Thrush is a fungal infection caused by Candida Albicans. While thrush is harmless, it can be annoying and painful. How will you know whether your baby has thrush? What are the symptoms of thrush in babies? Let’s take a look!

White patches in your baby’s mouth are an obvious symptom of thrush. many parents do not think of thrush immediately and assume that the white patches they notice are simply milk residue. if your baby has milk in his mouth, this is easily wiped off with a cloth or gauze. Thrush, on the other hand, does not come off. The white patches can be seen on the inside of the cheeks, the roof of the mouth, and on the tongue. They can also apear on the baby’s gums.

The tissue affected will be red and can bleed. Your baby may refuse to nurse or be fussy at the breast or when you give a bottle. Thrush can also cause a nasty diaper rash, and impacts the color of a baby’s saliva. Your baby may make a clicking sound during feeding and frequently stop, as well as dribbling a lot more than usual. Thrush can result in poor weight gain, as it hurts the baby to feed.

So, what is the treatment for thrush in babies? Normally, no treatment is necessary and this annoying fungal infection will go away by itself. It is still advisable to see a doctor for monitoring and in some cases treatment to help thrush clear up. Remember that thrush can also affect your nipples. if you are breastfeeding, the infection can be passed back and forth between mother and child. if your nipples are red, sore or painful, and you have pain during breastfeeding, then talk to the doctor about this, too.

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Tags: candida, candida albicans, oral thrush, thrush babies

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Vaginal Thrush is a very common disorder sometimes known by the name ‘vaginal Candidiasis’. It is a yeast infection and is caused by Candida albicans. It is microscopic and is a fungus. You find it on the inside of the vagina and on your skin.

It usually shows up as a white discharge coming from the vagina and can discomfort during sexual intercourse. You may experience a severe dryness and some swelling around the vagina.

Most women will experience at least one infection in a lifetime with many experiencing more. the best way to know if you have vaginal thrush is to consult with a doctor. They know the best way to engage in thrush treatment and to rid yourself of this disorder.

How You can Treat your Vaginal Thrush

The most common way to treat Vaginal Thrush is through pills and creams. There are oral treatments like Fluconazole and creams to help relieve your itching. There are special applicators for inserting specific creams into the vagina. You also have the option of a suppository that simply dissolves by its self.

Some will argue that taking the Fluconazole is the best way to go because it rids you of the symptoms within a couple of days. This does not mean you are cured however, and the doctors will tell you to continue the treatment for two weeks at the least.

You should be aware that a few STDs can show similar symptoms. You need to get the proper diagnosis before engaging in any kind of treatment. Avoid wearing clothes that fit very tightly or that have synthetic fibers. It is recommended to wear cotton panties.

Who can Get Thrush and why?

Actually, men can suffer from Thrush as well but it is far less common. It is caused by the breakdown of natural defenses, sometimes caused by using anti-biotics or steroids. Certain chemicals or irritants can cause a rise in your chances for experiencing Thrush.

Some people have seen some good results from using home remedies. things like vinegar baths, tea tree oil, and yogurt have proven to work quite well. They help to restore your natural PH balance around the vaginal area.

There is a lot to learn about Vaginal Thrush and you can find out more on sites like ‘yeast infection no more’. There is a wealth of information that can help you to make well informed decisions about the proper steps to take.

Thrush is a quite common ailment among women, caused by the fungus Candida albicans. this is usually found around the vaginal region and in several women, there are no thrush symptoms as it is neutralized by the presence of other bacteria inside the vagina. Sometimes, bacterial equilibrium gets misbalanced due to hormonal changes during pregnancy, taking antibiotics for a prolonged time, wearing tight synthetic underwear or by other illnesses might lead to thrush.

Contrary to what many people believe, thrush is not a sexually transmitted disease. the bacteria leading to thrush, is already there in the vagina, irrespective of one’s sexual activity. Another popular misconception is that thrush leads to heavy vaginal discharge and an unpleasant smell. However, itching is the first thrush symptoms. Soreness or redness might occur and women might undergo white discharge which usually doesn’t smell. Douching of vagina is not advisable and several women make this mistake. Douching interferes in vaginal secretion balance and eliminates friendly bacteria, leaving room for thrush.

Many women experience recurrent thrush. They only treat the infection for the first time, the symptoms disappear only to reappear within some weeks. there are several theories on what causes thrush to recur among women. the most plausible is that treatment doesn’t kill the bacteria. They simply multiply and provoke the symptoms again.

Thrush symptoms are often found to be similar to other vaginal infections. a comprehensive diagnosis and reasons behind the ailment can only be established following laboratory tests. Over the counter medications are available for treating the common thrush symptom. These could be administered without carrying out any tests as the disease is fairly common to most women. However, should the symptoms refuse to disappear, or if they reappear quite frequently, you must consult a doctor immediately.

Thrush treatment could be several types. it could be either through the administration of oral medicines or by application of creams or ointments locally. there are also many a homemade remedies which have delivered proven results. They are quite effective too. But the idea should be in avoiding thrush to crop up in the first place. One should take care of not to wear synthetic clothes which doesn’t absorb sweat and lead to much irritation. Cleanliness is the most important thing to avoid thrush.

