The problem is that modern Republicans think "American exceptionalism" means "God given right to kill non-white people and/or non-English speaking at will and take their land, liberty, lives, or resources away from them." So whenever Obama talks about "exceptionalism" in a way that doesn't evoke images of explosions and flying body parts, they get angry.

Thank you Benen for posting this. You make the celebration even more meaningful.

And after the results were in, Romney graciously conceded, and President Obama lit it up with a most inspirational speech of reconciliation, hope and definition, this morning those hacks over at the FOX business channel are trying to whine and cry the stock market tank this morning as the direct result of the reelection!

A systemic, well coordinated boycott of FOX news sources would be a most healthy thing to engage at this time in our nation's effort to find common political ground as those personalities over there controlled by the egoistic Murdoch and Ailes are not gonna see anything that may allow them to alleviate their disdain and hatred for this sitting president! And, they will no doubt continue their partisan hackery uninterrupted, until their profit model begins to drop!

Let's do our part to help Murdoch's empire dry up and drop off by lack of sponsorship the way Mr. Limbaugh was affected after he let loose his slut-mouth proclivity!

Yes, Let's start today! -Kevo

"I don't believe the president shares my belief in American exceptionalism."

I think Mike Coffman and others don't get it, see American exceptionalism isn't based on hubris, looking down your nose at "other", nor are those words to be used to diminish "other cultures or nations". I believe that because of the beginnings of this nation - we are a nation of immigrants, each one coming to these shores not just fleeing despots & tyrants but seeking a betterment of themselves. An America in which while WE all have dreams that WE follow individually, WE as a people unite around certain ideas that are central to our humanity and basic goodness! That WE not only understand but embrace the commons; that WE do for those to help them lift themselves during the bad times, yet WE all give back and help to make each other better.

The right would have "American exceptionalism" defined as warmongering, bullying and imperialism - haven't WE had enough of that over the last decade? And exactly where has that aggressive, bullying, small charactered meanness come from, and exactly how do WE remove it from our midst?

Yes, I caught that, and the Presidents definition gave me a renewed hope and strength and something to think about and hopefully it might do the same for those on the opposite side of the aisle.

The problem with the wingnut right (newly disenfranchised and discredited, yay!) is that things only "count" if you do it according to their script WHILE WEARING their whiter than white skin color.

In other words, while preaching white supremacy and conquering worlds of other-colored people. Colonialism, authoritarianism, Victorian Great Chain of Being. Divine Right of Kings probably too.

Since that sort of thing SOUNDS a bit funny coming out of the mouths of those traditionally colonized, they have a bit of a problem with it.

It's all about singing the Hegemony Song! (preferably while beating your chest or wagging your big, um, *stick*).

It's not actual exceptionalism. It's usurper birthright presumptions, nothing more than gussied up aristocratic social constructions of entrenched power and money.

I've been boycotting Fox News for 10 years. More people than me needs to do this.

I made my own pro-Obama bumper sticker and drove around Orange County, CA with that thing on the back.

For those not in the know - the OC used to be called "Reagan Country". It's the birthplace of the John Birch Society and home of the current birther queen. So it was quite an adventure.

I too don't care about soaring rhetoric. I know what I DON"T want to see.

I don't want to see Obama and the national Dems blow it like they did the first four years.

I don't want to see Obama start negotiations with the Republicans by giving away the house... and then giving away even more.

I don't want to see John Boehner say he got 98% of what he wanted after negotiations are over. Never again.

I don't want to see another "Grand Bargain" Catfood Commission proposing cutting Social Security.

I don't want to see the Dems pass up on the chance to overhaul, in a BIG way, current filibuster rules.

I don't want to see the Dems "reach across the aisle" until the Republicans have done the reaching first. Been there - done that. It's time for them to pull their hands out and do some reaching.

In short, I don't want to see Obama govern the same way he conducted himself in the first presidential debate. And that's just what he did these first four years.

Obama won this election when he struck a populist chord.

I don't want bipartisanship. I want results. Now.

