Newt

[AquaMan]

Well Guido, maybe because this is a thread about Newt? And, maybe no one touts his accomplishments on here because no one in Oklahoma would care or admit that Obama has done anything right...ever?

Anyway, there is much about Newt that the voters have forgotten about, never heard about or were way too young to know about. He is what they call a target rich environment in the military.

[Conan71]

I said that I am not sold on this guy. But one thing is certain, he would tear Obama to pieces in a debate. Worse than what Romney would do. The thing with Newt is that the baggage he has is already known. Running ads attacking his personal proclivities or anything else is on the table and no one really seems to care about it.
On the other hand, right now, one year out, why aren't folks in here talking up Obama's accomplishments rather than attacking GOPers?

I really don't care how bad Gingrich would make President Obama appear in a debate.  I'm far more concerned about his leadership skills.  Candidate Obama looked great in debates.  Remember what a great orator he is?  He sucks as a leader, that's why we are still circling the drain three years later.

As far as the "great orator" point, he's got a deep voice, that's about it.  Otherwise his, "ahhh, ummm, wellll..." really grates on me after awhile. He's really not that articulate to start with.

[Conan71]

Well, I'm not one of them. Newt is busy spewing on Fox right now about how Obama is raising 100's of millions in campaign funds to run the dirtiest campaign ever to keep him out of office. What an ego. Cain gave him the idea though.

But really? If he has some inside info that he can document his charges with why doesn't he share? Or is he just projecting what he would do if he were president?

Guido, this guy is bad news. Romney may be hard to swallow for republicans, but this guy represents everything both extremes and a lot of people in the middle simply despise. Most Democrats would love to see him as the candidate with his steamer trunks.

I'm definitely not crazy about a polar opposite either, and Gingrich is going to have to eventually outrun allegations of being simply another government wonk rather than someone with real business experience.  He's a great academian and has a very good grasp of the Constitution, our history, and our heritage.  However, in Newt's world tax cuts create jobs in a vacuum.  I'd vote for Newt a lot quicker than Obama, but I'd have to pick Romney from Newt if they are the front-runners if I were to look for real world experience in how to create jobs which seems to be our largest challenge right now. 

Besides, can you imagine having to entertain a "Newt" with a straight face if you were a foreign leader?

[Hoss]

I'm definitely not crazy about a polar opposite either, and Gingrich is going to have to eventually outrun allegations of being simply another government wonk rather than someone with real business experience.  He's a great academian and has a very good grasp of the Constitution, our history, and our heritage.  However, in Newt's world tax cuts create jobs in a vacuum.  I'd vote for Newt a lot quicker than Obama, but I'd have to pick Romney from Newt if they are the front-runners if I were to look for real world experience in how to create jobs which seems to be our largest challenge right now. 

Besides, can you imagine having to entertain a "Newt" with a straight face if you were a foreign leader?

oh. wait a minute... you said "Newt"...my bad.

[Conan71]

oh. wait a minute... you said "Newt"...my bad.

Close enough.

[Teatownclown]

Rehash just so everyone is clear about the history.

And Newt's place in that history.


And to counter the BS thrown around about how the current people in office are somehow destroying our country.  The deficit increased EVERY year in Bush's term, while it has been decreasing EVERY year so far in Obama's term - even with the obstructionist Republicontins fighting it every step of the way and hoping for failure. 

And yet, the redefiners of history somehow are trying to cast that as getting "worse and worse".  I think a decline EVERY year in the deficit is a very good thing.  Wish it was a larger decline, but still, the trend is the right direction.

There are plenty of reasons to not want Obama in office (and I have just barely started on that), but economic activity or birth certificates aren't it.  How about stopping the lies and get to the real points?

I'm willing to take the chance the real Obama appears for his second term and all our wishes can come true....

[nathanm]

People are living much longer these days as well as the spouses of deceased former employees of corporations who still reap pension and insurance benefits even 20 to 30 years after the retirement of the worker from the employer who provided said benefits in the first place.  When the concept of a pension came around, people generally would enjoy a 5 to 10 year retirement and their spouse might outlive them another 5 years or so.

Blame the global financial clusterf*ck on the banksters and derivatives all you like.  Yes, they are partially to blame.  The real problem is that globally, we are paying for far too much un-productivity.  Civil servant and production line worker retirement programs for 20 to 25 years worth of service simply are not realistic any more.  Someone who retires as a firefighter with a fully-vested pension when they are 45 years old will likely draw off that pension for more years than they were employed in the first place, not to mention the increased health care costs as they age.

