It's not a matter of opinions. The man believes in magic pants, is a dangerous right-wing lunatic, has the intelligence of a box of wet hair and potentially has his finger on the button of an expanisonist-protectionist regime that is becoming increasingly irrelevant and desperate to assert its authority on the world so it can retain some form of economic power.
I'd say that 'opinions' are a bit moot - for anyone outside the US, Romney would be an unmitigated disaster. Hell, for 95% of people INside the US, Romney would be an unmitigated disaster.
I have my own business. In a time when unemployment is so high, because of Obama's health care reform, I have had to cut back on my company insurance plan and cancel plans for expansion. When Obama took office the US was 10 trillion dollars in debt, now it's 16 trillion. He loaned 90 billion dollars to failing "green" companies who had contibuted to his election, and the latest, it took him a week to acknowledge that the recent murder of the US ambassador to Libya and others was a terrorist attack rather than a "demonstration". That's a start. I've been in The States since '72, this is the worst President since then, and that includes Carter and Ford.
Listen to a lot of Rush Limbaugh by any chance? I bet your TV is never off Fox 'News' either.
How on earth can Obama be the worst president since 1972 - ever heard of your old Republican mate George W. Bush? Yes, that's right, he's the bloke your lot tried to air-brush from history at the RNC in Tampa last month.
When Bush inherited office from Clinton - now THERE was a great President - he inherited a budget surplus and a booming economy.
What did Bush do? He launched two unfunded wars, gave a massive tax cut for the richest in the country and provided a completely unfunded expansion of Medicare Part B for seniors to seal the deal at the 2004 election.
Add to that the biggest expansion of the public service in the history of the United States - largely via the addition of the Department of Homeland Security with its 200,000 federal government employees.
There was also that little matter of the GFC before Obama even took office which saw US government tax revenues decline by 13% YoY.
There's your fucking debt, genius.
Obama inherited an absolute train wreck from Bush, the economy was on the very brink of cratering and very likely would have done so if Mitt Romney or any of your lot had been in charge as they have admitted they would have let GM and the big US car manufacturers go bankrupt - losing a further 1 million + jobs from the economy. Seen the polls from Michigan recently?
Since coming to office - despite being utterly stonewalled by Congressional Republicans - Obama has slowly re-built the economy and has added millions of private sector jobs and begun to cut back on federal employees, its early days but the US is gradually emerging from its biggest economic funk since the 1930's great depression.
The behaviour of your party these last four years has been disgusting, Mitch McConnell even came out and admitted that the number one goal for Congressional Republicans was to make Obama a one-term President and that they had no intention of working with him at all.
Anyone with the first clue about how the US government is supposed to work - with the executive and legislative branches working in concert - knows that this was a disgusting, abominable approach from them, putting their own political interests ahead of the policy interests of the country as a whole.
Back in the 1980's Democrats like Teddy Kennedy, Tip O'Neill and even the late, great Charlie Wilson worked WITH Reagan to balance the budget and defeat the Soviets - notice a difference?
The Republicans are basically where the UK Labour Party was from 1979-1992, that is in a complete mess and in thrall to ideology and rabid extremists rather than looking to embrace the middle ground.
How can anyone take the Republicans seriously? The US has a huge debt that MUST be paid down and what is their idea? They want to cut taxes and increase millitary spending and start a war with Iran! Yes, that will really work a treat won't it?
How can any serious politician say that they will NEVER raise taxes no matter what? That's like me telling my family that even though we are massively in debt that I will NEVER get another job to bring in more money no matter how bad things get. Utter madness.
Now you have this nutbag Paul Ryan out there talking about privatising Medicare with a new voucher system - how well d'ya reckon that's going to go down with millions of seniors in Florida?
These days moderate Republicans like Olivia Snowe, Susan Collins and John Huntsmann are getting pushed out of the party because unless you sign up to every part of the extreme right Tea Party philosophy then you are considered suspect and you get challenged in a primary and kicked out on your arse.
Romney is a smart business guy, that's for sure, but being President - or even a successful national level politician - is a very, very different task and Romney reminds me greatly of Al Gore who simply could not connect with voters in any meaningful way.
Romney was the best of an awful bunch of Republicans - Herman Cain? Michelle Bachmann? - and now is getting sliced and diced by Obama's top-class team, these guys destroyed Hillary Clinton in the 07/08 Democratic Primaries and have given Romney the "John Kerry" treatment by shaping him in the minds of the electorate as a weak candidate.
