US Election 2008

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Your Choice For US President

Poll ended at Wed Nov 05, 2008 3:53 pm

Barack Obama
4
44%
John McCain
3
33%
Ralph Nader
1
11%
Other
1
11%
 
Total votes: 9

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Re: US Election 2008

Post by bjmdds »

Oh-bama looking dumber and dumber as time goes by with this oil spill in the gulf. His approval/disapproval ratings are now 42/56 and he looks like more of a liar than any recent presidents, including Clinton.
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Re: US Election 2008

Post by Dr. Joseph »

It is becoming painful clear with the destruction of a vital part of America coast line and waterways the Obama White House is one of the most dysfunctional bureaucracy we have seen out of Washington in years. Say what you will about Bill Clinton but he wouldn't have sat by and done nothing. W Bush caught all kinds of hell for the perception that he did nothing in Katrina when it was the state and local governments who primarily failed. Before New Orleans flooded the National Guard from neighboring states were at the border ready to cross over to lend support, unfortunately for everyone involved the Governor of Louisiana refused them permission. What W. Bush did wrong was not override the governors orders immediately. In Obama's Rig disaster the federal government had the power and authority to step in immediately, no question that they should have started cleaning and preparing the gulf cost for the inevitable. BP has to stop the leak they have the technology and the know how. The federal government had the duty to help BP's efforts giving what ever support that might expedite matters and more vitally protect the natural environment so many depend on for a living. There are techniques used successfully in other parts of the Feds continue to disallow.
Spill reveals Obama's lack of executive experience
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
June 8, 2010
(AP File)

In mid-February 2008, fresh from winning a bunch of Super Tuesday primaries, Barack Obama granted an interview to "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Croft. "When you sit down and you look at [your] resume," Croft said to Obama, "there's no executive experience, and in fact, correct if I'm wrong, the only thing that you've actually run was the Harvard Law Review."

"Well, I've run my Senate office, and I've run this campaign," Obama said.

Seven months later, after receiving the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama talked with CNN's Anderson Cooper. At the time, the news was dominated by Hurricane Gustav, which was headed toward New Orleans and threatening to become a Katrina-like disaster. "Some of your Republican critics have said you don't have the experience to handle a situation like this," Cooper said to Obama. "They in fact have said that Governor Palin has more executive experience. ..."

"Governor Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees," Obama answered. "We have got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So, I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute, I think, has been made clear over the last couple of years."

Obama ignored Palin's experience as governor of Alaska, which was considerably bigger than the Obama campaign. But his point was clear: If you're worried about my lack of my executive experience, look at my campaign. Running a first-rate campaign, Obama and his supporters argued, showed that Obama could run the federal government, even at its most testing moments. He could set goals, demand accountability, and, perhaps most importantly, bend the sprawling federal bureaucracy to his will.

Fast forward to 2010. The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is gushing out of control. The Obama administration is at first slow to see the seriousness of the accident. Then, as the crisis becomes clear, the federal bureaucracy becomes entangled in itself trying to deal with the problem. "At least a dozen federal agencies have taken part in the spill response," the New York Times reports, "making decision-making slow, conflicted and confused, as they sought to apply numerous federal statutes."

For example, it took the Department of Homeland Security more than a week to classify the spill as an event calling for the highest level of federal action. And when state officials in Louisiana tried over and over to win federal permission to build sand barriers to protect fragile coastal wetlands from the oil, they got nowhere. "For three weeks, as the giant slick crept closer to shore," the Times reports, "officials from the White House, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environmental Protection Agency debated the best approach."

The bureaucracy wasn't bending to anyone's will. The direction from the top was not clear. And accountability? So far, the only head that has rolled during the Gulf crisis has been that of Minerals Management Service chief Elizabeth Birnbaum. But during a May 27 news conference, Obama admitted he didn't even know whether she had resigned or been fired. "I found out about it this morning, so I don't yet know the circumstances," the president said. "And [Interior Secretary] Ken Salazar's been in testimony on the Hill." Obama's answer revealed that he hadn't fired Birnbaum, and he couldn't reach a member of his Cabinet who was a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Given all that, perhaps candidates in future presidential races will think twice before arguing that running their campaign counts as executive experience.

