Presidential Election: 2012

[Dotini]

Isn't it "tread lightly"?

Actually, we're both wrong. It was "Speak softly, and carry a big stick; you will go far."
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm

 

[Omnis]

Isn't there a tread quote that predates that though? Teddy was known for smoking cigars and slicing people's heads off as he rode by on horseback.

 

[Joel]

Seeing as Pakistan is swiftly allying itself with China, you might just want to quickly drag those chips right off the table!

No, what America really needs after all this time of losing and hemorrhaging blood and money, is to actually finish and win a war. And profit handsomely by finally taking home the spoils! This is what war should be all about - victory and conquest! This is best done by picking on a rich but weak neighbor. Of course, the obvious helpless victim is Canada - Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin always wanted this one. Canada's gold, water, oil, timber, fisheries and arctic access would do wonders to fix the good old USA's ailing economy, don't you think?

In all facetiousness,
Dotini

Actually kind of liking this idea.

Canada also has neodymium. If a nation refuses international access to exploitation of strategically necessary resources (everyone must have a cellphone!!), then that is grounds for attack. If locals anywhere on Earth - be they aborigines, tribalists, communists or democrats - are sitting on arable land, minerals or other resources and are not exploiting them to the highest possible degree, then it is the duty of all right-thinking global capitalists to go in and straighten them out.

Ad Astra per Aspera!
Dotini

Diplomatically, right?

Absolutely! "Talk softly but carry a big stick." - T. Roosevelt

 

[runfromcheney]

Its "Speak softly and carry a big stick." C'mon people.

 

[Keef]

"As if Canadian football even counts."

 

[Joel]

"As if Canadian football even counts."

Probably the only Michael Moore film I really enjoy

 

[Peter.]

Didn't know Obama was doing a bad job. I know, i'm not American, but were you all expecting magic to happen in 5 years and ponies to run down rainbows in the sky? It's a problem we have down here as well, a party gets elected, a few years later, people argue that things haven't gotten better then contemplate voting for the rival party going into power immediately after. And we never get better.

Anyway, back to the US. Hasn't the media destroyed the Republicans' public image to a point beyond repair in the last 10 or so years?

 

[runfromcheney]

Anyway, back to the US. Hasn't the media destroyed the Republicans' public image to a point beyond repair in the last 10 or so years?

IMO it's not the media that destroyed the Republicans' image, but George W. Bush, all the conservatives that defended him and the Iraq war tooth and nail no matter what, and then all the clowns like Sarah Palin that ran to the forefront of the party after he was gone. Let me repeat what I said a couple pages back:

Personally, I am a Republican yet I can count the number of current Republican politicians I like on one hand. The majority of them disgust me; they are either a bunch of Ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalists that are simply walking the party line and are on a misguided witch hunt for Obama, or intellectual lightweights that simply want to get in front of a TV Camera and spout conspiracy theories (Looking for a shot at the grand prize - a job as a Fox News commentator!). It is irritating me since while I am moderate and like to listen to the issues and do my research, I immediately get clumped in with these idiots because they have so badly defamed the Republican name. We are the party of Lincoln, not the party of Palin!

 

[arora]

Didn't know Obama was doing a bad job. I know, i'm not American, but were you all expecting magic to happen in 5 years and ponies to run down rainbows in the sky?

No, but we do have these laws on the books 👍

THE CONSTITUTION Article II Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term...............

Twenty-Second Amendment Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once................

Franklin D. Roosevelt served 3 terms and was elected for a forth term but died in the 1st year before the 22nd amendment was in place, but yet he was still elected every 4 years. Kinda the way our elections go.

Anyway, back to the US. Hasn't the media destroyed the Republicans' public image to a point beyond repair in the last 10 or so years?

No, current Senate seats are 51 democratic and 47 republican with 2 independent. The current House seats are 192 democratic and 240 republican with 3 vacancies. All of these seats have been filled by elections within the past 10 years.

 

[FoolKiller]

Didn't know Obama was doing a bad job.

Re-election by law. But I want someone else as I like my presidents to act like they took their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously.

 

[Keef]

That, besides completely reversing the platform they run on when they get elected. Even if a commie gets elected, damn it, at least stick to your guns once you're in office. Don't be a lying sack of politics.

It's too bad they almost have to make promises to get elected. People like promises. People are shallow.

 

[Dotini]

...I like my presidents to act like they took their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously.