I have been going to the US for years and absolutely love the place, its the greatest human experiment in modern history but its political system is utterly broken and only a re-taking of the Republican Party by the forces of sanity like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels can possibly change things around.
Back up a little, I'm an independent...., and the statements I have made are from the experience of living here and running my own business. I fail to see how a visitor could be better informed. I'm constantly disappointed on CL that people can't have a different opinion without being being insulted, so I'll add no more to this discussion.
I have my own business. In a time when unemployment is so high, because of Obama's health care reform, I have had to cut back on my company insurance plan and cancel plans for expansion. When Obama took office the US was 10 trillion dollars in debt, now it's 16 trillion. He loaned 90 billion dollars to failing "green" companies who had contibuted to his election, and the latest, it took him a week to acknowledge that the recent murder of the US ambassador to Libya and others was a terrorist attack rather than a "demonstration". That's a start. I've been in The States since '72, this is the worst President since then, and that includes Carter and Ford.
Listen to a lot of Rush Limbaugh by any chance? I bet your TV is never off Fox 'News' either.
How on earth can Obama be the worst president since 1972 - ever heard of your old Republican mate George W. Bush? Yes, that's right, he's the bloke your lot tried to air-brush from history at the RNC in Tampa last month.
When Bush inherited office from Clinton - now THERE was a great President - he inherited a budget surplus and a booming economy.
What did Bush do? He launched two unfunded wars, gave a massive tax cut for the richest in the country and provided a completely unfunded expansion of Medicare Part B for seniors to seal the deal at the 2004 election.
Add to that the biggest expansion of the public service in the history of the United States - largely via the addition of the Department of Homeland Security with its 200,000 federal government employees.
There was also that little matter of the GFC before Obama even took office which saw US government tax revenues decline by 13% YoY.
There's your fucking debt, genius.
Obama inherited an absolute train wreck from Bush, the economy was on the very brink of cratering and very likely would have done so if Mitt Romney or any of your lot had been in charge as they have admitted they would have let GM and the big US car manufacturers go bankrupt - losing a further 1 million + jobs from the economy. Seen the polls from Michigan recently?
Since coming to office - despite being utterly stonewalled by Congressional Republicans - Obama has slowly re-built the economy and has added millions of private sector jobs and begun to cut back on federal employees, its early days but the US is gradually emerging from its biggest economic funk since the 1930's great depression.
The behaviour of your party these last four years has been disgusting, Mitch McConnell even came out and admitted that the number one goal for Congressional Republicans was to make Obama a one-term President and that they had no intention of working with him at all.
Anyone with the first clue about how the US government is supposed to work - with the executive and legislative branches working in concert - knows that this was a disgusting, abominable approach from them, putting their own political interests ahead of the policy interests of the country as a whole.
Back in the 1980's Democrats like Teddy Kennedy, Tip O'Neill and even the late, great Charlie Wilson worked WITH Reagan to balance the budget and defeat the Soviets - notice a difference?
The Republicans are basically where the UK Labour Party was from 1979-1992, that is in a complete mess and in thrall to ideology and rabid extremists rather than looking to embrace the middle ground.
How can anyone take the Republicans seriously? The US has a huge debt that MUST be paid down and what is their idea? They want to cut taxes and increase millitary spending and start a war with Iran! Yes, that will really work a treat won't it?
How can any serious politician say that they will NEVER raise taxes no matter what? That's like me telling my family that even though we are massively in debt that I will NEVER get another job to bring in more money no matter how bad things get. Utter madness.
Now you have this nutbag Paul Ryan out there talking about privatising Medicare with a new voucher system - how well d'ya reckon that's going to go down with millions of seniors in Florida?
These days moderate Republicans like Olivia Snowe, Susan Collins and John Huntsmann are getting pushed out of the party because unless you sign up to every part of the extreme right Tea Party philosophy then you are considered suspect and you get challenged in a primary and kicked out on your arse.
Romney is a smart business guy, that's for sure, but being President - or even a successful national level politician - is a very, very different task and Romney reminds me greatly of Al Gore who simply could not connect with voters in any meaningful way.
Romney was the best of an awful bunch of Republicans - Herman Cain? Michelle Bachmann? - and now is getting sliced and diced by Obama's top-class team, these guys destroyed Hillary Clinton in the 07/08 Democratic Primaries and have given Romney the "John Kerry" treatment by shaping him in the minds of the electorate as a weak candidate.
I have been going to the US for years and absolutely love the place, its the greatest human experiment in modern history but its political system is utterly broken and only a re-taking of the Republican Party by the forces of sanity like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels can possibly change things around.