I don't think the American people care about bipartisanship. They care about results. They don't want gridlock. And the way to avoid gridlock now is to simply call the bluff of the Republican weasels. Almost every time we done that it's turned out great.

Fiscal cliff - fine! Hold my hand while we jump together.

Let's simply roll over them. Let's get the job done.

What makes Obama's speech exceptional is that he is extending and reaching with the principles he started with; the ones that created community in his native Chicago--the ones he has been criticized for as being 'socialist.' His principles now have been tested, and often rebuffed. But we can move forward on those principles repeatedly because they never dissolve.

Republican exceptionalism means everyone except you and you and you. Those excepted are interchangeable, poor, non-white, LGBT, union, nonfundamentalist, etc. Overseas they are interested in you if you have oil, and dismissive if you do not. When inclusion enters their hearts and not just their rhetoric perhaps they will celebrate America with the rest of us.

It's shameful how divided we stay. Facebook should be renamed to whinerswall, I hope Harry Reid has the gumption to take on filibuster reform for starters. Maybe they could get things done, over turn citizens united so millionares can stop trying to buy the elections I wonder if Sheldon needs his money back for that fed investigation he's up against. The biggest let down, was the fact that folks had to wait in line 8 hours in some places. The fact that our veterans fought to maintain democracy and part of the process of democracy is that precious right to vote, I think out of respect, and reverence for our veterans, voting should be looked at, as doing our part, if we have long lines it should be taken as a slap in the face of every veteran past and present, it should not be tolerated. There was no excuse for poling places to be limited, for hours to be cut, it's shameful. We are a democracy, with a government formed for the people and by the people.

I am interested to see now what the republicans will do; the more moderate republicans anyway. Will they stand up, take back their party? Will they send the old grumpy white guys packing? The republican party moved far far right, but the American people did not move with them. I do hope they are taking notes. Humanity won the day and we will keep on with this trend.

our "responsibilities" to our country

I agree, but for so many JFK's quote of "what you can do for your country," has turned into "what your country can do for you."

And in the end....
- Altruism overcomes avarice
- Love for one's fellow man trumps disdain for them
- Humility bests arrogance, and
- Honesty and integrity will always prevail over mendacity.

The election is over. But the work starts today. Please read, sign and share.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/915/723/494/messrs-boehner-and-mcconnell-job-assignments/

I had to watch FOX last night for comic relief. To see the live meltdown was great,i have not laughed so hard a long time. It sounded like someone died...."we've lost our country","this is a sad day for our country","welfare people won","all the freeloaders voted for him...thats what happened". They don't even call President Obama,President....Mr.Obama or just Obama.Megan Kelly called Obama,"HIM" twice.

The speech was truly exceptional. It was just what we needed and set the tone before McConnell and Boehner dumbs down the dialogue again.

I think a Republican filibuster in the Senate might be just what the country needs. If they are going to stonewall, make them do it in public (well, on C-Span) and see exactly how the country reacts when progress in the form of a majority vote is stopped dead in its tracks. I'd sure love to see Mitch McConnell trying to pretend he's Jimmy Stewart!

Hey Karl, how's that permanent republican majority goin for ya?

BWAAAHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

President Obama's reelection is a refreshing referendum on the politics of fear, ignorance, lies, hatred, and division. Will those fanatics still in the Tea Party congress, and those aspiring to it, cling tighter to those politics? Count on it, but they're more marginalized now. PBOs speech last nite revealed a certain political maturity from which he, and WE, the People, will benefit greatly as he begins a 2nd term as POTUS, while still embracing his deep hope for unity, decency, and progressive change. If this reelection reproves anything, it proves 3 things: 1) the future--our collective future--is largely in our hands; 2) what unites us is stronger than what divides us; 3) good will always triumph over evil as long as fair-minded, reasonable vote in large numbers. Congratulations and good Luck, Mr. President.

Pax vobiscum.

I woke to this email from my 24 year old son regarding the election and the President's speech:

"Stayed up late to watch the President's victory speech. Inspired by a line towards the end that kept me awake with joy and tears and inspired the following facebook post.
I love you both and thank you so much every day for everything you have given to me and KK.