That recent Presidents, and by extension the American people, no longer take the oath and the Constitution seriously is powerful evidence of collective cognitive dissonance. This is a neurotic disorder similar to the delusion, hypocrisy or narcissism that we can have our cake and eat it, too. This insidious notion that we are above our own law must be resolved either by changing our law to match our actions, or by changing our actions to match our law. Until then we are legally and morally bankrupt, no more fit to serve as exemplar to humanity than the mad Hatter found in Alice in Wonderland.

 

[Keef]

There are a few notable beacons of light guiding our way yet, so hope is not lost. All we need is for people to swallow their pride and admit they're stupid, then pay attention for once.

 

[alexleighton]

That recent Presidents, and by extension the American people, no longer take the oath and the Constitution seriously is powerful evidence of collective cognitive dissonance. This is a neurotic disorder similar to the delusion, hypocrisy or narcissism that we can have our cake and eat it, too. This insidious notion that we are above our own law must be resolved either by changing our law to match our actions, or by changing our actions to match our law. Until then we are legally and morally bankrupt, no more fit to serve as exemplar to humanity than the mad Hatter found in Alice in Wonderland.

Changing the law to match our actions doesn't really accomplish anything though. I mean I'm not arguing that laws must remain the same forever, but if laws are changed because too many people are breaking them, then what is the point of having these laws in the first place?

 

[spiker]

Changing the law to match our actions doesn't really accomplish anything though. I mean I'm not arguing that laws must remain the same forever, but if laws are changed because too many people are breaking them, then what is the point of having these laws in the first place?

To create jobs in law enforcement.

 

[Dapper]

That recent Presidents, and by extension the American people, no longer take the oath and the Constitution seriously is powerful evidence of collective cognitive dissonance. This is a neurotic disorder similar to the delusion, hypocrisy or narcissism that we can have our cake and eat it, too. This insidious notion that we are above our own law must be resolved either by changing our law to match our actions, or by changing our actions to match our law. Until then we are legally and morally bankrupt, no more fit to serve as exemplar to humanity than the mad Hatter found in Alice in Wonderland.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Thoma...ch_generation_should_rewrite_the_Constitution

You're right. The constitution needs an overhaul.

 

[Tornado]

You're right. The constitution needs an overhaul.

Not doing what we should be doing hasn't worked, so throwing out the thing that tells us what we should be doing will make it work?

 

[FoolKiller]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Thoma...ch_generation_should_rewrite_the_Constitution

You're right. The constitution needs an overhaul.

http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_newc.html

Thomas Jefferson himself was wary of the power of the dead over the living in the form of an unchanging Constitution. To ensure that each generation have a say in the framework of the government, he proposed that the Constitution, and each one following it, expire after 19 or 20 years. James Madison, Jefferson's contemporary, found comfort in knowing that the populace would not be thrust into political turmoil every 20 years, and noted that the way the Constitution is now structured, it implies an acceptance of the status quo unless explicitly changed.

Yes because the constant bounce between socialist and religious-themed would be awesome for the country.

Does it matter though? No one follows it anyway, so we get the extreme swings with at least some moderate control from the courts. Imagine a world where courts couldn't say forced prayer was illegal, or taxes blatantly designed to create "equality" were absolutely fine. Or imagine if Bush could just rework the Constitution itself instead of writing The Patriot Act in a way that made it hard to challenge.

Not quite sure why protecting the rights of all individuals is such a bad thing really.

 

[arora]

He also wrote this.

what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.

 

[FoolKiller]

This just in: Ron Paul hates puppies.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/was...ich-could-end-the-careers-of-500-puppies.html

Ron Paul has had a long and successful political career of being an outlier. A hero to those who rally behind his Libertarian beliefs of small government and personal freedoms; Paul has proposed decimating the IRS, ending the drug war, and reversing Roe vs. Wade.

But will he survive putting hundreds of puppies out of work?

That's what he's doing when he gets on his soapbox, as he did Sunday, suggesting that the 10-year old Transportation Security Administration be dismantled. Yes, the very same TSA that pats down 95-year-old women in diapers at the airport also trains hundreds of adorable puppies to sniff for bombs.

Paul seems to care not. He wants the government out of the groping business and give those duties to private companies. Puppies and all!

"Ninety-five year-old women humiliated; children molested; disabled people abused; men and women subjected to unwarranted groping and touching of their most private areas; involuntary radiation exposure," Paul said Sunday in his weekly "Straight Talk" telephone address.

"If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents. Unfortunately, in this case the perpetrators are armed federal agents. This is the sorry situation 10 years after the creation of the Transportation Security Administration."

According to our friends at Politics Now, Paul said he would introduce a bill prohibiting unlawful touching of the body by screeners and make invasive picture-taking illegal.