Quick intervention is advised on the very first sight of thrush symptoms. Once ignored, they can multiply and cause serious health concerns.

On World Aids Day, a requiem for the dead

Each year on the first day of December I think of all the people I know who died of or were affected by Aids. Like most everyone else in this strange and beautiful country this day isn’t an abstraction, but a real reminder of suffering and loss. of the cruelty with which AIDS takes lives, destroys families and the unfair manner in which so many meet their fate. Mostly I think of the savage cruelty of our government which for so long turned its back, abandoned its responsibility, and yet counselled the sick and dying with superstition or stupidity.

*Maria was about thirteen years old when she was gang-raped. by the time she was correctly diagnosed through blood tests at a clinic she had full-blown Aids, which the staff told Maria’s family about, rather than informing and counselling her directly. Like our government at that time which abandoned people with Aids, Maria’s family excised her from the small, rural town that was her home and sent her to Johannesburg to die. after being shunted around for months, Maria was taken to a compassionate facility-cum-hospice for those with Aids who are deserted. She arrived incredibly weak because the oral thrush and sores in her mouth and throat made it impossible to eat. Continuous diarrhoea had rendered her skeletal.

In the year before Maria died, she was treated and was able to eat, got slightly stronger, went back to school where she did well (all things considered), and slowly started speaking to others. when she arrived she was mute and disassociated. In the month of her death she was reconnected with her family and her mother was with her when she passed. Maria’s story’s story is typical for that period of Aids denialism which wreaked unspeakable destruction beyond the deaths that can be directly attributed to that time of selfish ignorance.

Around the same time when Maria was brought in there was a man who had been cast out on a rubbish dump in Jozi. A pair of youths rode past him twice before bringing him in. The homeless man was given a bath, clothed in clean pyjamas, put in a warm bed and someone sat with him through the night. he died quietly the next morning.

Leonie died in a state hospital because she didn’t have a private medical aid and her family were without the means to finance treatment at a private hospital. She manifest flu-like symptoms on a Sunday in the eighties when Aids, it was rumoured, was being spread by airline stewards and the media had only recently stopped calling it GRID, an acronym for gay-related immune deficiency.

I looked after Leonie’s daughter while she was hospitalised and we visited each day from Monday through to Thursday. on the last day we saw Leonie she asked me for a ‘smoothie’, which was her favourite drink and something we’d made together often. Friday was a rush as I was much younger and unused to caring for little children. In the haste of feeding, bathing, brushing teeth and dressing for two, I didn’t have time to make the blend and picked up a yoghurt drink at the café on the way out instead.

Leonie’s daughter skipped into her mum’s room ahead of me, but the bed was empty and had been stripped down. I presumed Leonie had just been moved to another ward and asked the nurse, who called the doctor, who phoned another hospital where Leonie had been sent. I was told the critical unit in this one was full. The doctor made two more calls, then turned around and told me that she was dead. Leonie had expired on a trolley in a passage unattended, as nurses buzzed around her at some hospital on the West Rand.

I identified her body at the morgue of that hospital, expecting the mortuary to look a lot like those places you see in the movies or on TV. you know… the casters that smoothly enable large drawers to be pulled from a fridge to reveal a body stretched out and covered by cloth, or just lying slightly blue and bare. As I walked across the hospital lawn it was the sweet stench that hit me first. two men were playing cards, another reading the newspaper. I told them I had come to identify Leonie’s body and they opened one steel door of a large section of what was a massive fridge. inside bodies were piled on each other, each wound in white plastic, much of the same sort that you or I would use to put garbage into.

The man found the tag with Leonie’s name and then tugged at her neck to get her body out and her head marginally exposed. It was quite a struggle because of the number of plastic-wrapped corpses stacked above hers. The smell was overwhelmingly nauseating as the mortuary attendant pulled at the opaque wrapping around her head to reveal her face. It didn’t look like her, it couldn’t be her but there was that unmistakeable mole right next to her mouth. on the way out I expressed to the men playing cards that I couldn’t believe she had died of flu so very quickly. they smiled sardonically and told me it wasn’t that bug which had taken her, but a killer cocktail of Aids and TB. (They didn’t directly use the words “killer cocktail” – that I only read about later.)

Years later I was at my desk working at my computer when an urgent call came in for someone who worked for me. her daughter had been attacked in Diepsloot on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg, and there was no verification of whether the young woman was alive or dead. We piled into the car and flew through as fast as we could, arriving before the ambulance.

Dora was lying on her side. She had been raped and was stabbed sixteen times in the back and neck. The knife had lodged between her vertebra with the force of the last entry and the handle had snapped off, which likely saved her life.

