• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

OT: American Politics

Re: OT - American Politics

I just heard that not one candidate for the republican nomination right now has a positive approval rating in his/her own state.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

HabsAddict said:
Nonsense. You need professional, military grade crankiness in the Leafs ranks.
Click to expand...

Maybe you're not familiar with this board during a losing streak, or whenever Ron Wilson's punchable face is trying to explain away a stupid decision. Weapons grade crankiness around here.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

msun30 said:
obama needs to do two things to secure a 2012 victory:

(1) put together a coherent economic policy that results in (near immediate) real job growth. easier said than done but the people need to see some real results. job creation has fared better than the unemployment figure tells us, but that isn't good enough. unemployment has to drop.

(2) start selling americans on the success of his policies. mindzeye, you pointed out earlier in the week that health care reform has already resulted in some spending cuts; the people have to hear about that. he has to highlight the fact that the TARP spending did help to stabilize the economy when it looked to be in peril, that it did preserve (and in fact create some) jobs, that it did prevent catastrophic meltdown. he needs to point out the success in libya: successfully ousting a regime without a single american casualty. he has to highlight successes in afghanistan after his petraeus appointment. he got osama, too.

the truth is that he has had some significant legislative achievements, but hasn't done a good job of selling them to the public. there were, of course, a few big missteps as well, but on those counts obama is going to have to really lay the blame at the feet of congress (mainly on debt ceiling issue). in the next 12 months he needs to show himself as a confident and assertive leader, and demonstrate how he has helped the country and the economy. he has made it really difficult for himself because he has expended practically all of his political capital. but the achievements are there, he just needs to sell them.

of course, none of that might matter in a campaign against romney. imo, he's the only republican candidate with a legitimate shot to beat obama. let's face it -- the economy is still going to be in bad shape come november 2012 -- and romney can very easily sell himself as the sort of wall street type who can rescue the nation from the financial abyss. he can point to the political leadership experience in massachusetts. he also has shown enough centrist tendencies (maybe even if he disavows some) to keep the moderates happy.

really, it should be an easy selection for repubs but unfortunately too many loons are on the saddle. if they push through pArry (i don't think bachmann has a chance) they will get slaughtered. to be honest, i'm not even sure if pArry could hold down 40% of the vote (i know bachmann couldn't). romney, however, is a good candidate on all fronts, and would give them their best shot at victory.
Click to expand...
This is a solid post, I agree with everything you said here. Obama has a number of successful achievements, but he really needs to sell them hard.

I think it will be Romney in the end, and I do think he is the only one with at least an outside chance at beating Obama. His only hope is the economy, but it is something to hang his hat on since it's obviously not in very good shape. As Mbow said, Obama has to really go on the offensive starting in September regarding job creation. I am sure he will be all for a bi-partisan approach, because despite the lies that people like HabsAddict keep spouting, he is a lot more centrist and economically conservative than many people on the left were hoping for. The opposition will fight any job initiative tooth and nail because they want the economy to stay in shambles, so Obama will have to keep repeating every day, loudly and frequently, that they need to put the American people ahead of their political agenda.

As I said before, Rick Perry is a strong contender but he has pissed off the Karl Rove wing of the base, who are going to want to knock him out. This helps Romney as well, and it will be fascinating to see what happens here.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

[video=youtube;1kuTG19Cu_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q&feature=player_embedded[/video]

more refreshments.....

"the way Bush has done it over the last 8 years ..." heh, it only took me 3 yrs"
 
Re: OT - American Politics

northernlou said:
[video=youtube;1kuTG19Cu_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q&feature=player_embedded[/video]

more refreshments.....

"the way Bush has done it over the last 8 years ..." heh, it only took me 3 yrs"
Click to expand...

remember the bush vs bush thing on john stewart show? that was classic
 
Re: OT - American Politics

"the way Bush has done it over the last 8 years ..." heh, it only took me 3 yrs"
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Bush did it from a position of surplus, not the massive deficit Obama had a head start with. That's far more impressive really.


On the side of this though, I love how conservatives in the U.S blatantly ignore the massive revenue shortfall Obama has had to deal with since day one. They waive their arms about his spending, but don't like to talk about the significantly lower revenues he's dealing with (especially considering that after 8 years of supply side tax policy at work, government revenues should have been through the roof according to their little theory)
 
Re: OT - American Politics

u ever heard biden speak? every time he sounds like an idiot (which is frequently), they say its cute and endearing. like he's the crazy old uncle everyone loves. but when righties (allegedly) speak that way, they are morons, inevitably.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

theREALkoreaboy said:
u ever heard biden speak? every time he sounds like an idiot (which is frequently), they say its cute and endearing. like he's the crazy old uncle everyone loves. but when righties (allegedly) speak that way, they are morons, inevitably.
Click to expand...

your left wing media bias paranoia is quite cute.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

MindzEye said:
Yeah, but Bush did it from a position of surplus, not the massive deficit Obama had a head start with. That's far more impressive really.


On the side of this though, I love how conservatives in the U.S blatantly ignore the massive revenue shortfall Obama has had to deal with since day one. They waive their arms about his spending, but don't like to talk about the significantly lower revenues he's dealing with (especially considering that after 8 years of supply side tax policy at work, government revenues should have been through the roof according to their little theory)
Click to expand...

We also like to talk about how the suddenly debt aware Obama, has operated for two years without a budget, the latest of which his own senate couldn't vote for. Anyhow, an unemployment rate of 8% like his 09' stimulus promised, might have helped those revenue's, but that didn't work out as advertised. At what point does Obama bear any responsibility for ballooning debt?

The narrative explaining Obama's inheritance misfortune has grown old. That, and running down his opposition is all he seems to have left.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

Obama definitely has responsibility for the ballooning debt, but the hand wringing and arm waiving while ignoring what got the U.S to this point is silly.

If anyone wants to blame Obama for not fixing the problem, have at it, it's a legitimate line of argument. But when the claim is that Obama is the problem, well that's just silly. It's a claim that falls apart under any sort of scrutiny. Same as that little dig of yours at him, it falls apart as soon as context gets added. To put this all another way and ask another question. "At what point does the failed fixes for Bush's mess make it Obama's mess?" I would answer "soon" because sooner or later, one of his core problems; not being able to beat the Republicans politically to get anything that he wants done to actually get done, has to fall on his shoulders as the abject failure it's sure looking like right now.

Clinton also dealt with an obstructionist Congress and he manhandled them. I've long contended that Obama's core problem was actually trying to be conciliatory with the Republican's at all.
 
Re: OT - American Politics

The Reps are in a bind; they've been fighting Obama every step of the way, afraid he might do well and gain popularity...but if they go to0 far in screwing him over while he's trying to fix the country/win the election, the people will not be happy with them anyways.
They only way for the GOP to win is to let the guy do what he wants.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top