues, it'd by like pouring water in a bucket with a big hole in the bottom.

Little Red says:

“Ooo…bama”, what a big campaign you had!
“Ooo...bama”, what a big ego you have.
“Ooo...bama”, why are you outsourcing grand children?

HELP!!!

Smokey the Bear in The Note: Goldilocks Approach: Obama Seeks Balanced Pace
Smokey the Bear says, Watch out! It’s not hot, it’s not cold, the political porridge is still smoldering (epically in the costal areas). Liberal arsonists recently set the country ablaze with a glowing campaign, that consisted of a lot of smoke and mirrors. Have your emergency preparedness kits ready!