I can't stop crying over the line, "You belong here... gay or straight" in the President's victory speech tonight. Knowing that the leader of this country is part of a support network that courageously seeks equality for all Americans to love freely, fearlessly, and wholeheartedly makes me proud beyond words. Simply put, I would not exist as a human being without those that believed in love in the face of adversity. I would not be blessed with the gift of life or all the opportunity before me were it not for those who thought progressively in our nation's and my family's past and I want so passionately for all my fellow Americans to feel that support and acceptance regardless of their orientation. I look forward with so much excitement towards the beautiful loved ones my gay, lesbian, trans and allied friends will bring into their lives or already have and cannot wait to see the amazing families they will raise one day in our nation's future when we together say they have just as much of a right to love another human being as any other.

To my big sister, Kerian it means the world to me that we get to share this together and as I said in 2008, someone is in the White House that is like US. Thank you Sam , April , Chris, and the rest of Stonewall for reaffirming this belief by allowing me to fight at your side abroad. And Magnolia Lynn, Michael, and so many others, I personally await the privilege of holding the extraordinary children you will guide through this world in that prosperous future we will reach together.

Obama's Divided Nation

• By DANIEL HENNINGER

Barack Obama presides over an America more divided than at any time in 50 years. A country that was riven back then along racial lines gathered itself in 2008 to elect its first black president. That president has spent four years dividing the country on the basis of economic status. The campaign revealed no evidence that Mr. Obama will close the chasm he has created between his voters and those he attacked and vilified.

It may be true that Mitt Romney failed to respond adequately to the $100 million advertising assault the Obama campaign waged on his years at Bain Capital and in private equity. Maybe a response would have turned some voters. But could it overcome the four-year assault waged not by campaign surrogates, but by the president himself, on bankers, Wall Street, the oil companies after the Gulf spill, insurance companies and the "millionaires" whose family income starts at $250,000?

So yes, maybe nominating a former businessman to run through the president's poisoned wells of public opinion was a mistake. Interesting to ponder, though, that in the United States "business experience" is now a political liability.

So we default to the professional politicians. Assuming anyone could survive the GOP's clown-car selection process, one of the most attractive alternatives would have been Mr. Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. A Ryan campaign would have consisted of a principled articulation of the case for reforming Medicare and Social Security before they collapse the national fisc, a simpler tax system and a bipartisan compromise on the deficit.

But this space has repeatedly drawn attention to what happened the first time, in April 2011, that Mr. Ryan and the GOP leadership offered a detailed policy compromise on the deficit. Days later, Mr. Ryan and the others sat in the audience at George Washington University, as did the press and the Washington policy community, expecting to hear the White House's counterproposal as the basis for a compromise on the deficit. Instead, this is what they got from Barack Obama:

"There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There's nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout on Capitol Hill. And this is not a vision of the America I know." And on it went for 40 minutes.

It was not a policy response; it was demagoguery. Had Mr. Ryan been the nominee, he could have expected rivers of this.

Similarly, Mr. Obama's passage of such a monumental social entitlement as the Affordable Care Act with zero bipartisan votes displayed muscle but was madness for our political system.

After the Obama campaign's ads saying Bain Capital sent jobs overseas ("outsourcer in chief") were widely exposed as false, the Obama spokestotum replied: We're right and you're wrong. It was clear then that Messrs. Obama, Axelrod, Plouffe and Messina were running a propaganda campaign for the presidency. With success.

This strategy of using a presidential term in office to propagandize particular blocs of voters also included enlisting the Department of Justice, when Attorney General Eric Holder began intervening in state efforts to establish voter-identification laws, a state function validated by several recent Supreme Court decisions. No matter. In 2011, Mr. Holder intervened against voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas. In a July speech to the NAACP, with the presidential campaign on, Mr. Holder said of these statutes: "We call those poll taxes," invoking pre-1965 racial divisions.

The 2012 Romney-Obama vote result divided along white-nonwhite racial lines for everyone age 18 and older. The racial divide also holds for women who voted. What a win.