The ambulance finally arrived and took her to Helen Joseph Hospital before noon. Hours later, close to midnight I was pacing up and down in emergency still waiting for the police to come through with a rape kit, to take Dora’s statement and to collect the evidence of her assault. She also needed antiretroviral treatment which wasn’t on hand at this public hospital, and which the two student doctors in charge of the night shift were trying to source from elsewhere.  about fifteen hours had passed since Dora had been raped and stabbed and she was still lying on a trolley in emergency.

I remember I very selfishly thought I’d rather be watching DStv and drinking whisky. but there I was and instead I watched as blood gushed from a large gaping wound on a young boy’s head. The wound was so deep you can see the white of his skull. The pink flesh under his cropped black hair was intermittently obscured by the blood that flowed past his ear to take a path down his shoulder. Already his white vest soaked up too much of it, and it was now flowing down his shoulder and dripping onto the floor.

The male nurse across the room looked at him with disapproval. The boy was dazed and confused – he’d lost quite a bit of blood. The nurse moaned at him in Zulu, walked away and came back with a black refuse bag that he wedged under the boy’s wheelchair so the blood would drop and congeal on the plastic and not the floor. I guessed congealed blood could be quite a bugger to clean.

I glanced around the room. There were two Muslim shopkeepers with puncture wounds to the gut. A drunken woman who had been beaten up by her husband. A man with a gunshot wound to the leg, and an oke on a stretcher who had lacerations all over his face. I couldn’t discern whether he was sleeping, comatose or dead. As the emergency ward doors flapped open and closed the continual chaos of ambulances coming and going, bringing in more wounded, continued.

I sat down for what seemed like forever and counted the ticking of the clock on the wall. I stood up and walked to the casualty where, to amuse myself, I flicked through the register to get insight into violence in Jozi. The admissions read: Gunshot wound. Stab wound. Gunshot wound. Domestic violence. Gunshot wound. Rape. Gunshot wound. Gunshot DOA?

I paced through to the admission’s area. The benches were full of people asleep, huddled in blankets – people waiting for admissions to open the following day so they had a jump on the queue. I spoke to someone who said she’d been there most of the day. this is what is done in local public hospitals – people wait. and wait. and wait.

I looked at my watch. I’d been at the hospital for six hours. Dora was moving on for seventeen on that cold, steel trolley. Dora’s drama started at about nine in the morning when she was attacked by her ex in front of their two year old child.

I had met him a few times before it happened and remember him as a well-spoken, debonair man whom the police let out of jail on domestic violence charges previously because he was well dressed, relatively well-known in Diepsloot and was God-fearing. The same man plunged the kind of knife on sale at Shoprite (the ones with a yellow plastic handle), into his girlfriend’s body sixteen times. I knew that because I counted the puncture wounds on the doctor’s diagram and read the report. The number sixteen kept circling my mind.

“Hey squeeza. you are soooo beaaaaaaaautifull. Give me your number squeeza.”

My thoughts were distracted by a man flirting with the immigrant intern who had finely chiselled features at the trauma desk. Stethoscope around her neck, she was looking down her nose at the man two heads shorter than her. he could hardly stand upright. he was filthy. his forehead was sliced open and there was blood dribbling down his eye. his shirt was torn, muddied and bloodied. he was wearing broken, dirty jeans and only one shoe. “come on. Give me your number squeeza. you are lovely. I will make you sooooo happy.”

The trainee doctor gave him a condescending look and said in a French-African accent: “can you not see what you look like? can you not recognise that you have been stabbed and still you are trying to proposition me? Sit down and wait. you are drunk and behaving like a stupid fool.”

The male nurse, who looked more like a celebrity bodyguard than a medical worker lead the man back to a chair, put black plastic under the seat and there he sat like so many others, waiting. Bleeding and waiting.

I spent most of the time I was at Helen Joseph arguing, shouting or beseeching anyone on duty who’d listen. why was there no rape kit? why were there no antiretroviral drugs? when the rape kit arrived with a detective in the early hours of the morning why was there no one on hand trained to use it? These were repeated questions to which there were no answers in the Jo’burg public hospital which at the time was fielding a lion’s share of city trauma cases.

What is the end of this story?

Dora was infected with the HIV virus and is now living with Aids. She is partially paralysed in her one arm, can no longer work and tries to survive with her children on a state subsidy. her ex-boyfriend walked free after the evidence that was eventually collected using the rape kit was ‘lost’. It was suspected that he bribed the police, given that all the other domestic violence charges against him were ‘dropped’. Dora’s mother died about two weeks after Dora’s attack because of a stress induced asthma attack. I was with her when it happened. Despite summonsing two ambulances and three doctors who desperately tried to resuscitate her, she was pronounced brain dead on arrival at the nearest public hospital and died shortly thereafter.

When I think of those I people I have known, who have died or now live with Aids, I recall what author and former Umkhonto weSizwe bomber Harold Strachan once wrote: “It may be a lot easier to die in South Africa, but at least it won’t be of boredom.” DM

(* Editor’s note – the names in this opinion have been changed for obvious reasons.)

