I just realized what was missing from the election

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

It was brought up earlier, but I thought it was a good point -- Why was there no mention of the wars and troops in Afghanistan and Iraq by either party?

 

Originally Posted By ChurroMonster

The wars are unpopular. Republicans don't want to bring them up because they started them. Democrats don't want to bring them up because they've failed to end them.

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

Right, but this is where journalists should step in and rather than asking questions designed for a candidates set of talking points, throw in something out of left field.

When they're talking about cutting spending for this and that, and we're spending ungodly sums of money every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, you'd think the "fiscal conservatives" would be talking about this enormous drain of resources.

 

Originally Posted By gadzuux

McCain is making noises about removing the 'date certain' for removing troops from Afghanistan.

He wants to head the senate 'armed services committee' and may yet get his way.

But he's also making enemies left and right in DC. There's already some left over animosity between him and Obama from `08, and he recently said some downright mean and vicious things about Barbara Boxer.

He used to have a reputation of being able to work with democrats, but then he 'used to' have a reputation for a lot of things - like honesty, integrity, and fairness. You can forget that now though.

I think he should have retired after the `08 campaign. Since then he's only done damage to his own reputation and legacy.

 

Originally Posted By ChurroMonster

"Working with Democrats" gets you booted from office these days if you're a Republican. McCain, by veering to the right, is just being a political survivor. I'm impressed he still has it in him.

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

You're right about his reputation and legacy. The thing is the right hates him a lot. He used to appeal to centrists but he totally sold his soul to the far right ... who still doesn't like nor trust him.

 

Originally Posted By skinnerbox

<<He used to appeal to centrists but he totally sold his soul to the far right ... who still doesn't like nor trust him.>>

Which makes me wonder how he actually got re-elected.

 

Originally Posted By fkurucz

"John Mccain was born in the panama canal zone at the navel hospital . All children born overseas to US service personel are US citizens."

I was saying that McCain isn't a US citizen (of course he is). My point was that the birthers only went after Obama.

I wonder why?

 

Originally Posted By Labuda

"So are people born in Hawaii."

Amen.

"All I was pointing out was that old brother John may be a wack job but he's our wack job.i am not now nor have I ever been a birther."

And Barack Hussein Obama is our President.

"The canal zone is located just below the navel hospital. "

*snicker*

 

Originally Posted By Labuda

"I was saying that McCain isn't a US citizen (of course he is). My point was that the birthers only went after Obama.

I wonder why?"

Because he's not a paleface.

 

Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance

"Excellent point! It hasn't come up lately at all. Americans have the attention span of a gnat."

You're right, I totally agree...Hey look there's a Disneyland commercial on TV! Wait, what were we talking about?

 

Originally Posted By RoadTrip

<<Because he's not a paleface.>>

Plus he has a really weird name!

 

Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes

"I just realized what was missing from the election"


Common sense?


I live in Sacramento, CA, so I'm bombarded by political ads in this political town (the capitol of California, and what used to be the eighth largest economy in the world, if it were a nation, for you foreigners)

I'll read this topic next week after I recover from all the back and forth slamming I've had to put up with. I'm pretty black and blue right now. Oh, yeah, I'm a state worker, so I guess I'm the root of all evil, or so the election ads would lead me to believe.

 

Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes

For fkurucz,

I got through 20 posts, and now I'm sick and won't read any more, but I thought this one deserved a comment. These are only my thoughts and opinions, I don't present them to be facts. Let's start:

>>>One thought crosses my mind over all the vitriol against President Obama. Unlike Clintons the Obama's have avoided personal scandal while in the White House. There have been no Monicas (sic) or Vince Fosters and no Whitewaters. In other words, Obama has behaved better than most presidents.

He hasn't tried to raise taxes on the middle class, and in fact even lowered them. He's left gun laws alone. The truth is there has been very little, if anything, in his administration that could be labelled (sic) as left wing radical.

So why do people hate him so much? Why the accusations that he's a Muslim, not an American, a Commie, etc.? It couldn't be because he's ... black?<<<

I would agree that there is a backlash against Obama for being black, but I'd guess it is very small and not enough to sway most elections, except, perhaps in a few counties here and there that are still bigoted.

I feel the backlash against Obama has been created out of the polarization created from sheer cloth by people such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and their like. Glenn and Rush are only concerned about their ratings, how many books they can sell, etc. There is too much selfishness going on in the media that dupes too many people to reason. Was Obama foreign born? Oh, come on, give me a break.

I think that there is too much of a problem with people wanting instant gratification. "O.K., we elected Obama, it's been two weeks now, so why am I still unemployed?" Heck, we are in such a mess created by 'Banks Gone Wild' that it will take years and years to get out of this. But no. It's all Obama's fault.

