Originally Posted By ecdc This is way better than last week's reunion of the cast of Cocoon. Seriously though, some of the speeches are great, some fall flat, and some of the lame political rhetoric bugs me (Romney's a guy who bets against America? Stupid...). But listening to speeches about hope, progress, and achievement, is far better than last week's fear fest. I really just don't personally get this view of the world that's rooted in the notion that everything's going to hell because of social issues.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 They knocked it out of the park. Do spouses speeches change the undecided, probably not?However Michelle Obama was fantastic. Sometimes it's just good to be swept up in positive thinking & inspirational talks. Not like last weeks doom & gloom. She webbed a relatable story of their backgrounds into a rally cry to work hard, be patient & get out and vote. Two best lines for me: 1. When you walk through the door of opportunity, you don't turn and slam the door shut on others. They will be quoting that for years and years. So powerful. 2. Mitt would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. (snort) That tickled me silly.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer The GOP's message was - and is - rooted in fear and anger. As Haley Barbour said, the GOP is running out of angry white men. (I think it was Barbour.) That is who the GOP convention was designed for. Deval Patrick? Wow, what a speaker. Julian Castro? I'm saying here that he will be the next Democratic governor of Texas. And Michelle Obama? She's got a warmth, an authenticity and a charm that Ann Romney simply doesn't have. The GOP has forgotten that you win elections with optimistic messages, not with fear and hate. How is this election even close? I honestly don't understand the hatred that so many feel toward Obama.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>How is this election even close? I honestly don't understand the hatred that so many feel toward Obama.<< A friend posted on Facebook, "I hope my own daughters grow up to have the poise Michelle Obama has." You would've thought he said he hopes his kids grow up to be Ted Bundy. So many people on the right have completely lost their minds.
Originally Posted By planodisney It c close because at least 50% of America doesnt think where Obama is leading us is positive for the country. We just have different world views and to say ours is based on fear and anger is just stupid. Its based upon a love of this country, which is made up of all of us. We do have a fear of what the debt that republicans and democrats have saddled us with, but what is so crazy about that. We do have a fear of what Obamas tax policy might be on business in his second term. What is so crazy about that. Yes, most people care about social issues, but that is not the concern i am hearing from people i know. it doesnt even get brought up. I have Obama to think for changing my sister, a lifelong Democrat, into a moderate republican. She was the former vice president of the Komen foundation, in fact she held the position that was later occupied by the idiot who made the Planned Parenthood decision. She left to become the executive director of stand up to cancer and took over in its first year to refine their strategy and take it to the next level. She said she would give them one year and ended up staying a little longer. Nobody has a heart to help people more than her, having breast cancer at 27 had a major impact on her. she left Stand Up and became CEO of a drug and alcohol treatment facility. She hired me as business development, marketing director, and i can honestly say i have never seen such a dramatic political transformation as with her. Im not sure if she is so much a republican now, or just anti Obama. she told me on labor day that she has never wanted a president out of office so badly. she loves clinton BTW. her favorite president. Because of proposed obama taxes and because of the new health care law and what will take place with us as more and more is implemented, she said we may have to cut back to 49 employees and ditch the effort to purchase the second facility and start a 90 day program for more severe cases. i know some of you are partisan democrats and would vote democrat no matter the economy, largely for social issues, but some of us have genuine issues why we will be voting for Romney, other than being stupid. Trust me, the former graduate of U.O.P., McGorge Law School, V.P of Komen and head policy writer, Executive Director of Stand Up AINT stupid, nor many of us who will be voting for Romney. i dont think you guys are stupid because you are democrat or will be voting for obama. i just think you have a misguided would view which causes you to come to the wrong concusion on virtually every issue. Why cant you understand that about us instead of needing to always label us as stupid or brainwashed to make you feel more secure in your point of view.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Eh they're all just for show. Neither really surprises with any real insight of what haven't already heard before. I don't bother to watch either. And I'll guarantee tonight's football game between the Giants and Cowboys will have better ratings than both conventions at any point. Though considering most Honey Boo Boo drew more people than the RNC that might not be too tough.
Originally Posted By dshyates The Conventions are basically 3 day long political commercials for their respective candidates. And the rhetoric is always "If we win, everybody gets 2 chickens in your garage! and if they win.....the apocolypse!"
