The most obvious and glaring problem is this pre-funding obligation.

But what is most strange to me is why and how the Postal Enhancement & Accountability Act was passed in the first place. The bill had four co-sponsors, two Dem and 2 GOP, virtually no debate, and was passed by (WTF?)unanimous voice vote. As far as I recall, both the unions and Postal management were fine with it. It’s as if nobody really read the damn part about the prefunding and failed to anticipate that the USPS might not be able to pony up in times of economic distress.

Also, even absent this prefunding onus, the USPS has to start looking at their abysmally poor managers and start trimming much unneeded bloat at the top levels. They’re one of the only failing companies I know of that has upwards of 30 – count ‘em – 30 Vice Presidents. L’Enfant Plaza, their main headquarters, has 1100 souls on the payroll. If “Headquarters” disappeared tomorrow, guess what? Your mail would still go out because all postal procedures are run off a well tested and established grid. Even if – perish the thought – the joint should privatize, the WORST thing that could happen is they retain the current inefficient, inept and useless current leadership.

You’re right, of course.
In fact, I don’t see why some previous posters seem to think Biden is to the left of Obama. They didn’t call ole Joe “the Senator from MBNA” for nothing. Remember, he was one of the few Demos to vote for the bill that made it harder for a human entity to declare bankruptcy. He’s earned his corporate chops many times over.
But I believe there ain’t a snowball’s chance in hell the O man is going to be impeached anyway. The Repugs LOVE his war and imperialist stance and don’t want to do anything about the groundwork he’s laying so when they win – and they will, eventually – they can kick his warmongering bullshit up a notch. In fact, they don’t really believe he’s a Socialist, or a Kenyan, or a Muslim; that pablum’s for the suckers. They know he serves the same masters they do – the PTB as Matthew said.

Yeah, they appear to be a primitive sub-species if one is – let’s face it – an elitist. And, as soon as one of these Tea Party “Keep-your-government-hands-off-my-Medicare” idiots senses that about us, the fight is over. As long as we the liberals are stuck in this look-down-our-nose mindset, their numbers will continue to grow. It’s not inconceivable to me. However, I’m sure that’s how the Social Democrats and all other “respectable” parties (on the right as well as on the left) in Weimar Germany felt about the Nazis.
The reason why conservatives (as well as the Nazis) keep/kept growing is they tell/told a better story. It may be an idiotic, lunatic, violently self-centered story, but nobody on our side seems to call them on it because we’re too busy being mystified (like scientists at the microscope) at them.
We let the big mouths on the Right get away with too many things.
Case in point: taxes. Although the sainted “classical economists” disagreed with a tax on earned income through labor, they were all for a tax on unearned income such as estate taxes, capital gains and rents. Do Maddow, O’Donnell, and that gasbag Schultz ever educate their viewers on this? And that’s just one point. There are many others. Does Rachel call for an end to the Afganistan adventure? No, she goes over there and dresses like a little soldier.
Somehow, if you wave the D banner, you’re fine with our “liberal” spokespeople. Rachel was just so amused with the Tea Party in the beginning, and yet I saw many signs in their number that we on the left could have made common cause with. But we were too busy studying them as if they were a exotic species.
Tell you what. If we on the left never come up with a narrative that resonates with the people, the corporate oligarchs and their puppets will succeed in completely destroying this republic.
Then we can be mystified from our jail cells.

That’s a very good point.
Call me a lefty wingnut, but it all comes down to those pesky machines.
IF the powers-that-be think a Republican victory is important enough, their boy/girl WILL win. (As in the Prosser-Kloppenburg debacle. Imagine that! 7000 votes! Just enough to win. Yay!)
And, even if we get a straight election in 2012 (which I doubt), I’m not getting orgasmic over Hochul’s victory. We should remember the Congressional elections of 2006, and then 2008. Mr. Hope-and-Change rides to victory in what SHOULD have been for us a perfect storm. (No more PATRIOT Act. Employee Free Choice Act. Yay!) Then zilch happens anyway.
As H.L. Mencken once said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American electorate.”
Turd Blossom and the rest of his fascist gang have more than a year to make everyone forget all about Medicare.
It’s also a valid point that a 3rd party candidate was in the race; don’t be declaring “mandate” just yet, people.

XYZ Escort Service (a CIA/Sarkozy front): They call him up, not the other way around.
Monsieur Strauss-Kahn? We have a hot one for you, sir. Just the way you like them. Early thirties, dressed as a maid. She will be there in twenty minutes.
Strass-Kahn: I can hardly wait! (Gets out the Viagra)
Head of housekeeping then sends up the regular maid (just a coincidence)
Mayhem ensues.
Strass-Kahn: Something has gone dreadfully wrong, no? Must get out! Must get out!

Hmm. Maybe the REAL maid WAS bribed to pull this off. Remember, just because it is a high-end hotel does not mean housekeeping is rolling in dough.
And if the guy was set up, so what? Does the left really want this rutting chimpanzee (!) to be their standard bearer anyway? Maybe my working-class roots are talking, but I am still a tad leery of a Socialist who was/is the IMF chief. So he steered the IMF a millimeter to the left. Big whoop.
All we need. Another guy who not only cannot keep his dick inside his pants, but a former bankster. And if it had not happened then, it would have happened in the future, just like it happened in the past.
Oh, and if the maid really had been raped? That is a dangerous maniac the left should lose, pronto!

One of the main problems the left faces is they’re all over the place on issues. I’m sorry, but let’s forget about the social issues. People who are sincerely interested in those already have a party to embrace, and the average citizen with the short memory doesn’t want to have to think about them.
What Obama’s challenger – willing candidate having been found – has to run on is an issue that resonates with everyone: MONEY! If it ain’t economic, ignore it!
Let’s campaign on money – money in the form of jobs, lost through offshoring and gained by creating them, money in the form of fair taxes, money in the form of preserving AND expanding social security. Emphasize how billions are pissed away down the rathole of Afganistan. Emphasize the disparity of income in this country.
Don’t be too polite, or too wonky. Study old newsreels of how “the Kingfish” did it. Don’t be afraid to bloviate. Don’t be afraid to rant against the banks and the federal reserve. They suck anyway, and they’re tailor-made villains.
Then, when our challenger loses at the convention, form the New Populist Party. That will be our rallying point in all future elections. “Every Man a King”? Well, how about “A Fair Break for Every Citizen”? The corporate Democrat fatcats won’t be able afford to ignore us then.