Are we, the American voters, really that dumb? It seems so. I don't see a way out of this until someone, somehow, gets people to think rationally again, but there is too much profit to be made by stirring up hate. As a State worker in California, I'm supposed to be the root of all evil. That's what the local elections and local media has been saying for a long time now. State workers don't even make up 3% of the debt California has - even if you fired them all. I work for Caltrans - the State Department of Transportation. My wages aren't paid by California tax payers (of which I'm one). My wages come from your federal taxes (thanks, by the way, oh yeah, I'm a federal tax payer too), so there is no debt for my wages to California's budget. But I've been demonized by Glenn and Rush to the point where I've lost more than $20,000 in wages by being illegally locked out from work. But I, and most of my coworkers, go to work unpaid on weekends to get our projects out because of the pride we have in what we do, and because we know that, if we get these projects out, there will be employment down the road for many people who need it.
This polarization has to stop. I don't know how dumb the electorate is, but they seem to me to be pretty dumb. I don't think it's racism. I think it's stupidity. How the heck will we ever get out of this when Glenn and Rush can make so much money spewing out hatred? They're not going to stop. Who is going to stop them?
(I'm proofreading my text, and I thought I should add this for those not familiar with the State Workers plight. We were illegally locked out from work. This violated many, many labor laws. We won our case in all junior courts, but, of course, governor Schwarzenegger appealed to the State Supreme Court. When we went before the State Supreme Court, we lost. It's probably only a coincidence, but a few of the judges in that court were appointed by Schwarzenegger, and others by his puppeteer, Pete Wilson. And it's only a coincidence that when Schwarzenegger saw he was getting into legal trouble, he had several private meetings with the Court and then appropriated over $90,000,000 to go to the California Supreme Court for such things as improving their office furniture, increasing their expense accounts, etc. Justice in California is dead.)

 

Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes

^^^^^^^

Sorry, but my paragraph separations in Word (where I composed the above tomb) didn't take when I transfered the document into the 'new message' block, and I hit 'submit' before I checked that out.

 

Originally Posted By ChurroMonster

"Sorry, but my paragraph separations in Word (where I composed the above tomb) didn't take when I transfered the document into the 'new message' block, and I hit 'submit' before I checked that out."

Didn't look like a tomb to me. But I haven't been to a cemetery in ages.

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

***I feel the backlash against Obama has been created out of the polarization created from sheer cloth by people such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and their like. Glenn and Rush are only concerned about their ratings, how many books they can sell, etc. There is too much selfishness going on in the media that dupes too many people to reason. Was Obama foreign born? Oh, come on, give me a break.***

I agree that they are loathsome, but I would also add that the Democratic Party, by-and-large, let the President down by not defending the ridiculous crap tooth and nail.

It's not for the White House to refute this garbage, that only diminishes their status...and yet they have been forced to (and, at times, even the President himself).

EACH and EVERY Democrat, along with any Independents AND any Republicans of conscience (if any), should have been on the airwaves and in the newspapers FLOODING the people with factual rebuttals.

It didn't happen.

Not only that, but they (AND the White House, to be fair) routinely MOCKED their own left wing, and criticized them as "part of the problem", and "the equivalent of FOX on the right".

An idiotic "take care of yourself first, and appeal to the middle" strategy that bit them all in the ass this election cycle (PLUS, they were part of the problem instead of getting some stuff done for once...how many Democrats in the House voted AGAINST Health Care? Or other important initiatives that they were too afraid would cost them their job (even though they lost their job anyway...duh!).

And now their President is weak.

Good job Democrats!

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

***I agree that they are loathsome, but I would also add that the Democratic Party, by-and-large, let the President down by not defending the ridiculous crap tooth and nail***

Addendum; I'm not implying that the Democratic Politicians should be refuting every noise machine talking point, that would be ridiculous and diminish all of them as well...MY point is that whenever a Republican POLITICIAN would agree, or say "that might be possible", or whatever, THEN the Democrats should spring, collectively, into action.

Call BS what it is, I say.

The Republicans would do nothing less.

And at times I've been frustrated with their lock-step ways, but at least they defend their own group. When it comes to baseless, ridiculous crap, it's amazing that the Democrats can't work together to refute it.

NEXT UP, impeachment hearings for President Obama (COUNT ON IT!)...let's see if the Democrats can defend their own in the face of a true attack on their President (I think they won't...I hope I'm wrong!).

 

Originally Posted By plpeters70

<<NEXT UP, impeachment hearings for President Obama>>

I would say "impeachment for what?", but I'm sure they'll come up with something. And from what the GOP has been saying these past few days, it's obvious Obama is on their radar. Check out these comments for Mitch McConnell from an article in the Christian Science Monitor:

<<Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has been even tougher. He’s called for the party to focus on defeating Mr. Obama in two years – a statement some have found “indelicate,” he said Thursday.

“But the fact is ... it would be foolish to expect that Republicans will be able to completely reverse the damage Democrats have done as long as a Democrat holds the veto pen,” said Senator McConnell in a speech to the Heritage Foundation.>>

I find this statement especially irritating - "completely reverse the damage Democrats have done". I mean, really? What about the 8 years of damage you, your president and your party did to the country over 8 long years?! I can't believe they are seriously suggesting that it was the Democrats who have damaged the country over the last two years, instead of trying to save it! Unbelievable - and yet, I'm sure, the sheep will eat it right up.

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

"Oh, yeah, I'm a state worker, so I guess I'm the root of all evil, or so the election ads would lead me to believe."

Boy howdy. Both my wife and I are employees of "the government." It wasn't that long ago when our acquaintances in the private sector with semi-comparable jobs would snicker and tell us how foolish we were to work for the lower wages the government paid in exchange for a pension that was going to stay static and not grow when we eventually got it. I lost track of the times I was told by someone how much they made as a lawyer with the same amount of years of experience I had versus my measly salary.

Suddenly, we all freaking pariahs. We make too much, our pensions are out of control, we leech off of the "tax slaves', we're lazy hacks, and our names and exact earnings are posted for all to see on the the Internet, screwing up the canal zone any expectation of privacy we might have had. We opted for safe and sane, and now it's all our fault. It's idiocy, and don't even get me started on the cowardly anonymous phone calls and letters we've received once you could look up our wages on the Internet. Yeah, we're real motivated now to work even harder and give a rat's --- for you people.

Sorry, rant over.