Obama is going to win this thing in a landslide.
All very well, but the most important issue is where's Obama's birth certificate?
Any disenchanted republicans could always move north over the border, where we have a regime that would please them no end
The hyperbole of movement "conservatives" (read: radical reactionaries) in attacks on the current President would be amusing if it didn't preclude opposition to certain policies or initiatives on substantive grounds.
Instead, criticism springs from the inherently personal (he's hurt my business; Obama took my job) and then quickly warps into strange general datapoints that are not causally (or even tangentially) related to the complaint leveled.
But what really impresses me -- and is on full display in this thread -- is the gossamer thin skin of those who spout right-wing chat show talking points. "Conservatives" in the U.S. have willingly adopted a victim mentality and feel comfortable whining about how everyone else is out to get them. This is lunacy. If your political orientation, like mine, lends towards supporting first founding principles, you are arguing (largely) for the preservation of existing power structures (accepting only the most gradual of change to address inequity). That is not a position of weakness; the perspective that forces are conspiring against you to strip your autonomy is silly. Should, however, you accept that perspective it makes you ripe for manipulation and then, somehow, public comments on what happened in Libya now are incredibly important. More important than Dan Senor being tabbed to push for a more aggressive, muscular foreign policy. Nothing like another overseas adventure to take care of the federal deficit.
The hyperbole of movement "conservatives" (read: radical reactionaries) in attacks on the current President would be amusing if it didn't preclude opposition to certain policies or initiatives on substantive grounds.
Instead, criticism springs from the inherently personal (he's hurt my business; Obama took my job) and then quickly warps into strange general datapoints that are not causally (or even tangentially) related to the complaint leveled.
But what really impresses me -- and is on full display in this thread -- is the gossamer thin skin of those who spout right-wing chat show talking points. "Conservatives" in the U.S. have willingly adopted a victim mentality and feel comfortable whining about how everyone else is out to get them. This is lunacy. If your political orientation, like mine, lends towards supporting first founding principles, you are arguing (largely) for the preservation of existing power structures (accepting only the most gradual of change to address inequity). That is not a position of weakness; the perspective that forces are conspiring against you to strip your autonomy is silly. Should, however, you accept that perspective it makes you ripe for manipulation and then, somehow, public comments on what happened in Libya now are incredibly important. More important than Dan Senor being tabbed to push for a more aggressive, muscular foreign policy. Nothing like another overseas adventure to take care of the federal deficit.
Shouldn't that be Dan "People Should Be Careful What They Say" Senor? Bush's mouthpiece from the Iraqi debacle?
Limeygent, is this why republican states have changed the law to prevent voter fraud where it does not exist but prevents a large number of blacks, elderly etc,. who are prominent Democratic supporters from voting. The new rules that republicans have tried to pass disenfranchise the poor and under privileged. If the republicans are going to win and follow a world wide agenda of democracy then surely they should win fairly.
Maybe you could be a little less "general".
If you need more specifics then it shows how scary it is that you don't know what is going on in America to disenfranchise voters.
Orimston Addick, Rob, Oakster, kap10 and anyone that I have left out.
Your opinions on the upcoming USA election are very interesting and well informed. However if you check your history, you will find a very significant event occoured in 1783 which unfortunatley invalid your opinions.
Don't see why.
Also interesting to see how republicans are trying to change history, as epitomised by Clint Eastwoods key note speech to an invisible Obama sitting on a chair at the Republican convention and asking him why he thought it was a good idea to go into Iraq! To the applause of the convention.
Orimston Addick, Rob, Oakster, kap10 and anyone that I have left out.
Your opinions on the upcoming USA election are very interesting and well informed. However if you check your history, you will find a very significant event occoured in 1783 which unfortunatley invalidates your opinions.
We'll keep our opinions to ourselves when they keep their wars to themselves. We have soldiers dying in Afghanistan on a near-daily basis, and the prospect of many, many more if that idiot is elected & kicks it off with Iran. Surely that allows us an opinion, at very least!
Orimston Addick, Rob, Oakster, kap10 and anyone that I have left out.
Your opinions on the upcoming USA election are very interesting and well informed. However if you check your history, you will find a very significant event occoured in 1783 which unfortunatley invalidates your opinions.
We'll keep our opinions to ourselves when they keep their wars to themselves. We have soldiers dying in Afghanistan on a near-daily basis, and the prospect of many, many more if that idiot is elected & kicks it off with Iran. Surely that allows us an opinion, at very least!