More by Mandy de Waal

Everything you need to know about THRUSH while breastfeeding

What is thrush

Thrush is caused by a fungus that feeds and thrives on milk. It finds its way inside through cracked nipples and also loves to thrive in a baby’s mouth. the thrush will then cause sore nipples and painful breasts, especially while breastfeeding. Oral thrush in your baby can cause a sore throat and tongue and can also give your baby a diaper rash as well as make him windy and irritable.

Mommy and baby will need to get treatment for thrush together so that they do not pass the infection back and forth between the two of them.

What are the causes of thrush

1. If you have had a vaginal yeast infection before you will have a larger chance of getting thrush while breastfeeding.

2. Moms who have anemia are at risk for thrush

3. A pacifier is something that helps cause thrush, because provides a place for the yeast to grow.

4. Antibiotics given to mom or baby can increase risk of thrush

5. Damp nursing pads give a great environment for yeast to thrive

Foods to avoid that help prevent and get rid of thrush

- Fatty, deep fried foods

- Pickled fruits and vegetables

- Smoked meat and fish

- Monosodium glutamate

- Yeast containing products like bread

- Sweets (yeast thrives with sugar)

- Beer, soda and wine

Thrush symptoms

What are the symptoms of thrush in mom:

- Intense breast or nipple pain which can sometimes feel like a sharp pain that radiates from the nipple to the breast and then into your back or arm.

- A vaginal yeast infection is one of the major signs that you might be suffering from thrush

- Angular chelitis (sores on the corner of your mouth)

- Cracked open nipples

- Itchy burning nipples

- A rash in the damp areas of the body such as beneath the arms or in the groin area

Symptoms of thrush in infants:

- A unwillingness to nurse because of his mouth (thrush mouth) being painful

- Sometimes baby might have a milky substance or white patches inside his mouth or on his tongue

- Baby might have some gas this is a common thing associated with infant thrush

Thrush treatment

Some natural remedies for thrush include tea tree oil apple cider vinegar (dab a few drop on your nipples after a feeding, yeast cannot live in acidic surroundings) Aloe vera gel has also been used on the nipple area for thrush treatment.

Some women have found that including garlic supplements or just eating as much garlic as you can helps allot with a thrush infection. Garlic will boost your immune system making it easier to fight off the yeast infection.

Grapefruit seed extract is a great supplement that can be used three times a day.

Echinacea is an immune boosting herb that helps get rid of yeast fast.

Gentian violet is excellent for many things but is a well known treatment for thrush. the nipple area is painted once a day usually at night. It can also be used in baby’s mouth. the only draw back is that its messy and leaves stains on clothing.

Can you breastfeed when you have thrush

Do not stop breastfeeding. do not rub breast milk into your nipples as yeast thrives in milk. Try eating less sugary foods.

Try pumping for a while if you cant handle the pain of breastfeeding, just until you have healed. A breastfeeding mom can take ibuprofen which is safe during breastfeeding. Also try drinking lots and lots of green tea.

A supplement called Lactobacillus acidophilus helps promote the growth of “friendly bacteria” this can be given for baby thrush too.

How to prevent thrush

- A good diet will keep your immune system strong

- Get enough sleep and rest

- Replace your nursing pads as soon as they become damp

- Always keep your hands clean while breastfeeding

Other breastfeeding problems pages that are related to thrush and breastfeeding:

- Mastitis- Sore Nipples

NEW YORK, NY – (IBWire.com November 29, 2011) – Candidiasis is the often used name for a condition that results in the overproduction in the form of yeast infection normally found in the body at low levels.

Candida is not considered anything to be overly concerned over, however, recent research has put a spotlight on this form of yeast that is causing the medical profession to reconsider its totally benign assessment of candida. it is inside all of us, it’s in the digestive tract, mouth, and throat. The most common species of candida is called candida albicans.

When the human body is weakened it is more likely to come under a candida attack. consider that at all times various bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens are waging an unseen war against in our bodies. As a result, the immune system is always on guard, waiting for the attack. In response to outside invasion, the body produces various weapons to fight these infections. Sometimes, if the body is weakened through a host of conditions and situations, the immune system cannot function properly.

One common condition caused by candida is thrush. Thrush is a buildup of candida that can effect men and women alike. As many as seventy-five percent of women will experience at least one yeast infection in their lifetime that is caused by an overgrowth of candida.

These common conditions are frustrating, but they do not represent the symptoms of chronic Candidiasis. Chronic overproduction of candida can lead to a wide range of physical and mental side effects. it can manifest as abdominal pain, fatigue, skin infections, and even cognitive difficulties. there appears to be such an extent of problems related to candida overgrowth that candida is often dismissed as a cause of sickness.

Those wishing to find out more information are welcome to visit the below website.

Contact: James Dahl at

Thrush is a fungal infection brought about by Candida Albicans and is also known as candidiasis. Thrush symptoms can be mild and they can be serious leading to other secondary diseases. Symptoms differ from one person to the next and the method of transmission also differs.