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>i dont think you guys are stupid because you are democrat or will be voting for obama.<< Like I have said before, I fail to see the wisdom in returning the party that wrecked the economy and was shedding 700,000 jobs per months back to power. The party whose candidate made his fortune as a corporate raider. That half of America supports this man is simply mind boggling. If we are indeed that stupid then we deserve to have our jobs offshored and for the rich to become even richer while the rest of the country sinks into poverty.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>That half of America supports this man is simply mind boggling.<< Twentyish percent supports him. The rest just hate Obama.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer What's crazy, planodisney, is that the fears you cite about the debt or the effects of taxation on business are more likely to be eased by the Democrats being in office than the Republicans. The Romney-Ryan plan adds trillions to the national debt. The Clinton-era tax levels didn't have any negative impact on business, and if we just went back to those we'd be back to the surpluses we had under the Democrats before Bush took office and began cutting taxes. Business thrived under Clinton and Reagan and even Eisenhower under higher tax rates than we have now. Your sister runs an addiction treatment center and is having trouble under Obamacare? Obamacare makes it easier for Americans to get alcohol and drug treatment. I work in a major hospital in the Seattle area that was pulling back from providing addiction recovery services until Obamacare was passed. Now we are reinvesting in it because reimbursements for it are going up. Obamacare requires insurance companies to consider mental health and addiction issues as being on par with other health issues that they cover. That wasn't the case in the past. The provision to allow people to remain on their parent's insurance until age 26 will mean that many people struggling with alcohol or drug addiction in their early 20s will have insurance to pay for treatment. People that were treated for addictions in the past will still be able to get insurance because insurance companies won't be able to deny them because of pre-existing conditions. And Obamacare also provides preventative screenings including SBIRT (<a href="http://www.samhsa.gov/prevention/sbirt/" target="_blank">http://www.samhsa.gov/prevention/sbirt/</a>) that have been shown to help prevent addiction or to reduce the severity of it. There is a huge business opportunity in addiction recovery and mental health treatment right now because of Obamacare. Hospitals were trying to get out of that business because reimbursements were so low, but that has changed. Not only is the hospital that I work for investing in it again, another hospital nearby has converted an entire floor to mental health and addiction treatment. One of the smartest things that Obamacare does is to focus insurance companies on paying for treatments and screenings that reduce health care costs over the long haul. Addiction and mental health treatment is part of that. I'm not sure what your sister's business model is, but her potential customer base increased tenfold when Obamacare was passed.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>I have Obama to think for changing my sister, a lifelong Democrat, into a moderate republican.<< And the neo-cons and tea party crowd turned this life long paleocon Republican (me) into an independent. For the life of me, I fail to see how a true moderate would seek refuge in today's GOP.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Plano, does your sister think that women's health issues and government funding for cancer research would be better under Romney and Ryan? It seems like she had a pretty solid record in advocating and lobbying for increased government funding for cancer research and treatment. It seems out of character for her to oppose the candidate that is widely seen in the scientific and medical community as better for supporting research and preventative health care.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I'm with you fkurucz. George Bush and his gang manipulating the world (and me)to support a war in Iraq had me looking for an exit. McCain choosing Palin had me looking for a parachute. Unfortunately, I can't find a safe landing spot.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Here's what I don't get. Republicans keep talking about how "Obama's economic policies haven't worked." And I sit here wondering, which ones? The various proposals that Republicans blocked and obstructed every step of the way? It makes me want to run into the street screaming like Kevin McCarthy in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Clearly these are just strange pod people from some other world intent on taking us over. No wonder they don't mind farm subsidies.
Originally Posted By barboy ///Michelle Obama was fantastic/// I will just have to take your word for it since I only caught the very last of it which ran slightly past 8pm ...........I was just waiting for America's Got Talent. I found it hard to listen to what she was saying because I found myself transfixed by her Transylvanian like bicuspids(or would that be incisors? )----I would have thought that she might have had some cosmetic dental work done by now. But good for her to not worry about such superficial things like that, I guess.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Wow, one of the best speeches by a First Lady in the history of this country - one that she wrote herself - and all you can focus on is her teeth?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I think the Democrats had a much better Tuesday night than the Republicans did. Ann Romney's speech wasn't bad (if stretching credulity a bit on the "ironing board table" thing), but it wasn't nearly as well written or delivered as Michelle Obama's. As for the keynotes, win to the Democrats also. I didn't think Castro's speech was all that, but it was solid and did its job. Christie's was just nakedly "Me, me me" for over half its length and had a nasty dark tone through the rest of it. O'Malley's speech was (to be kind) lackluster. Deval Patrick's, which a lot of people wouldn't have seen since it wasn't on network, was passionate and generally excellent - partially "factually challenged," which I hate to see, but nowhere near as much as Ryan's speech, say - and I wondered how Obama would top it. But she did by dint of her sheer likeability and genuineness to go along with the substance. And though she never mentioned Romney by name, she nonetheless wielded a "velvet shiv" (a term I totally stole) by telling their story and contrasting it to Romney by implication (i.e. how Obama turned down high-paying jobs after college in order to help other people in struggling neighborhoods - as opposed to Romney going for the big bucks as soon as he could.)
Originally Posted By barboy ///and all you can focus on is her teeth?/// Most likely I would have paid her teeth no mind if there weren't so many statements about how beautiful she looked on election night 4 years ago. Once folk started talking about her 'looks' naturally I found myself weighing in on the subject. And now that I reflect on her some more it's really her jawbone that could use some tweaking. And to be fair I just happened to stumble across a speaking Condi Rice not too far back and talk about some teeth. DAMN!! It would take a highly skilled bowler to pick up that spare.
Originally Posted By barboy No, since I align myself with libertarianism I find elephant and donkey party liners equally worthy of my contempt.