Oddly, the conservative Texas congressman failed to mention the Puppy Program (aka TSA's Canine Breeding and Development Center) housed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, where the TSA transforms hundreds of puppies into explosives detection dogs within the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program. Dogs who cut the mustard are sent to airports and mass transit stations around the nation.

Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic, who first reported on Paul's anti-puppy stance, seemed to agree with the GOP presidential hopeful that the TSA program hasn't been great and noted that "passengers, not screening personnel, stopped the shoe bomber and that guy who lit his underwear on fire", and would probably volunteer to help keep domestic travel safer.

"Instead we've created a clunky bureaucracy that has mostly succeeded in making a subset of the traveling public feel embarrassed, violated, harassed, or otherwise upset. On the other hand, they've got 500 cute puppies," Friedersdorf wrote.

 

[sumbrownkid]

This re election campaign will have these themes in this order:

Economy, jobs, economy, jobs, terrorism, jobs, economy, terrorism, terrorism, economy, jobs.

And a dash of Obama is a secret Muslim/Kenyan/Nazi.

This is the Republican strategy for the most part.

I'm gonna go for Obama again. I like Romney, but he has the personality of dry toast, and don't get me started on Bachman.

 

[FoolKiller]

Ron Paul has an ad out in Iowa and New Hampshire. It covers the election as well as the current topic of the debt ceiling.

 

[The Bman]

He (Ron Paul) has to be the only candidate - in my opinion - to make any sense at all.

 

[arora]

Straw poll.....

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.): 4,823 votes
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas): 4,671 votes
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty: 2,293 votes
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.): 1,657 votes
Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain: 1,456 votes
Texas Governor Rick Perry: 718 votes
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney: 567 votes
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: 385 votes
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman: 69 votes
U.S. Rep Thad McCotter (R-Mich.): 35 votes

 

[Northstar]

He (Ron Paul) has to be the only candidate - in my opinion - to make any sense at all.

It's not like it's hard looking better than a nutcase(Bachmann), a former governor that gave up two months before his term ended(Pawlenty), a guy you have to have safe search on while googling his name and a pizza man.

Saying that, he is really the only hope the Republicans have, Bachmann is just this round's Sarah Palin. I also hope he winds up with the party's nomination(and ultimately the presidency)

 

[ChaosStar79]

I have to agree with Dr Paul this time around too. Voting for any one else seems like sheer lunacy at this point in our decline. I really just hope that America wakes up in time to save itself, far too many of our sheep are still voting based on abortion and gay marriage instead of focusing on the much bigger picture.

 

[Dotini]

I have to agree with Dr Paul this time around too. Voting for any one else seems like sheer lunacy at this point in our decline. I really just hope that America wakes up in time to save itself, far too many of our sheep are still voting based on abortion and gay marriage instead of focusing on the much bigger picture.

ChaosStar79, IMO this is a great example of clear thinking!
If we're fighting and broke, our ability to accomplish anything worthwhile is greatly diminished; there's not much point in focusing on it. You've rightly identified that we should deal with first things first.

Respectfully,
Steve

 

[DK]

The last thing America needs right now is a Bachmann/Perry Presidency. They will probably start wars with Muslim countries on the flimsiest of excuses.

 

[Omnis]

The worst thing about a Bachmann presidency is that it would likely TOTALLY take the wind out of the tea party sail, just like the anti-war, civil-liberties movement of the left completely disintegrated once Obama took office. Can't have people put all their energy into a fake.

 

[Keef]

I actually think it's better to place second by a small margin than win by a small margin. That means you barely lost instead of barely won. Now Bachmann has to come up with reasons why she barely won, and Paul can be ecstatic that he barely lost. After I read that Bachmann is from Iowa anyway I was like, oh, well of course she's going to win, duh!

Obviously he is, but I think this makes it clear to people who think he isn't that Dr. Paul is a very serious contender and front runner in this race.

I spat out my apple sauce at Mitt Romney. Hah! What a joke.

I have to admit, I do like some of the economic speak that Hermain Cain talks about. I don't doubt he knows what sort of environment businesses need to thrive, but he would be in for one helluva surprise once he took office and saw how the government worked. Plus, as President, all he can do is make suggestions and not swing the gavel like a CEO can. He's not the boss - he's a figurehead and the commander of the armed forces.

As for the actual debate, I was clapping to myself when Dr. Paul schooled Santorum on America's history with Iran. Santorum was up there lookin a fool. And then everybody cheered for Ron because they know he's right.

I have to respect New Gingrich also. The man is a boss. I think he's a backstabbing bastard, but he is a boss.