US Prez Election 2012 Thread - Opinions and Discussions

[Coito ergo sum]

I fully expect the President to be as much of a focus in the news as he is. I wouldn't expect each candidate's coverage to equal the President's coverage, because the President is involved with newsworthy events on a daily basis.

HOWEVER, I do see the disparity between Ron Paul's coverage and Bachmann's coverage, Tim Pawlenty's coverage, and Newt Gingrich's coverage to be questionable. Paul is a frontrunner, and has far and away more support than Pawlenty or Gingrich. He's just ignored. I wonder why that is? It seems counterintuitive, to me.

[Coito ergo sum]

Obama's chances to win in 2012 aren't good: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... n_him.html

[Warren Dew]

HOWEVER, I do see the disparity between Ron Paul's coverage and Bachmann's coverage, Tim Pawlenty's coverage, and Newt Gingrich's coverage to be questionable. Paul is a frontrunner, and has far and away more support than Pawlenty or Gingrich. He's just ignored. I wonder why that is? It seems counterintuitive, to me.

Paul is in no way a front runner. He has a small number of loyalists and everyone else thinks he's a wacko, for good reason.

Bachmann is chair of the congressional Tea Party caucus, which has a significant effect on the government, so she gets coverage. Not sure about Pawlenty or Gingrich, though - I've personally seen less coverage on them than I have on Paul. Pawlenty is out now anyway.

[Coito ergo sum]

Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It's now $14,639,000,000,000.

When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS' amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000.

That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washing ... -debt.html

New-home sales fall, 2011 could be worst year yet

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 3-10-14-07

[Coito ergo sum]

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 19% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-five percent (45%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -26 (see trends).

Only 20% think government anti-poverty programs reduce poverty. Seventy-one percent (71%) believe too many people get welfare who should not be getting it. Only 18% believe the opposite is true.

Forty-two percent (42%) of American Adults believe corporations pay too little in taxes, while 24% feel they pay too much. Most (59%) think it is better to have lower corporate tax rates and very few deductions than to have higher tax rates and lots of deductions. Seventy-nine percent (79%) recognize that corporations generally pass higher taxes along to their customers in the form of higher prices.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) at least somewhat disapprove. The president wins approval from 78% of Democrats and 44% of those not affiliated with either major party. Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans disapprove.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... cking_poll

[Coito ergo sum]

Adding $4 trillion of debt in 8 years is:

Irresponsible
Unpatriotic

Doing it in 4 years is.....?

[Coito ergo sum]

1 in 4 Democrats want to see Obama replaced - http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer. ... dump-obama

[Robert_S]

1 in 4 Democrats want to see Obama replaced - http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer. ... dump-obama

Awesome comments under that article.

[Coito ergo sum]

More civility.... Hoffa Threatens GOP At Obama Event: "Take These Son Of Bitches Out" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... s_out.html

And, martial metaphors too -- "President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out..."

It is a good thing he doesn't use a crosshairs symbol. That would be over the line...

[Schneibster]

My guess is that Jeb has no chance of ever becoming President.

He is not his brother, however. And, he was a great Governor of Florida, highly popular with people of both parties. Smart guy and very practical.

No need for him to be president, he already created one.

And, "Bush Did 9/11"

Trooferism, and avoidance of same, is not conviction that the 2000 election was rigged in Florida. I have a Dan Rather Reports from HDNet on the company that made the ballots that were used in the most disputed district in Florida in the 2000 election, which "just happened" to be one of the strongest Democratic strongholds in the state. Rather interviews four or five of twenty or thirty former employees of the company who were there when they used the substandard rolls of paper to make the ballots used there. Hanging chads indeed. Gee, how'd that happen, anyway, heh heh heh? The name of the episode is "The Trouble With Touchscreens," feel free to pull it up on the YouTube.

The particular fallacy involved in associating accusations of vote rigging in Florida in the 2000 election is called "poisoning the well." You can pull it up on any reliable logical fallacies list; I like Nizhkor, personally.

[Schneibster]

Adding $4 trillion of debt in 8 years is:

Irresponsible
Unpatriotic

Doing it in 4 years is.....?

Adding $4 trillion of debt in eight years to fight an unnecessary war and pay contractors who provided unusable and unsafe products thus ripping off the public is irresponsible and unpatriotic. Doing it in four years to try to restart the economy and get us out of the unnecessary war without plunging the Mideast into a nuclear war is...?

