Politics and President Obama continue to be the dominant threads in our most liked comments on washingtonpost.com. The top comment from ThePartiesAreTheProblem received an impressive 164 likes, more than four times as many reader recommendations as Tuesday’s No. 1 comment. The sports world nearly broke into our top five with controversy over the Redskins name.  From At the source of the shutdown, the economy falters — and anger at Barack Obama runs high by Jim Tankersley; The PartiesAreTheProblem (164 likes)  Here is what really happened to Mr. Hackett:”When the shop opened, Hackett was still primarily a real estate developer” He went into a business he didn’t understand. Most small businesses fail, especially when they’re run like a hobby.” He lost that business in the housing crash, and his retirement nest egg with it.” Speaks for itself. Not Obama’s fault.”…and was left with his store to support him.” A business (hobby) that most likely was already failing.”Sales were okay at first…” This is what business owners always say when sales stick. Also, sales is not the same as profits.”…but began trickling off over the past two years as consumers tightened up in the increasingly weak recovery.” More likely, they started trailing off because he didn’t have the money to advertise and find new customers.”Then, Hackett said, his bank pulled back on lending, citing new federal regulations.” Not likely. Banks were even tighter when he started the business. They pulled back because they knew he was failing.” Over the summer, he and Tippy dropped their health-care coverage after their insurer raised rates, something the Hacketts blame on the federal health-care law.” The health insurance companies have been using the ACA as cover to raise rates for over 3 years now, and guys like Hackett believe them every time, no questions asked.  “The opening of a Publix grocery store peeled off more precious customers..” A small retailer like Hackett has zero chance against a big company. And his Republican/Libertarian friends will only make that situation worse.  This guy took a big risk, at a bad time, and lost his [derriere]. It has nothing to do with Obama. Small business is extremely risky and most of them fail. It has always been thus, and Hackett is just trying to blame someone else.  From Enough already, say respected conservatives by Jennifer Rubin; jhickey25811 (44 likes)  I bar tend. Last night I was listening to two idiots talking about how the shutdown effected no one and that Ted Cruz was right. They railed about the immorality of trying to insure the uninsured but said nothing about our foreign adventurism and failed war of choice. They then went on to talk about how they are arming themselves for the coming civil war in America. This is your garden variety right winger.  From This is why Obamacare is canceling some people’s insurance plans by Sarah Kliff; VirginiaLover (37 likes)  You also can’t buy a new car without an airbag even if you wished to take that risk, and you were a little old lady who drove it once a week to church. There are mostly upsides to having laws that passed for the public good, even if we go kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I for one am all for the ACA. It is not perfect progress, and it will inconvenience some, even in their pocketbook. But 20 years from now people will wonder what all the fuss was about.  From Opposition to tea party reaches a high in Virginia, according to poll by Ben Pershing and Scott Clement; phildecarp (35 likes)  I hope that the GOP gets the message that their war on women won’t be tolerated by most women voters. Back off guys.  From A question of competence by Richard Cohen; stevenk2 (29 likes)  The last President we had who was a micromanager was Jimmy Carter and we all know how that turned out.Look, the span of operations of the federal government — even a slimmed down federal government — is far too big for any one person to sit on top of and direct. The best one can hope for is that the President gives broad policy directives that resonate through the lower levels of his/her administration. Beyond that, well, good luck.So, with that said, what has President Obama accomplished:1. He steered this country out of the worst financial crisis since 1929. 2. He presided over the enactment of major reforms to the health care system, reforms that have yet to be tested, but which hold promise for real improvement for most Americans. 3. He ended our involvement in Iraq, as he promised to do. 4. He’s ending our involvement in Afghanistan. 5. He ended open discrimination against gay citizens in our military. 6. He’s kept this country out of entanglements in the Middle East and elsewhere that might have cost us trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives. 7. He stood up to Republican extortionists in Congress and prevented this country from sliding into the kind of government that Third World “democracies” routinely exhibit.Not bad, I’d say, particularly since he’s faced the toxic opposition of Republicans since the first day of his Administration. As for Cohen’s assertions of “incompetence”, well I’d love to see how he’d have steered us past the rocks and shoals that Obama’s faced over these past nearly five years. On second thought, perhaps not.  A note on methodology: The number of likes was calculated as of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. A maximum of one comment per article/blog post/video is taken for the list.
Here are the five most liked comments, as recommended by our readers. Politics and President Obama remain in the spotlight.