Orimston Addick, Rob, Oakster, kap10 and anyone that I have left out.
Your opinions on the upcoming USA election are very interesting and well informed. However if you check your history, you will find a very significant event occoured in 1783 which unfortunatley invalidates your opinions.
We'll keep our opinions to ourselves when they keep their wars to themselves. We have soldiers dying in Afghanistan on a near-daily basis, and the prospect of many, many more if that idiot is elected & kicks it off with Iran. Surely that allows us an opinion, at very least!
We're entitled to an opinion, just not entitled to a vote. ;-)
I remember having a bit of an argument with an Italian friend a few years back who thought the sun shone out of Tony Blair's you know what (before the Wars). My line was that he saw the good points and the slickness, we also saw the faults. Obama is another who is probably much better thought of by foreigners than those in America, and it probably isn't for us to tell Americans how he is doing such a great job.
Having said all that, healthcare may be a more controversial subject in America than it is here. Most of us, whatever party we support believe in the NHS, It is important to us that poor people shouldn't be deprived of treatment because they are poor. We know how expensive the NHS is and it is brave of him to introduce it, but also morally right. It always amazes me how strongly relgeous people seem to be more lacking when it comes to caring about their fellow man!
Whilst America is struggling in these austere times- it is showing better signs of recovery than we are - Obama spending isn't popular with the American right, but more and more people are highlighting that this is a position our country should have adopted.
What we think of Obama won't get him elected though - but fortunately for him - the fact that his opponent is a mormon (also applies if I take the m out the middle) and gaff prone will. The 47% comment was suicidal.
Exactly Mutley. How any fellow human being can be against healthcare for all f*cking baffles me.
So we have a sane guy who believes in helping the poor, letting people who love each other marry and who wants to generally save the world and be an awesome human being. Versus a guy who doesn't understand why planes don't have windows that open. Hmm.... Tough one.
Fatuous garbage, if anyone believes Obama and Romney are cut from the same cloth or will pursue the same policies they know fuck all about American politics.
If they are the same then why are the Koch brothers and Adelson tipping in $300 million dollars to get Obama out of office?
Fear not, Her Maj has got it sorted and sent the yanks an email:
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In light of your immediate failure to manage yourselves financially and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and thereby demonstrated that you are not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). ------------------------ 2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.' ------------------- 3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. ----------------- 4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse. ---------------------- 5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public. ---------------------- 6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour. -------------------- 7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $9/US gallon. Get used to it. The US gallon will be replaced with the Imperial Gallon. ------------------- 8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar. ------------------- 9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion. --------------------- 10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater. --------------------- 11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). --------------------- 12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not much played outside of North America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians first to take the sting out of their deliveries. -------------------- 13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad. ----------------- 14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776). --------------- 15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
It's called 'The World Series' because it was originally sponsored by a newspaper called 'The World'. Other than that, seen it before (I think Blair was the Prime Minister), but it's still good. :-)
Fatuous garbage, if anyone believes Obama and Romney are cut from the same cloth or will pursue the same policies they know fuck all about American politics.
If they are the same then why are the Koch brothers and Adelson tipping in $300 million dollars to get Obama out of office?
ok, I guess the President actually makes important decisions too ? What happened to Guantanamo Bay closing under Obama?
ok, I guess the President actually makes important decisions too ? What happened to Guantanamo Bay closing under Obama?
He can issue an Executive Order and close it overnight, however you have the problem of where you shift the prisoners to - that would mean a Federal facility either becoming available or one being constructed. The problem was that every State that was mooted to house the Gitmo prisoners made it known that they would rather another state get chosen or preferably they could stay where they are. All in all retaining Gitmo as the detention centre is probably the wisest move and certainly the best move politically.
The Republican Party also made it clear that any attempt to bring the prisoners onto the mainland would be fought tooth and nail and given that these cretins made a fuss over an Islamic cultural centre opening a few blocks away from the World Trade Center and ramped up the whole birtherism thing to beyond parody then I can see why Obama did not issue an EO. But he did end torture there.
Obama had no intentions of closing Gitmo IMO. In fact he has added American citizens onto the list of possible residents when he signed sections 1031 and 1032 into the NDAA. I have heard a few say that he was vetoing that bill because he didn't agree with it. They were right (in a way) as he didn't agree with the original wording that failed to include Americans. His administration asked for it to be changed to INCLUDE Americans. It was changed and he promptly signed it on New Years Eve when nobdy was taking any notice. Although in his signing statement he did say that his administration wouldn't use it, but what of others. It was challengened recently as unconstitutional and this month NY federal judge Forrest issued a ruling which blocked those provisions of the NDDA in order to protect the rights of Americans to a fair trial. Unfortunately Obamas administration appealed it within 24 hours. What are their intentions.