A few days before Obama won the White House, Bill Clinton joined him for a late-night rally in Kissimmee, Fla. Clinton, who became president after 12 years as a governor, told the crowd not to worry about Obama's lack of executive background. Given the brilliance of Obama's campaign, Clinton said -- and here the former president uncharacteristically mangled his words a bit -- a President Obama would be "the chief executor of good intentions as president."

Chief executor of good intentions? Perhaps that's what Obama is now. But with oil gushing into the Gulf, that's just not good enough.

Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on http://www.ExaminerPolitics.com ExaminerPolitics.com
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Re: US Election 2008

Post by Kristatos »

I think this cartoon says it all:

Image

I had high hopes for Obama based on the fact that he comes from outside the political establishment, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that he's just another corporate stooge, like every President from Reagan onwards.
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Re: US Election 2008

Post by Dr. Joseph »

McChrystal is gone big mistake. Tip of the iceberg as this administrations War Plan is stumbling:
This is the story behind the story
How 'Rolling Stone' Got Into McChrystal's Inner Circle
Reporter Michael Hastings explains the backstory to the piece that upended a general—and maybe even a war.

It’s the kind of story that ricochets through Washington—and around the world—at lightning speed. "The Runaway General," published by Rolling Stone and written by former NEWSWEEK reporter Michael Hastings, recounts the misgivings of Stanley McChrystal (the commanding general in Afghanistan) and the closest members of his team about President Obama, French diplomats, civilian leaders in Afghanistan, and pretty much everyone. Immediately, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai proclaimed his support for the general. But calls are getting louder for his resignation. Obama has summoned the general to explain himself face-to-face in Washington. NEWSWEEK’S Andrew Bast talked by phone to Michael Hastings, still in Afghanistan, about his article and how it had turned Washington (and perhaps the war) on its head.

You’re in Kandahar at the moment. Surely you’ve heard, but your article has unleashed a furor stateside. President Obama will be meeting with General McChrystal on Wednesday. Did you expect this?
I’m actually shocked by the response. Because usually we end up ignoring Afghanistan, so I’m quite surprised it’s creating such a stir. I knew I had some decent material to work with, but I’m surprised at the level of involvement.

You think that Afghanistan has fallen off the radar back home?
I think it has. And I think that McChrystal and his staff feel that, too. That’s part of the frustration that was vented in the story.

You reported a lot of sentiments that are usually only expressed in private—why were the general and his team so candid?
Part of it was the circumstances. They were in a different environment. They were in Paris. But you would really have to ask them why they gave me the access that they did.

Can you explain how the article came about—what was the pitching and reporting process?
I was Baghdad correspondent for NEWSWEEK for two years, and I left the magazine after covering the elections. I wrote a piece for GQ before Obama took office that raised some serious questions about the direction we were taking in Afghanistan. So it was something I wanted to be writing about. I saw General McChrystal and his new strategy as a way to look at our Afghan policy to see if it’s working or if it’s a totally insane enterprise. I met with editors at Rolling Stone, they seemed into the idea, so I e-mailed McChrystal’s people. I didn’t think I was going to get any access at all. It’s one of those strange journalistic twists. They said yes, come on over to Paris to spend a couple days with us.

How much time did you spend with McChrystal over the month?
Another strange journalistic twist. The Icelandic volcano happens, and so my two-day trip turned into this month-long journey following General McChrystal and his staff around from Paris to Berlin to Kabul to Kandahar and then back to Washington, D.C. I wasn’t with him at every moment, obviously, but fairly regularly over that period of time.

One of the most vivid scenes in the stories comes when you are out with the general, his wife, and his team for a night on the town in Paris. His team is entirely forthright with you, did that surprise you?
Well, they were getting hammered, I don’t know at that moment if they were being the most forthright. Of course it was surprising. A lot of the reporting that is getting most of the attention happened right away in the first few days in Paris. So I was surprised—because they didn’t know me.