The symptoms of thrush begin with an inflammation of the affected area and this will present as itchiness. The vagina and vulva experience a burning sensation especially during sexual intercourse. these symptoms can be confused with bacterial vaginosis especially when the infection is in its intermediate stages. The symptoms at this stage are soreness and serious irritation even when walking or when there is some sweat in the area. It is important to treat thrush in good time since bacterial vaginosis can occur if a thrush infection is left untreated. Women who are infected produce a thick, smelly, grayish vaginal discharge that may stain the underwear. This discharge is more than the normal discharge.

Thrush symptoms also appear in men in the form of red patches on the head of the penis. if the man is not circumcised then this irritation is worse and presents as a sore and burning sensation. Thrush can also appear on other parts of the body such as the mouth.

Contrary to popular belief, thrush in women is not a sexually transmitted disease. The fungus is already there to begin with. The symptoms do not present themselves since the level of the fungus is kept low by other bacteria in the vagina. however this equilibrium can be upset by the use of antibiotics, wearing of tight synthetic under wear, or a completely unrelated illness. Once the bacterial population decreases the fungus population increases and the symptoms of thrush manifest themselves. Women who think that douching helps keep their vagina clean inadvertently interfere with the balance of the bacteria allowing thrush to flourish.

If you have any of these symptoms then you need to look for thrush treatment as soon as possible before the infection gets to later stages where secondary opportunistic diseases may come in. there are several medicines that can be used to treat the yeast infection and your doctor will prescribe some for you. there are creams that you can buy over the counter to stop the Candida infection. you can consult your local pharmacist who will sell you a tube. you can also look for these remedies at online pharmacists.

Thrush goes by other names; yeast infection for example. its scientific name is Candidaisis. it is a fungal infection caused by any species of Candida (thus the name Candidaisis), most typically Candida albicans. Thrush can affect different parts of the body, such as the skin, the genitals, or the digestive tract. In babies and breastfeeding mothers, it can affect the baby’s mouth and the mother’s breasts.

Symptoms of oral thrush include creamy white lesions inside your mouth, particularly on your tongue and inner cheeks, gums and tonsils, and sometimes even the roof of your mouth. The lesions may resemble cottage cheese in appearance. these lesions can be painful, and may bleed slightly if you rub them or scrape them. Symptoms may start suddenly, but the symptoms of oral thrush may persist for a long time. In severe cases of oral thrush, the lesions can spread right down your esophagus. If this happens, you may have trouble swallowing, or you may feel as though you have food stuck in your throat.

Infant Thrush Symptoms of Thrush

Infants and breast-feeding mothers can also get yeast infections. Healthy newborns are more prone to thrush within their first few months of life. The first symptoms of thrush in a baby may include trouble feeding, fussiness or crankiness. Babies can pass the infection to their mother’s breasts when breast-feeding. then he mother and baby will pass the thrush infection back and forth.

Symptoms of thrush in your baby can include a white coating on your baby’s tongue. If there is a coating on the baby’s tongue but nowhere else, then it is probably just milk residue. Thrush will also affect the sides of the mouth, and will cause the mouth be sore. The first thrush symptoms of thrush you are likely to notice are probably going to include your baby’s crying when breastfeeding, sucking on a pacifier or sucking on a bottle. If your baby cries, look for white patches. If you touch a white patch with a gauze-covered finger, the white stuff won’t come off very easily. however, if it does, it will leave a raw, red patch where it used to be.

Symptoms of Adult Genital Thrush

Thrush Symptoms will likely include severe itching, burning and soreness. Vaginal thrush also may result in a whitish or whitish gray discharge, which often has a cottage-cheese-like texture. Women may mistake the symptoms of bacterial vaginosis for a yeast infection. Studies have shown that around a third of women who self-treat for vaginal thrush don’t’ actually have a yeast infection. Instead, most actually had bacterial infections or a mixed-type infection. Men, too, can get genital thrush. it is less common than thrush in women. Symptoms include red patchy sores near the head of the penis, severe itching, and a burning sensation, particularly upon urination. a white discharge may also occur, but this is uncommon. Men, too, can carry a thrush infection without exhibiting any symptoms. If you have any symptoms of thrush, it is not a serious condition unless your immune system is compromised. however, you should still consult a physician rather than try to treat yourself.

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The Man who Wasn’t There

It's a bad thing to be a suspect with no alibi. It's a bit worse if you have two alibis that are, if not logically exclusive, at least surprisingly coincidental. The Supercommittee failed to reach an agreement on deficit reduction raising the famously awful prospect of an across the board sequester. who is to blame?

Michael Gerson at the Washington Post likes President Obama for the crime.

Budget deals get done because presidents prod, plead, cajole, demand and threaten. a few phone calls and tepid public statements do not count. it is the executive, not the legislature, that gives the budget process energy and direction. the supercommittee failed primarily because President Obama gave a shrug.

Ruth Marcus, also at the WaPo, provides the President with an alibi for his absence.

For all the eleventh-hour, "where-was-Obama?" moaning, the bipartisan congressional directive to the White House as the supercommittee did its work was simple: Back off.

That's right. the message from both Republican and Democratic members of the group was that presidential involvement could only be counterproductive.

