US Prez Election 2012 Thread - Opinions and Discussions

[Coito ergo sum]

LOL -- I hope that is an emotional and not a rational comment on your part.

It was neither emotional or rational.

Sometimes I think DC could use a good armed insurrection, with a smattering of militias and military factions duking it out in the streets. And to the victor go the charred ruins spoils.
Just kidding, of course.

We could deploy some redcoats as a "peace-keeping" force if that would help.....

Will you blokes stand all in a nice neat row for us again?

We will stand neatly and maybe roast some chestnuts while we burn Washington down again. You never should have built the damned placed in that awful swamp anyway.

The first President's House wasn't up to code anyway. We needed it demolished for the White House anyway.

[Coito ergo sum]

I don't think better educated means you're a better person, or necessarily any more intelligent for that matter. The notion that some people are better people than others is not at all what I was getting at (while we're on personal anecdotes, I was the first person in my extended family to graduate from college, nevermind get a graduate degree. It doesn't mean I think I'm better than all of them).

But how informed one is, and how developed one's critical thinking skills are (these are things directly related to education. It's also too much of a stretch to think education and intelligence have little to do with each other; if you stay in school longer, you don't get dumber) are ultimately reflected in how one come to view government and how one votes.

And I think your last paragraph is not at all realistic - it's pure strawman.

Regarding the educated vs. intelligent -- some folks hold "Ivy Leaguers" in a dim light because of the idea of having impractical book-based knowledge, vs. street smarts, practical knowledge, and the like. I have a very educated father, math and engineering degrees, and a highly successful careers -- he and many like him think Obama's "political science" degree from Columbia is at best worthless, and at worst counter-productive. When I was in engineering school, it was very common to hear engineering students bash such degrees -- any liberal arts degree - as worthless, and a pointless waste of time. So, sometimes, very educated people don't think "more school" is a default "better thing."

I have some sympathy to that view, which is why I look more to practical experience, rather than what degree someone has. And, having an engineering background in college, among other things, and an advanced degree beyond undergraduate, I am among the best educated in the country, but I still don't find continuing to go to liberal arts schooling or getting some bullshit doctorate (not all doctorates are bullshit, of course...) is an automatic plus.

[Ian]

I understand those sentiments to a good degree. Career academics, IMO, are inherintly limited in their understanding of the rest of the world because they have had no direct experience with it. I don't want to trash all ivy tower professors, because I've read the works of a few brilliant ones. But guys like Noam Chomsky drive me up a wall - the ones who've never spent a single day feeling the weight of public office or responsibility, but who still like to criticize the realm of public service.

Still, on the whole, I'd rather hear the opinions of a dozen graduate students (whatever their majors) than a dozen high school-educated people of the same age. More informed and nuanced opinions will almost certainly be found amongst the former group than the latter. Besides, while I too generally value experience even more than education (and both need to be taken into account), a good education tends to open one up for some good experiences. I've been places, worked with people and done things that my brother, a high-school graduate and career carpet-layer, can barely grasp. And the reason I've been able to do those things is because I worked hard to make sure I had a decent education upon which to build the other stuff.

[maiforpeace]

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds 56% of respondents, regardless of which candidate they support, predict President Obama will win in November.

Americans optimistic things are looking up, poll says

[Tero]

How is the school bully doing this week? Do we want a pit bull for president?

[maiforpeace]

How is the school bully doing this week? Do we want a pit bull for president?

[tattuchu]

Fucking Mittens

Apologies from Massachusetts for unleashing this phucktard upon the country

[Warren Dew]

No apologies here. He will/would make a much better president than Obama or Santorum.

[maiforpeace]

No apologies here. He will/would make a much better president than Obama or Santorum.

So you are not part of the 56%.

[Coito ergo sum]

No apologies here. He will/would make a much better president than Obama or Santorum.

So you are not part of the 56%.

No, he's part of the 57% -- http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... ver-obama/

43 percent say they would opt for Mr. Obama.

[Coito ergo sum]

How is the school bully doing this week? Do we want a pit bull for president?

Still waiting for the Obama to undergo a similar colonoscopy. Has any reporter even done an investigation of that kind into Obama's past?

Nahhhhh!

Why bother?

We all know that Obama is blameless in all things. He's so dreamy, too.

[Robert_S]

Obama fucking wrote a book where he tells us what an immature stoned slacker he was in college. He's not trying to play goody two shoes church boy so we don't hold it against him so much.

[Coito ergo sum]

Obama fucking wrote a book where he tells us what an immature stoned slacker he was in college. He's not trying to play goody two shoes church boy so we don't hold it against him so much.

Obama wrote a book is different than investigative journalists going up his ass to find out what happened when he was 14 and 15. This story about Romney goes back to his middle school days to find out his warts. I merely noted the simple fact that nobody bothered to do that with Obama. And, I strongly suspect that if they did, his supporters would cry "foul" that his actions as a school boy were being flyspecked to keep him from being President, particularly if the article went into how much of shit he was at age 15.

[Ian]

Could this discussion possibly take a lower turn? Maybe if we really, really tried?

Perhaps we could discuss political idealism vs realism as related to campaigning vs governing, and discuss whether idealism and realism are competing philosophies or complementary outlooks.


Nah, let's just talk about what people might have been like when they were adolescents.

[Hermit]

Obama fucking wrote a book where he tells us what an immature stoned slacker he was in college. He's not trying to play goody two shoes church boy so we don't hold it against him so much.

Obama wrote a book is different than investigative journalists going up his ass to find out what happened when he was 14 and 15. This story about Romney goes back to his middle school days to find out his warts. I merely noted the simple fact that nobody bothered to do that with Obama. And, I strongly suspect that if they did, his supporters would cry "foul" that his actions as a school boy were being flyspecked to keep him from being President, particularly if the article went into how much of shit he was at age 15.

All the way back to his middle school days, you say? Wow! There are plenty of investigative reports published about Obama, going right back to his birth. They even gave rise to several court actions.