It was always clear that you were a reporter and you were, in essence, on the record? And more, the entire article was thoroughly fact-checked, yes?
Yes. It was crystal clear to me, and I was walking around with a tape recorder and a notepad in my hand three-quarters of the time. I didn’t have the Matt Drudge press hat on, but everything short of that it was pretty obvious I was a reporter writing a profile of the general for Rolling Stone. It was always very clear.

What’s the response from the military been? Do you think your access will be cut in the future?
The most interesting response has been, in Kandahar, and having more than one person come up to me and saying, "We heard about your story, and we like McChrystal, but the message needs to get out there that these restrictions he’s putting on the soldiers are no good." So it’s actually been a positive response among the soldiers here.

You write that General McChrystal is perhaps closer than any American to Karzai. If the general goes, what does that do for the relationship between Washington and Kabul, and well, the future of the war?
You’d think it would be hard for the relationship between Karzai and Washington to get any worse, but obviously a change in generals is not going to help. Whoever it is, they would have to establish their own relationship. Gen. McChrystal and his guys take a pretty pragmatic view toward Karzai—he’s the only game in town. I assume any general is going to have the same problem, because the wheels are set in motion and coming up with a solution to deal with Karzai is one of the major issues.

Describe how this debate all looks from Afghanistan, away from the politics of Washington—what does the war look like today?
I’m getting ready to go out on a mission with U.S. troops. They’re concerned with doing the job that’s in front of them. I’m trying to take the same attitude—I’m just reporting the story that I’m here to report right now. The way I view journalism is you try to focus on the story, report what you see and hear, try to piece it together, and then tell the reader what is really happening. I did that, and the aftermath is not really something I can control. Especially when I have no Internet connection, the power keeps going out, and the occasional fighter jet flies overhead, which is not suitable for phone interviews, at all.
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Re: US Election 2008

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People now actually feel Bush/Cheney were better than Oh-bama/Biden, and that says a lot. From the start the carnival shill tactics of Oh-bama revealed his inner self. He has no clue how to BE a USA President, only how to CAMPAIGN and read teleprompter speeches written for him. He should be recalled this November and not wait until 2012. He has done NOTHING different on the military side of things from Bush, nothing, and even has Gates still running things. Hillary is loving this. The general should NOT have been fired and Oh-bama's administration is being exposed as inept, socialistic, and corrupt. Enough. Both Craig and Oh-bama must be done by 2012. :cuss:
Last edited by bjmdds on Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: US Election 2008

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Kristatos wrote:I think this cartoon says it all:

Image

I had high hopes for Obama based on the fact that he comes from outside the political establishment, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that he's just another corporate stooge, like every President from Reagan onwards.
Kris, you are SO wrong. Oh-bama was groomed INSIDE THE MOST CORRUPT political establishments EVER, Chicago politics. The Rod B scandal will reveal so much more of the dirty dealings that Oh-bama was involved with. Oh-bama is as INSIDE Washington and corporate(Soros, GE) America as you can get. Do not be fooled again. He is a louse. :fight:
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Re: US Election 2008

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bjmdds wrote:Kris, you are SO wrong. Oh-bama was groomed INSIDE THE MOST CORRUPT political establishments EVER, Chicago politics.
I should have said the Washington establishment. Local politics can be just as corrupt and filled with quid pro quos, of course. I should know, I lived in South Carolina for six years, a state where the Good Ole Boy network counts for far more than such trivialities as talent or ability.
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Re: US Election 2008

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Dr. Joseph wrote:McChrystal is gone big mistake.
I'm in two minds about that. My first reaction was that firing a general because he criticised him was petty and authoritarian. But on reflection, Obama was in a difficult position. A commander-in-chief can't have his generals openly attacking him in the press. Few people could diss their boss in the pages of Rolling Stone and expect to keep their jobs. It's hard for me to say that Obama did the right thing, but I don't think he had any other choice.
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Re: US Election 2008