That's the best case that can be made for the President's aloofness from the Supercommittee: I would have been involved, but they disinvited me. Unfortunately for this line of defense, Carrie Budoff Brown and Glenn Thrush, writing in the Politico, provide a second alibi.

Obama — burned by the failed deficit-reduction talks with Republicans during the summer debt-ceiling fight — believes that being accused of disengagement is preferable to being lumped with the in-fighting lawmakers who fumbled a chance to reach an agreement by the Monday deadline…

Obama's defiance served as the coda to a remarkably disciplined campaign by the White House to keep him as removed as possible from what aides viewed as a doomed process, showing a degree of indifference to Beltway punditry that hasn't been on display since his days as a candidate, Democrats said.

So Obama studiously remained "as removed as possible" from the Supercommittee deliberations. it was doomed anyway, and he would just have been "lumped with in-fighting lawmakers". the political image was all that mattered to "the White House."

So which is it? did Obama want to be involved and was rebuffed, or did he deliberately avoid involvement? the latter surely looks more like our man. it is precisely the President's job to "prod, plead, cajole, demand and threaten" those who don't want such treatment. When he fails to do that he is not doing his job, regardless of the excuse.

President Obama has consistently failed to provide leadership on the critical problem facing these United States: fiscal solvency. he created a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and then, with "remarkable discipline", ignored its report. he proposed a budget in February that utterly ignored the fiscal crisis. When challenged by the new Congress, he gave a speech acknowledging the need to reform our major entitlement programs. he did not provide details or any coherent proposal.

The European Union is collapsing in slow but steady motion. China is showing much the same symptoms. in the U.S., the fiscal rot is evident at every level from the Federal Treasury down to city hall. the President is utterly unconcerned with any of this. he is concerned only with his campaign. if Obama is reelected, we will surely get four more years of the same.

This may be the moment we will look back on, the moment that everything stopped getting better.

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Oh, please. Obama had put out his plans to reign in the deficit repeatedly, and had them repeatedly rejected by the Republicans. if they would have enacted Obama's suggestions there would be a shrinking deficit you could whine about.

People recall the eight years of fiscal insanity that Republicans led us down–violating pay-go to pass the Bush tax cuts, provide and unpaid for gift to the drug industry and start a misadventure in Iraq through lies. and let's not forget the whole financial meltdown started because of Republican failure to regulate the financial industry, and bubble-making policies in the libertarian Republican-led Federal Reserve.

Posted by: Donald Pay | Nov 23, 2011 7:08:49 AM

Ouch! Chris Matthews, the man who vowed three years ago to do everything in his power to help Obama succeed, is disillusioned by his commander-in-chief? that hurts! if Obama has lost Matthews, who else has he lost?

Posted by: CB | Nov 23, 2011 8:18:54 AM

We already had far more significant "stopped getting better" moments. January 20, 2001 comes to mind as well as that day's fruition on September 15, 2008.

Actually, not getting better is a massive understatement for those dates. it should be "got a whole lot worse". and I'll take the former over the latter any day.

Posted by: a.I. | Nov 23, 2011 9:24:23 AM

KB's post here reminds me of the classic old joke about the sadist and the masochist.

The masochist (Repubs) say "Beat me, beat me!the sadist (Obama) says "no."

A perfect dis-functional match, perhaps.

Watch for Obama to open a case of whup-ass just as soon as the GOP decides which one-trick-wonder they're going to back as a candidate. worst case scenario for Obama is that they pick Jon Huntsman. but as George Bush senior used to say "Not gonna do it… wouldn't be prudent… at this juncture."

Posted by: bill Fleming | Nov 23, 2011 9:46:43 AM

You are right. if Pres. Obama's budgets had been adopted we'd be on the road from $1.3 trillion annual budget deficits to about $750 billion annual budget deficits. That's about $300 billion worse than the worst Bush era deficit. I agree that Bush was irresponsible with spending. but then is it responsible to double and triple Bush's deficits?

Posted by: Jon S. | Nov 23, 2011 12:45:19 PM

Federal spending under President Obama declined (in both real terms and adjusted for inflation) in his first year (2010) from that of President Bush's last year (2009). the deficit that year (and the increase in debt) was due to plummeting revenues as a result of the economic collapse that started under President Bush. Budgets, of course, can't be compared because Bush had lots of things off-budget.

Posted by: Donald Pay | Nov 23, 2011 1:13:12 PM

Mathews is insignificant! he will breathlessly run to the polls to pull the lever for Obama regardless!

The real issue is….what will the media try to use as the narrative to suggest Obama deserves to stay in office. if they attempt to focus on the Republican Candidate they will lose, because all reelctions are always a referendum on the incumbant. if they try to point out how the economics of Democrats is not as dangerous as the data suggests, they will lose, because Democrat economic policy is always tax more to spend more, and we don't have the money nor the economy for that stuff anymore. so they have a real task in front of them.