Some hard-bitten members of the Republican side argued that the party should have dumped Mr. Romney and wonks like Paul Ryan in favor of their own skilled demagogue, specifically New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie. The problem with pols, even one as verbally facile as Mr. Christie, is that in crunch time, their loyalty reverts to No. 1. Exit polls show that 9% of the electorate decided who to vote for just days before Tuesday; and among all voters, 42% said Mr. Obama's Hurricane Sandy response—that's the Christie photo-op—was an important factor. Of those, more than 65% voted for Mr. Obama. We'd say Mr. Christie is one favorite GOP politico who is done.

Yes, Republicans have proven across two presidential elections that there are political limits to how crudely one can argue an issue like illegal immigration. Blowing up the party is only fun if you thought watching Tuesday's results was fun. (Incidentally, what exactly does the press mean when it refers to "the white vote"?)

The Republicans' self-inflicted wounds, however, pale against the willingness of an American president to use his office to blow up the country itself. That, too, has a price. Drill down inside the details of that electoral map and its votes, and you find a nation severely divided.

With every election, the southern and central states drift further from the coastal sophisticates obsessed with social issues, and from the heavily unionized industrial states around the Great Lakes. But open up those Obama states and you'll discover divisions: Their big-vote city centers sit like blue moats of minorities and comfy singles who are surrounded by red counties of married couples trying to cope. California's passage of Proposition 30, which jacks up state taxes to subsidize the moats, is a harbinger. More red voters (and companies) will move out, deepening the divide.

There's that famous saying: Is this a great country or what? With the way Barack Obama achieved his re-election, that's a good question: Or what?

The real issue here is cultural change. We are going from an era of European dominated values and Christianity to a third world centric no belief in god society. I can only hope the new leaders of this country are educated and can lead us into the future. I support the education system and urge you to do the same. The rhetoric on this site is actually funny. I get it...you hate Republicans and Fox. You want them to go away and you want Fox out of business. Our demographic change will take care of this for you over time. The Reps still have it in their numbers to take the next presidential election or 2, but it depends on how they present their case and how Obama does. In the long term, however, America's past culture is fadi9ng away and will be replaced. SWo, don't hate monger. Just accept things as they are. Reps will continue to watch and support Fox in large numbers and they should be able to. You all will win in the long run so chill.

The chorus of the unofficial Aussie national anthem goes:

We are one, but we are many,

and from all the lands on earth we come.

We share the dream, we sing with one voice.

I am, you are, we are Australian.

Somehow I can't see that as ever being accepted in the US. The Nativists among us reject anyone with nonapproved backgrounds of whatever kind. If you want more proof of that, read the the comments immediately preceding this one from the right wing.

Obama tax increase for seniors:

Individual Mandate Tax. Many seniors face a coverage gap between retirement and Medicare eligibility. Obamacare raises taxes on these younger seniors by punishing them if they don't purchase "qualifying health insurance." Set to go into effect in 2014, the excise tax penalty for mandate non-compliance will in 2016 rise to 2.5 percent of adjusted gross income for a senior couple (or $1,390 for those making less than $55,600). Why does Obamacare raise taxes on seniors just as they are entering retirement?

"Cadillac Plan" excise tax. Starting in 2018, Obamacare imposes a whopping 40 percent excise tax on high-cost ("Cadillac plan") health insurance plans. This is defined for seniors as a plan whose premiums exceed $29,450 for a family plan, or $11,500 for a single senior. Seniors often face higher costs in health insurance premiums due to chronic health conditions and other risk factors. This tax is almost exclusively a tax which will fall on seniors with the greatest health insurance needs.

Medical device excise tax. Obamacare imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers in 2013. These companies will surely build the cost of this new tax into the price of what they sell. Who buys medical devices? Who buys pacemakers, wheelchairs, and other costly medical devices? Seniors do.

Reduce allowable medical itemized deductions. Under current law, medical itemized deductions can be claimed on tax returns, but they must be reduced by 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. Obamacare increases this "haircut" to 10 percent of AGI in 2013. This will mean that millions of Americans claiming medical itemized deductions will no longer be able to. The same IRS data as above tells us that 60 percent of all tax returns claiming this deduction are over age 55.