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McChrystal wanted to be fired, do not kid yourselves. He even voted for Oh-bama instead of McCain and got so fed up with the delay in added troops he wanted out. NO way this guy did not realize the ramifications of what he said, NO way. The joke is that the liberal left hates Petraeus and in 2007 Oh-bama questioned his decisions in Iraq, remember the "General Betray-us" nonsense from the far left? Now, Oh-bama wants him to run Afghanistan? AND there is PLENTY of Oh-bama dirt with the lowlife Blagojevich in Chicago yet to come out. What a disaster this carnival barker has become as President. :down:
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Re: US Election 2008

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There is such an anti-Ohbama/Clinton wave here in the USA that it is not funny. People who voted for him now despise his policies and see him as an out of control welfare minded liberal spender who has NO clue on how to be an executive. Posts at Msnbc even are mostly against him on line as well as youtube and the other sites that helped him win. He is one laughable joke and it is countdown to November when the Democrats have their clocks cleaned, Hillary quits to run against Barack, and 2 years until his permanent expulsion from our lives. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ADULT LIFE I AM ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY, for being duped into voting for this pompous arrogant self indulgent loser as our President. Even you UK-ers have soured on him with your retirement funds dropping from BP bashing by him. The beginning of his end commences in 4 months at the mid-term elections.
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Re: US Election 2008

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bjmdds wrote:He is one laughable joke and it is countdown to November when the Democrats have their clocks cleaned, Hillary quits to run against Barack, and 2 years until his permanent expulsion from our lives.
I fear you may have fallen for the oldest trick in the political book here. it's called "managing expectations". Obama's people put it about that they're going to lose, say, 50 seats in the house in November (I'm just plucking numbers off the top of my head here) and then when they "only" lose 20 seats, it looks like a great victory.
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Re: US Election 2008

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People who voted for him now despise his policies and see him as an out of control welfare minded liberal spender
I read that people in the US have one year's unemployment benefit and are then made homeless after it stops.
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Re: US Election 2008

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It is up to 2 years now and plenty are working off the books and still collecting it. It was only for 26 weeks and this has created another welfare entitlement. People will stay home in order to receive money that they would otherwise have to go out and work. The problem is the 6 figured worker won't settle for less so they wait.....and wait.....and wait.......as long as the gravy train keeps mailing them free money......
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Re: US Election 2008

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Kristatos wrote:
bjmdds wrote:He is one laughable joke and it is countdown to November when the Democrats have their clocks cleaned, Hillary quits to run against Barack, and 2 years until his permanent expulsion from our lives.
I fear you may have fallen for the oldest trick in the political book here. it's called "managing expectations". Obama's people put it about that they're going to lose, say, 50 seats in the house in November (I'm just plucking numbers off the top of my head here) and then when they "only" lose 20 seats, it looks like a great victory.
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Re: US Election 2008

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bjmdds wrote:People will stay home in order to receive money that they would otherwise have to go out and work.
What colour is the sky in your world, BJ?
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Re: US Election 2008

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people are not happy with the dems and obama. If we had the congress founding father originally intended we would nave have this mess. The dems are acting like lords of the manor forcing their policy down our throats. The two party system is broken people in congress should be representing their local constituents and not their national party. Tea party is good for the country and we should have more independent groups gumming up the works for the two party system.

My guess is this November being a democrat is going to be death at the voting booth. Then the lam duck congress is going to try and force more pork filled bills through!

What happened to the press in America? First they fall in line and walk lock step for the bush admin after 9/11, now I can't tell the difference between them the whitehouse PR guy Gibbs, who is repugnant and should be fired for being an idiot! I'd rather the guy from the "I'm Mac and I'm a PC" ad be speaker.