Obama could've won this election easily, if he were not so Ideological. all he had to do was talk hard "Left," and govern as a Conservative, because his idiot base doesn't know any better, but it seems he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he chose to talk "Center-Right" and govern hard "Left". he wanted his cake and eat it too, and now it is up to the media to try to save him by smearing the other side, which rarely works on this huge stage.

In the long run, Obama is really going regret his early actions in his Presidency. I chalk it up to inexperience! he should have made the economy the main focus first instead of worrying about ObamaCare which is not going to survive anyway. he should have made sure that the Stimulus was not waisted, by paying off all the crony capitalists, and paying off his political allies. that along with controlling all of his anti-business/capitalist rhetoric would have recovered the economy pretty quickly, and he could have gotten his second term pretty easily. Instead he ended up overreaching trying to accomplish an Idelogical agenda, and he was sniffed out pretty early, and scared everybody which ended up shutting down the economy. but that's what happends when you put somebody in office with no experience, they tend to show you how unexperienced they really are, and thank god he did, because he could have destroyed this country…..some think he already has, but we will see after he is gone how much damage they were actually able to accomplish.

Posted by: Jimi | Nov 23, 2011 1:14:59 PM

Donald lied again! who exactly is shocked?

Let's use adjusted for inflation dollars, we don't want to embarrass Donald too much with actual numbers.

Total Federal Spending in Billions of adj. 2005 dollars:2001–$2,0722002–$2,1992003–$2,3042004–$2,3752005–$2,4722006–$2,5722007–$2,5672008–$2,7382009–$3,2072010–$3,1122011–$3,194

Total Federal Deficit in Billions of adj. 2005 dollars:2001–(-$142)2002–$1722003–$4032004–$4272005–$3182006–$2402007–$1512008–$4202009–$1,2882010–$1,1652011–$1,152

Total Federal Revenue in Billions of adj. 2005 dollars:2001–$2,2142002–$2,0272003–$1,9022004–$1,9482005–$2,1542006–$2,3322007–$2,4172008–$2,3172009–$1,9192010–$1,9482011–$2,042

The 2009 spending is all Democrat, not Bush, as they like try to make people believe. the 2009 Spending bill put forth by Bush was not passed by the Democrat controlled House and Senate, they rejected it and waited till Obama took power and then modified and added to it. the projected 2009 Bush budget would have resulted in a deficit lower than in 2008, but Democrats spent like drunked sailors. Also, take note that revenues increased after the Massive Bush Tax Cuts including GDP….My Lord….How is that possible?

Posted by: Jimi | Nov 23, 2011 4:08:06 PM

Spending 2008: 2,982,500,000,000. 2009: 3,517,700,000,000. 2010: 3,456,200,000,000. Estimated 2011: 3,818,800,000. in constant 2005 dollars; 2008: 2,702,300,000,000. 2009: 3,172,200,000,000. 2010: 3,066,700,000,000. 2011 estimated: 3,341,300,000,000. as a percentage of GNP, 20.7%, 25.0%, 23.8%, 25.3%, respectively. BTW, the 2009 budget should have been Bush's, but the Democrats in Congress refused to pass a budget as they figured the new President should be able to get his budget passed for the year instead, so that one belongs to the Democrats and Obama as well. Your figures rely upon the last Bush budget, but his last budget was 2008. taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200

Posted by: duggersd | Nov 23, 2011 4:13:42 PM

Jimi, stop your lies, though perhaps you are just ignorant.

The federal fiscal year starts in October of the previous year. Thus, fiscal year 2009 began October 2008. since spending levels are set then, the spending is attributed to the President in power at the time that fiscal year begins. in the case of FY 2009 that would be President Bush.

Posted by: Donald Pay | Nov 23, 2011 10:18:30 PM

I find it charming that Donald cannot see what even Chris Matthews (whose leg used to tingle when Obama spoke) can see. the President offers a plan and then doesn't call anyone on Capitol Hill, even Democrats, to try to build support for it. maybe it was hopeless and maybe in Wisconsin that's a good excuse for not doing your job.

I find it charming that, three years into Obama's term, a.I. is still campaigning against Georg W.

I find it charming that bill thinks the election is some kind of sports event, as if the world outside the stadium didn't exist.

Thanks to all for charming me.

Posted by: Ken Blanchard | Nov 23, 2011 11:17:40 PM

2009 is an anomaly because you have two massive pieces of supplemental monies: TARP and the stimulus bill. you cannot say that 2009 is all Bush because Obama's stimulus bill was a budget supplemental to FY 2009, thus $800 billion of that debt belongs to Obama. Also, Obama did support TARP, so even though that occured in the Bush administration, it's not like Obama would have done anything different. Again, you cannot dispute that Obama's plan is to have annual deficits 2 to 3 times the size of the worst Bush year deficit (again, taking out 2009 as a kind of bipartisan anomaly). as Ken Blanchard likes to say, that's not what happens if the plan goes wrong; that's the plan. if you think the deficits under Bush were bad, and I do, then you must be horrified by the Obama plan.

