At just over 6 months into his presidency, Obama might be showing some weaknesses. His administration may be wondering if he’s not as fail-proof as the media and his former supporters have bragged about in the recent past. Recently, Ohio marked the first state that went for Obama in his presidential candidacy as turning. Ohio’s majority is now opposed to Obama, when their state went for him and elected him only 8 months ago. So, what has changed?

Only a few months ago Dems were boasting and touting that Republicans were done for and any ambitions the party had of regaining power, either in the senate, house or executive branch would be thwarted by new legislation which had to passed immediately, before anybody had the chance to read or analyze it’s consequence. It may have been our celebrity culture that elected our new president and perhaps, celebrity expectations that Americans had sunk their future into. Americans, by all defensive measures just like(d) Obama and that was good enough to get him elected and now they seem confused and surprised that what he promised on the campaign trail — he’s trying to deliver on. What did American’s think was going to happen? Did they think he was only paying political lip service? Well, I have to admit, I did. While I might not be a supporter, I thought, as many Americans did, that he was going to lead much more to the center and that he was only pandering to the left. (Oops!)

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Right to life groups are going berserk over Sweden’s recent decision to allow women to abort based on gender under their current universal health care benefit. Whether you agree that unborn babies have certain rights or not, should tax payers be required to pay for their neighbor’s wish to discard a baby girl or baby boy based on gender only? And, will the proposed universal health care system in America follow suit?

Amanda Carpenter writes in the Washington Times:

The ruling was spurred by a request from Kai Wedenberg, head of the clinic where a woman twice requested, and received, an abortion based on sex.

Mr. Wedenberg asked for clarification from health officials after a woman, who already had two girls, requested amniocentesis and to be told the sex of her unborn child. She found out she was pregnant with another girl and asked for an abortion six days later.

The woman then became pregnant again, returned to the clinic and asked for another amniocentesis, which was not performed. Later, at her ultrasound, she asked the nurse to reveal the sex of her fetus, which was a girl. After learning this, the mother requested an abortion later that day and received it later that week.

What a crazy few weeks it’s been.

The news is so depressing — we have financial advisors warning of the next coming of the Great Depression. Everything seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. Financial institutions that have been around since the civil war are going belly up, fall-out from sub-prime loans based on a housing boom built upon ninja loans.

It’s the talk of the office. Everything is doom and gloom and wondering what is going to happen to their house, their lifestyle, their families. It’s enough to make you wanna pull the covers over your eyes and say, “Wake me when it’s all over.”

The cost of living is supposed to sky-rocket while our assets will continue to plumet. They call it a combination that we’ve never seen before — inflation, deflation and stag-flation all at once.

Are the bail-outs the answer?

During this tough economic time, neither presidential candidate is telling us the truth. Entitlement programs continue to put our national deficit into crisis mode and bankrupcy while one candidate is talking about adding more entitlement programs, the other is resting on the ones we have, but isn’t willing to reform them in the way we need to. This isn’t a partisan issue, it’s about telling the American public the truth. Can’t we all make the sacrifices, if our leaders and future leaders actually told us the truth?

I heard the other night on CNN, with social security and Medicare/Medicaid going completely broke before the baby boomers even start to really collect on it, we would have to tax everyone 90% in order to pay for it. So why aren’t our leaders telling us this? Right now, Medicare is being fully funded by China. If they were to collect on their debt, what would happen?

How do you feel about the future? Is anybody as nervous as I am about your future and the future of your children?

One piece of solace I keep in mind, in the late 70’s when we weren’t able to buy meat except for very rare and special occassions (it was just too expensive) and we waited in long lines for gas, my mother reminds me that the world was gloating that America was over, that we would never come back…and we did. Yes, we did.

Is this American, damnit! Or is this America, sigh, damn-it-all?

I don’t know what the answer is. We all know the market needs to correct itself and that loans to people that can’t afford them is a recipe for disaster. But, what about reforming Medicare and Social Security? It’s only because politicians don’t want to lose the old folk vote that they refuse to step up and do what is needed. I find that repulsive, don’t you? Power is more important than making sure our children don’t inherit a life under the rule of China or working until they’re dead, but having nothing to show for it? How is that fair?

I would be willing to work until I’m 80 in order to give my kids a better life and when it comes down to it, we might all have to. Would you do it, or would you rather have 70% taxes and simply change all of our lifestyles so that none of us has the ability to get new cell phones or appliances. We simply make due with what we have. To live on 30% of what we make, we would have to triple our salaries in order to maintain our lifestyles. Is that the answer? I just don’t know…

I hardly watch the news on television anymore. I don’t like the tabloid-spin most news networks are putting on their stories, and I don’t like being surprised by stories about children who have been abducted or women who have been violated or any of those other happenings that I can’t forget about for days afterwards. I prefer to just read the headlines and make a decision about whether or not I need to know all the horrid details. I also don’t like being fed this notion that I need to be afraid that any of this bad stuff is going to happen to my family, and that I should be super-vigilant any time I leave the safety of my fortified house. And that I should have a fortified house. And know karate. In some countries, I might be encouraged to carry a gun, to protect myself from the madness that I see on the news every night.

I don’t like being scared and worried. And as a parent you give birth to worry. The list of things you can add to your list of things to worry about doubles when you have kids. What am I saying? Doubles? How about increases by a factor of a zillion. I try very hard not to think about the things that can happen to them but I have an active imagination and I’m usually pretty quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion. I’m 37 in a couple of weeks and my head is covered in grey hair. You can’t tell unless you look at the roots, but it’s there. Very, very grey. Grey like Bill O’Reilly’s hair. OK, grey like Anderson Cooper’s.

The problem is that the kids, my two otherwise perfectly innocent little girls, occasionally do things that give me reason to worry. And although they may see their little adventures as just that - an adventure - I see it as the story on the evening news, complete with graphic images and adjectives in bright scary-red capitals. I don’t want to be one of those parents who wont let their kids out of their sight, but I also don’t want to be one of those parents who wish they had been more vigilant. Where or how do we draw the line?

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As gas prices quickly rise to nearly $4 a gallon ($3.77 in my neighborhood — thankfully I live near an Indian Reservation and can get it for the low-low price of $3.44 a gallon), the government has decided to start sending out the much needed rebate checks on Monday, a week earlier than originally planned.

I have seen countless articles from financial experts on what to do with the money — stick it in your savings account or pay off debt. Seems logical to me. I’m not too concerned with boosting the economy by purchasing a flat screen TV or a new summer wardrobe. I’m more concerned with boosting my credit rating and safety-net. Our rebate check will be nice and safe in the bank. Sorry George.

Retailers hate people like me! Lucky for them they’ve devised some ingenious marketing plans to put all of those rebate bucks in their pockets. It’s going to be a feeding frenzy to snatch up $106 billion dollars.

Sears will be converting tax rebate checks into gift cards at cash registers and online, and adding on another 10 percent. The gift cards have no expiration dates or fees, but shoppers must purchase a gift card equal to the entire amount of their rebate check.

Wal-Mart’s customer service centers will be cashing rebate checks and running special promotions to encourage spending.

Home Depot is planning a campaign to encourage shoppers to use their tax rebates to buy eco-friendly products such as programmable thermostats (and I’m sure a new turbo lawn mower and shiny grill).

You can get all of the details here.

So what’s your plan? Will retailer promotions and incentives sway you?