You're fun. I can do this all day. Do you want to spout some more propaganda for me to shoot down, or shall we discuss reality a while? Only you can prevent propaganda.

[Ian]

You're fun. I can do this all day. Do you want to spout some more propaganda for me to shoot down, or shall we discuss reality a while? Only you can prevent propaganda.

The reality is that almost everything Obama has done in office can be catagorized as: trying to clean up the mess left by the last guy. Buy I don't think Coito is interested in that reality.

[Schneibster]

You're fun. I can do this all day. Do you want to spout some more propaganda for me to shoot down, or shall we discuss reality a while? Only you can prevent propaganda.

The reality is that almost everything Obama has done in office can be catagorized as: trying to clean up the mess left by the last guy. Buy I don't think Coito is interested in that reality.

Unfortunately, Obama didn't take some pretty good advice about the stimulus package when he had the chance to do something about it, and just as those who were giving the advice said at the time, he's now having to go back and get more. Other than that, I can't quibble with what you've said. It's about the only big mistake he's made.

[Coito ergo sum]

Adding $4 trillion of debt in 8 years is:

Irresponsible
Unpatriotic

Doing it in 4 years is.....?

Adding $4 trillion of debt in eight years to fight an unnecessary war and pay contractors who provided unusable and unsafe products thus ripping off the public is irresponsible and unpatriotic.

What a joke.

How much did Iraq cost under Bush again?

And, which contractors provide what unusable and unsafe products?

Oh, and Obama didn't qualify his statement. The mere fact of increasing the debt that fast was unamerican and unpatriotic to him. He didn't say that it would be find if he did it in a different way.

Doing it in four years to try to restart the economy and get us out of the unnecessary war without plunging the Mideast into a nuclear war is...?

He spent $4 trillion to restart the economy? Do you even follow this issue at all? My question was rhetorical. It's plainly obvious that you don't.

You're fun. I can do this all day. Do you want to spout some more propaganda for me to shoot down, or shall we discuss reality a while? Only you can prevent propaganda.

Make shit up? I bet you can do that all day.

You didn't shoot anything down. Iraq didn't cost $4 trillion dollars, and Obama didn't waste all the money he spent on restarting the economy. He wasted a lot of money on restarting the economy - which never, incidentally, restarted - it sputtered a bit, got just above "recession" level, but our growth is for shit right now with GDP this year of under 1% - foreclosures THIS YEAR are at an all time high -- unemployment is STILL at 9.1% and climbing (and the only reason it is that low is because the labor force has gone down with folks dropping out of the labor force, stopping their search for work, etc. - if we used the size of the labor force when Obama took office, unemployment would be over 11%).

Some of the money wasted was in the "Cash for Clunkers" boondoggle, which did absolutely nothing to help anybody - it merely spiked demand a bit, but overall car sales did not change, because people just bought a little sooner than they otherwise would have. Further, the $800 billion Stimulus Package didn't work much at all - it was ostensibly going to keep unemployment at under 8%, which it plainly did not. Further, most that money was flushed down the toilet on boondoggle wasteful programs and expenditures like "turtle crossings" in my state, to fraudulent projects all over the country, payments for Senators' pet projects and all sorts of wasteful government expenditures. Do you really need me to educate you on the pure crap that the "stimulus" package was spent on, or will you at least acknowledge that the Stimulus Package waste a good deal of money?

[Coito ergo sum]

You're fun. I can do this all day. Do you want to spout some more propaganda for me to shoot down, or shall we discuss reality a while? Only you can prevent propaganda.

The reality is that almost everything Obama has done in office can be catagorized as: trying to clean up the mess left by the last guy. Buy I don't think Coito is interested in that reality.

Of course I am -

I do notice that he didn't change the last guy's Iraq policy, something everyone was screaming about before the election. I also notice that Obama ESCALATED the Afghan theater and expanded America's military activities still further than "the last guy."

Moreover, as it happens, the economy is worse today than it was in January, 2009. Gas prices are higher, unemployment is much higher, the debt is now at about 100% of GDP according to the IMF, the stock market is taking another dump, inflation in food and fuel prices are humongous -- gas is around $3.70 a gallon around here (over a dollar higher than it was last year) - inflation of food prices went up about 6.5% in the first quarter alone this year (highest in light 30+ years) (food and fuel are not included in the consumer price index, for some reason...) Foreclosures are at an all time high THIS YEAR. Bankruptcy filings are rivaling 2010's level, and may well beat 2010 if the unemployment trend continues. So, good job, Obama? A for effort.