European workers are used to many weeks of "holiday" each year, copious health benefits, and a young retirement age.  I always marveled at how a Turkish friend of mine could live like a rock star with nothing more than a part time job in the states while her mother and father served as a teacher and city bus driver in Istanbul.  I would ask Pinar how she could live like she did and she said "The government takes care of me".  

The real problem is Nathan, we've used the global credit card for far too long to supply benefits and money to people who never did work for it or don't work for it any more.  I don't know the exact figure, but it's simply not sustainable for 50% of the population to not work to be dependent on the productivity of the other 50% to carry them along.

The life expectancy thing is a pack of BS. While life expectancy at birth has risen quite significantly, mainly due to continued reductions in infant mortality and reduced highway deaths, life expectancy at 65 hasn't increased all that much (a year and a half since 1990, or about 4 years since 1960, most of which happened by 1980), especially for those in the lower half of the income distribution, and even more particularly for black people. It's a load of smile sold to you to justify stiffing people for a significant fraction of their agreed upon compensation package and directing it to the top. It's a nice story, but it's not true.

I'm not saying we should go back to the golden days of 25 years and you're done, but total compensation hasn't increased for most people since 1980. What gains have been made have gone to pay for increased health care costs.

Even back in the 50s less than 60% of the population was employed at any given time. Even now more than half of your compatriots are employed. 58.4% at last count. Get the recession done with, and we'll be back up to 60% employment-population in no time. In France, that paragon of socialism, 64% of the population was employed in 2010. Of the OECD countries, we're in the lower half. We're in the top ten for people of retirement age, though! Apparently, we have uncommonly industrious seniors.

Also, I'm confused about how an extra two or three weeks off somehow ruins a country's economy. It's not as if they're all taking the whole year off.

[Red Arrow]

I'm willing to take the chance the real Obama appears for his second term and all our wishes can come true....

Pretty risky choice.  Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

I'm willing to take the chance the real Obama appears for his second term and all our wishes can come true....

The biggest problem with the real Obama is his announced intention to continue and advance the dismantling of the US Constitution, especially as embodied by his appointments to the Supreme Court.

[Gaspar]

The biggest problem with the real Obama is his announced intention to continue and advance the dismantling of the US Constitution, especially as embodied by his appointments to the Supreme Court.

It's strange how he's done almost nothing he said he would do, and almost everything the pundits warned us about.  Hmmmm.

[Townsend]

It's strange how he's done... almost everything the pundits warned us about.  Hmmmm.

And those things were?

[we vs us]

It's strange how he's done almost nothing he said he would do, and almost everything the pundits warned us about.  Hmmmm.

Methinks you have a very specific group of pundits you're referring to.

[heironymouspasparagus]

It's strange how he's done almost nothing he said he would do, and almost everything the pundits warned us about.  Hmmmm.

Just wait until second term...he will be doing one of the big things he talked about, but put on hold to kind of keep people lulled into a false sense of security.

It is directly related to his Supreme Court appointments, his and Holders "Fast and Furious" program - the one a lot like Bush's "gun walking" program, and his cozy relationship with the Brady Gun Control Morons.  With no election pending, he has four years to mount a massive sustained attack on the Right of the People to bear arms.

Should one be interested in trying to preserve the few remaining parts of the US Constitution, one would be joining the NRA today.

[nathanm]

Methinks you have a very specific group of pundits you're referring to.

Methinks he subscribes to the alternate reality that is modern Conservatism. I wish they'd stop inventing their own facts.

[we vs us]

Just wait until second term...he will be doing one of the big things he talked about, but put on hold to kind of keep people lulled into a false sense of security.

It is directly related to his Supreme Court appointments, his and Holders "Fast and Furious" program - the one a lot like Bush's "gun walking" program, and his cozy relationship with the Brady Gun Control Morons.  With no election pending, he has four years to mount a massive sustained attack on the Right of the People to bear arms.

Should one be interested in trying to preserve the few remaining parts of the US Constitution, one would be joining the NRA today.

Normally I can tell when you're writing tongue-in-cheek, but this doesn't seem to be one of those times. 

Do you REALLY think this is what a 2nd Obama term would look like?