Posted by: Jon S. | Nov 24, 2011 9:31:08 AM

Happy Holidays, KB. I think the election — at least on the GOP primary side thus far — has been an amalgam of a three ring circus, an island survival sitcom, and a unicorn ranch documentary. Anything having to do with reality hasn't shown up yet (with the possible exception of Jon Huntsman, to whom no one will listen). but I suppose it will get real soon enough. meanwhile, have another pice of pumpkin pie, broheem, and pass the Baileys, will ya?

Posted by: bill Fleming | Nov 25, 2011 7:11:11 PM

Happy holidays to you, bill. Thanks for confirming my point yet again. the failure of the German bond auction last week–that was reality. just because you aren't paying any attention doesn't mean it isn't real.

Posted by: Ken Blanchard | Nov 25, 2011 10:24:13 PM

Oh, the real world's out there alright, KB. …and then there is the GOP field of POTUS wannabes.

Posted by: bill Fleming | Nov 26, 2011 7:16:43 AM

Well, at least the real POTUS knows where to lay the blame …

foxbusiness.com/politics/2011/11/28/us-says-europe-has-resources-to-deal-with-crisis/

Posted by: Stan Gibilisco | Nov 28, 2011 4:51:08 PM

The stimulus bill was a response to Bush's economic recession. TARP was Bush's policy, and was largely carried out by the Bush administration. the projections of deficits of two to three times Bush era deficits assumes the Bush tax cuts are extended and the Bush recession continues. it also does not include the cuts that will automatically go into effect if Congress does not act to stop them. Obama has said he will veto attempts by Congress to prevent the cuts from going into effect.

nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24sun4.html

Posted by: Donald Pay | Nov 28, 2011 10:38:43 PM

20 years ago I had a motorcycle accident. Obama wasn't there, so I'm pretty sure it was his fault…

Seriously though, the "supercommittee" was a construct of Congress. Congress made the rules and set the goals… the responsibility rested with the "supercommittee," and had the President tried to influence their process, KB would be accusing Obama of meddling.

Posted by: Dave | Nov 29, 2011 10:16:08 AM

From the Washington Post: washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-we-can-succeed-through-supercommittees-failure/2011/11/16/gIQA7hLXSN_story.html

"Here is a surefire way to cut $7.1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. Do nothing."

"the prospect of $7.1 trillion in tax increases and some cuts that would begin taking effect in January 2013 (thanks to Jim Horney of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for walking me through the math) should hearten every deficit foe now prepared to mourn a failure by the supercommittee."

"because the bulk of the $7.1 trillion comes from automatic revenue increases, the power in future negotiations would shift toward those seeking a balance between cuts and taxes. doing nothing is not an option when it comes to job creation. Congress still needs to act. but on the deficit, inaction now could lead to wiser action later."

"yes, this strategy works better if President Obama is reelected. yet if Republicans take over the federal government in 2012, it should fall to them to enact the draconian cuts required to protect the wealthiest Americans from tax increases. no moderate or progressive should want to be complicit in this."

"a balanced deal would be nice but it’s now impossible — and not because of some vague congressional “dysfunction” the media like to talk about. Sane fiscal policies are blocked because one party refuses to accept the need to roll back the excesses of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. if Congress does nothing, those tax cuts go away. That’s why a “failure” by the supercommittee to endorse a deeply flawed deal is actually a victory for sensible deficit reduction."

Posted by: Dave | Nov 29, 2011 6:03:59 PM

Or slightly more blunt, from hillbillyreport.org/diary/3538/the-supercommittee-and-the-republican-way

"you see, to insure that Republicans would negotiate in good faith hundreds of billions of much needed defense cuts long opposed by Republicans were added in the automatic "trigger". Despite this fact Repubicans never approached this committee with any real willingness to sacrifice anything or ask any of the folks they truly work for to do so.now that their refusal has caused this "trigger" to kick in and automatically cut both domestic and defense spending for the simple fact that Republicans do not believe the wealthy and Corporations should asked to pay for that defense spending they are crying foul. they want to try and save face and appear to care about our "national defense" when honestly they just want to force someone else to pay for it. now, they are trying to circumvent the defense cuts their own greed made happen and ask all of us to sacrifice for their interests once more.

Posted by: Dave | Nov 29, 2011 8:36:01 PM

Ah, the thought of singing birds: the thrush.

Forget it. Thrush is a yeast infection (candida albicans) that can affect infants, toddlers, breastfeeding mothers, older folks and anyone with a weakened immune system including those with cancer and HIV.

There are a multitude of causes for thrush. Generally, though, they can be boiled down to conditions being ripe for the change in balance of certain bacteria in the mouth that keep thrush in check. in more severe cases thrush can spread to the lungs, liver and skin.

Thrush appears as creamy white to yellow lesions in the mouth. It can cause pain or difficulty when swallowing and even fever if the infection is allowed to spread beyond the esophagus.

Treatment for oral thrush may include antifungal medications taken orally in the form of tablets, lozenges or liquids. More severe cases may require injections to bring the candidas bacteria under control.

n/a