This nominee for the supreme court is a joke. A Frodo looking gal who never answered one damned question and thinks the American people are too stupid to know the difference!
gawd :x So much for hope and change!
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Re: US Election 2008

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Dr. No wrote:The dems are acting like lords of the manor forcing their policy down our throats.
Excuse me? They make compromise after compromise in the quest for Republican votes that, of course, never materialise. Their healthcare bill was so watered down it was barely any better than the status quo, ditto the financial reform bill. This despite having far more control of Congress than Junior did when he was getting everything he wanted (apart from privatising Social Security, but that was because of dissent within his own ranks).
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Re: US Election 2008

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Kris, you don't live here. Trust me, the Democratic agenda is over. People got a whiff of Oh-bama's liberalism and will vote his entire party out of office in November. No more Pelosi. She will quit shortly after they lose. Hillary will quit. Oh-bama may now try to back door amnesty for these 20 million or more(it's not 11 million) illegals here! If that happens, look for the White House to be torn down brick by brick by a revolution this country has not seen since the civil war. In addition, the Democrats never had enough of their OWN party to push through their crap agenda so to get 3 Republicans from the Northeast they reduced some of their bills. November 2010 it will be the beginning of the end of this lying piece of garbage administration and the sooner the better. He is quite dumb by the way, can only read teleprompters, and when he is asked questions he was not previously told about, he fumbles around his answers. He graduated college in 1983 and did not go to law school until 1988. How did he get in with a five year lapse from college? Political connections through NYC officials and the fact affirmative action was pushed through. Law school? Where did he EVER practice at? Kagan never was a judge. Geitner did not pay his taxes more than once. Get the picture in the UK Kris? You watch too much liberal stream media tv from the USA and they never tell the truth and are sickly delusional to think they are mainstream. It's over Kris, sorry to disappoint you. Oh-bama, the cool experiment with no prior executive training, is DONE! Fork time Kris. :fight:
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Re: US Election 2008

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Dr. No wrote:people are not happy with the dems and obama. If we had the congress founding father originally intended we would nave have this mess. The dems are acting like lords of the manor forcing their policy down our throats. The two party system is broken people in congress should be representing their local constituents and not their national party. Tea party is good for the country and we should have more independent groups gumming up the works for the two party system.

My guess is this November being a democrat is going to be death at the voting booth. Then the lam duck congress is going to try and force more pork filled bills through!

What happened to the press in America? First they fall in line and walk lock step for the bush admin after 9/11, now I can't tell the difference between them the whitehouse PR guy Gibbs, who is repugnant and should be fired for being an idiot! I'd rather the guy from the "I'm Mac and I'm a PC" ad be speaker.

This nominee for the supreme court is a joke. A Frodo looking gal who never answered one damned question and thinks the American people are too stupid to know the difference!
gawd :x So much for hope and change!
Right on the money Dr. No. You have your thoughts on the pulse of this great nation.
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Re: US Election 2008

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bjmdds wrote:Kris, you don't live here. Trust me, the Democratic agenda is over. People got a whiff of Oh-bama's liberalism and will vote his entire party out of office in November.
I think the Dems will lose their majority in November, but not for the reasons you state. Contrary to the Tea Party/Fox Noise-approved narrative, people didn't vote for Obama in a landslide thinking that he was some kind of conservative and then turn against him when they discovered that he was actually part of a secret socialist Muslim plot to sap and impurify their precious bodily fluids. Rather, they voted for a bold, radical agenda and ended up with Bush's third term. People wanted universal healthcare, they got Romneycare instead. People voted for an end to the war in Iraq, they got an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. People voted against Wall Street bailouts, they got...more Wall Street bailouts! Meanwhile, the Republican Party has learned nothing from getting its ass handed to it in 2008, as their sickening apology to BP for the mean old government making them pay to clean up their spill shows. I don't think there's any great appetite for a return to Republican rule outside of the same 23% (or whatever the figure was) who still thought that Bush was doing a good job even at the end of his disastrous reign of error. However, the people who worked so hard to get Obama elected, particularly the young, are now so disillusioned that they are likely to stay home in November, leaving that 23% as pretty much the only people left who can still be bothered to vote.
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