The hyperbole of movement "conservatives" (read: radical reactionaries) in attacks on the current President would be amusing if it didn't preclude opposition to certain policies or initiatives on substantive grounds.
Instead, criticism springs from the inherently personal (he's hurt my business; Obama took my job) and then quickly warps into strange general datapoints that are not causally (or even tangentially) related to the complaint leveled.
But what really impresses me -- and is on full display in this thread -- is the gossamer thin skin of those who spout right-wing chat show talking points. "Conservatives" in the U.S. have willingly adopted a victim mentality and feel comfortable whining about how everyone else is out to get them. This is lunacy. If your political orientation, like mine, lends towards supporting first founding principles, you are arguing (largely) for the preservation of existing power structures (accepting only the most gradual of change to address inequity). That is not a position of weakness; the perspective that forces are conspiring against you to strip your autonomy is silly. Should, however, you accept that perspective it makes you ripe for manipulation and then, somehow, public comments on what happened in Libya now are incredibly important. More important than Dan Senor being tabbed to push for a more aggressive, muscular foreign policy. Nothing like another overseas adventure to take care of the federal deficit.
Shouldn't that be Dan "People Should Be Careful What They Say" Senor? Bush's mouthpiece from the Iraqi debacle?
I prefer Baghdad Dan. But Dan "People Should Be Careful What They Say" Senor works as well.
I know he was born here, but Oakster, I think you ought to get the folks ooop north to claim him. He's an up and comer. Plus, you'll get Campbell Brown.
Comments
How on earth can Obama be the worst president since 1972 - ever heard of your old Republican mate George W. Bush? Yes, that's right, he's the bloke your lot tried to air-brush from history at the RNC in Tampa last month.
When Bush inherited office from Clinton - now THERE was a great President - he inherited a budget surplus and a booming economy.
What did Bush do? He launched two unfunded wars, gave a massive tax cut for the richest in the country and provided a completely unfunded expansion of Medicare Part B for seniors to seal the deal at the 2004 election.
Add to that the biggest expansion of the public service in the history of the United States - largely via the addition of the Department of Homeland Security with its 200,000 federal government employees.
There was also that little matter of the GFC before Obama even took office which saw US government tax revenues decline by 13% YoY.
There's your fucking debt, genius.
Obama inherited an absolute train wreck from Bush, the economy was on the very brink of cratering and very likely would have done so if Mitt Romney or any of your lot had been in charge as they have admitted they would have let GM and the big US car manufacturers go bankrupt - losing a further 1 million + jobs from the economy. Seen the polls from Michigan recently?
Since coming to office - despite being utterly stonewalled by Congressional Republicans - Obama has slowly re-built the economy and has added millions of private sector jobs and begun to cut back on federal employees, its early days but the US is gradually emerging from its biggest economic funk since the 1930's great depression.
The behaviour of your party these last four years has been disgusting, Mitch McConnell even came out and admitted that the number one goal for Congressional Republicans was to make Obama a one-term President and that they had no intention of working with him at all.
Anyone with the first clue about how the US government is supposed to work - with the executive and legislative branches working in concert - knows that this was a disgusting, abominable approach from them, putting their own political interests ahead of the policy interests of the country as a whole.
Back in the 1980's Democrats like Teddy Kennedy, Tip O'Neill and even the late, great Charlie Wilson worked WITH Reagan to balance the budget and defeat the Soviets - notice a difference?
The Republicans are basically where the UK Labour Party was from 1979-1992, that is in a complete mess and in thrall to ideology and rabid extremists rather than looking to embrace the middle ground.
How can anyone take the Republicans seriously? The US has a huge debt that MUST be paid down and what is their idea? They want to cut taxes and increase millitary spending and start a war with Iran! Yes, that will really work a treat won't it?
How can any serious politician say that they will NEVER raise taxes no matter what? That's like me telling my family that even though we are massively in debt that I will NEVER get another job to bring in more money no matter how bad things get. Utter madness.
Now you have this nutbag Paul Ryan out there talking about privatising Medicare with a new voucher system - how well d'ya reckon that's going to go down with millions of seniors in Florida?
