A GUardian comment on Barack Obama’s performance in front of press shows a degree of competence. Well he would compared to his predecessor’s failure to be either coherent or knowledgeable even about his own policies. As the article points out Bush only went to press conferences when he had to – and the game was survival – and sometimes he didn’t.
In contrast Obama exuded authority, at the expense some thought of empathy, although that is not born out by the New York Times account of the first news conference reporting that he had just made a point of visiting one of the hardest hit communities. One thing though, the Republicans are not playing ball and it remains an uphill struggle ahead with or without the GOP.

Even Obama is unsure how the bail oyt will work – already there are fears that billions will be wasted as systems will not be capable of handling the spending of the largesse.
As the U.S. stumbles forward trying to come to terms with the huge problem created by an out-of-control capitalism Fidel Castro reflects on the alternative world that Cuba inhabits, influencing and inspiring a new generation of democratic socilist states in the southern hemisphere of the American continent.