These days moderate Republicans like Olivia Snowe, Susan Collins and John Huntsmann are getting pushed out of the party because unless you sign up to every part of the extreme right Tea Party philosophy then you are considered suspect and you get challenged in a primary and kicked out on your arse.
Romney is a smart business guy, that's for sure, but being President - or even a successful national level politician - is a very, very different task and Romney reminds me greatly of Al Gore who simply could not connect with voters in any meaningful way.
Romney was the best of an awful bunch of Republicans - Herman Cain? Michelle Bachmann? - and now is getting sliced and diced by Obama's top-class team, these guys destroyed Hillary Clinton in the 07/08 Democratic Primaries and have given Romney the "John Kerry" treatment by shaping him in the minds of the electorate as a weak candidate.
I have been going to the US for years and absolutely love the place, its the greatest human experiment in modern history but its political system is utterly broken and only a re-taking of the Republican Party by the forces of sanity like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels can possibly change things around.
Obama is going to win this thing in a landslide.
I'm constantly disappointed on CL that people can't have a different opinion without being being insulted, so I'll add no more to this discussion.
Any disenchanted republicans could always move north over the border, where we have a regime that would please them no end
Instead, criticism springs from the inherently personal (he's hurt my business; Obama took my job) and then quickly warps into strange general datapoints that are not causally (or even tangentially) related to the complaint leveled.
But what really impresses me -- and is on full display in this thread -- is the gossamer thin skin of those who spout right-wing chat show talking points. "Conservatives" in the U.S. have willingly adopted a victim mentality and feel comfortable whining about how everyone else is out to get them. This is lunacy. If your political orientation, like mine, lends towards supporting first founding principles, you are arguing (largely) for the preservation of existing power structures (accepting only the most gradual of change to address inequity). That is not a position of weakness; the perspective that forces are conspiring against you to strip your autonomy is silly. Should, however, you accept that perspective it makes you ripe for manipulation and then, somehow, public comments on what happened in Libya now are incredibly important. More important than Dan Senor being tabbed to push for a more aggressive, muscular foreign policy. Nothing like another overseas adventure to take care of the federal deficit.
Also interesting to see how republicans are trying to change history, as epitomised by Clint Eastwoods key note speech to an invisible Obama sitting on a chair at the Republican convention and asking him why he thought it was a good idea to go into Iraq! To the applause of the convention.
Go Google Sheldon Adelson and see what I mean.
Having said all that, healthcare may be a more controversial subject in America than it is here. Most of us, whatever party we support believe in the NHS, It is important to us that poor people shouldn't be deprived of treatment because they are poor. We know how expensive the NHS is and it is brave of him to introduce it, but also morally right. It always amazes me how strongly relgeous people seem to be more lacking when it comes to caring about their fellow man!
Whilst America is struggling in these austere times- it is showing better signs of recovery than we are - Obama spending isn't popular with the American right, but more and more people are highlighting that this is a position our country should have adopted.
What we think of Obama won't get him elected though - but fortunately for him - the fact that his opponent is a mormon (also applies if I take the m out the middle) and gaff prone will. The 47% comment was suicidal.
How any fellow human being can be against healthcare for all f*cking baffles me.
So we have a sane guy who believes in helping the poor, letting people who love each other marry and who wants to generally save the world and be an awesome human being.
Versus a guy who doesn't understand why planes don't have windows that open. Hmm.... Tough one.
If they are the same then why are the Koch brothers and Adelson tipping in $300 million dollars to get Obama out of office?
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In light of your immediate failure to manage yourselves financially and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and thereby demonstrated that you are not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'
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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $9/US gallon. Get used to it. The US gallon will be replaced with the Imperial Gallon.
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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
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11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not much played outside of North America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
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13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
I'll get me anorak!
He can issue an Executive Order and close it overnight, however you have the problem of where you shift the prisoners to - that would mean a Federal facility either becoming available or one being constructed. The problem was that every State that was mooted to house the Gitmo prisoners made it known that they would rather another state get chosen or preferably they could stay where they are. All in all retaining Gitmo as the detention centre is probably the wisest move and certainly the best move politically.
The Republican Party also made it clear that any attempt to bring the prisoners onto the mainland would be fought tooth and nail and given that these cretins made a fuss over an Islamic cultural centre opening a few blocks away from the World Trade Center and ramped up the whole birtherism thing to beyond parody then I can see why Obama did not issue an EO. But he did end torture there.
I know he was born here, but Oakster, I think you ought to get the folks ooop north to claim him. He's an up and comer. Plus, you'll get Campbell Brown.