If Obama Wins...

[nathanm]

What would you have called him 6 years ago?

A tool.

[erfalf]

A tool.

Nathan, is that really you. I've never seen you so spiteful.

What exactly did Romney do that was so terrible prior to running for the Republican nomination in 2008?

[carltonplace]

What would you have called him 6 years ago?

I agree that Mitt is way to "pliable", that I will not disagree on, but we are talking about politicians, remember.

Pliable indeed

[Townsend]

In all, the Treasury owes foreigners and foreign governments $4.514 trillion dollars

But Americans own most of their own country's $14,342,909,569,328.74 of debt.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-owns-us-debt-2011-7?op=1#ixzz27ampQEjv

If you ever try comparing the debt situation in the US and Japan, someone will invariably say: Well, Japan can afford a lot more debt because it's all domestically owned, whereas US debt is owned by the Chinese.
It turns out this isn't really true, though unfortunately this destructive myth continues to dominate political/economic debates.
Yes, China holds a lot, but they're not dominant, and when you add it up, most debt is actually domestically held, just like in Japan.

China


Total Holdings of Treasuries: $1.16 trillion
Percent of US Debt that they own: 8%
Source: US Treasury


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-owns-us-debt-2011-7?op=1#ixzz27anUUJKb

[erfalf]

Pliable indeed

You make my point. What is it that Romney did prior to running for the Republican nomination (and proceeding to pretend to be a hard liner) that has offended so many lefties?

[nathanm]

What exactly did Romney do that was so terrible prior to running for the Republican nomination in 2008?

We've been through all this before. I guess we can revisit it if you really want to. Besides, how am I to know which is the sincere Romney? He's telling everyone as loud as he can that the present Tea Partyist Romney is the real Mitt Romney and all those other Mitt Romneys are just imitating so will the real Mitt Romney please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.

[erfalf]

We've been through all this before. I guess we can revisit it if you really want to. Besides, how am I to know which is the sincere Romney? He's telling everyone as loud as he can that the present Tea Partyist Romney is the real Mitt Romney and all those other Mitt Romneys are just imitating so will the real Mitt Romney please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.

I asked a pretty direct question. What, prior to 2008, did Romney do that was so offensive?

[carltonplace]

I asked a pretty direct question. What, prior to 2008, did Romney do that was so offensive?

If the Romney in those debates is the real Romney and not someone who was trading his true beliefs to be Governor of MA then I can see my self supporting him. But instead I think that he is a Cypher and changes to be what he expects that people want him to be.

[Townsend]

I asked a pretty direct question. What, prior to 2008, did Romney do that was so offensive?

I'm not offended but I fear the people who used to be against him who are now supporting him.

[Conan71]

A leader is someone capable of working with people that he may disagree with.  Some in congress will continue to offer budgets.  Some will also continue to ask that the president's proposals and budgets go to the floor for a vote.  There are a stead flow of bills that continue to flow from the house.  There is strong disagreement between the leaders in the house and the leaders in the senate.  It would be different if Harry Reid rallyed the troops and voted against things he disagreed with, but he is the immovable object.  He has prevented nearly all bills, budgets and amendments from reaching the floor.  Why the president hasn't sat down with Harry and said "Why won't you vote on my budget?", I don't know unless of course there never was a serious budget.

The primary responsibility that Congress has right now (and for the past 3 years) was settling on a budget that stops the hemorrhaging and waste.  The president has not been very concerned about motivating either the Democrats or the Republicans in Congress, unless it offers some good publicity.  His interactions with Boehner are well documented as adolescent at best. His interactions with Reid are wholly unproductive.  He had two years with a sympathetic Congress, only to produce some of the most hated legislature ever passed, and, I might note, it did not actually contain his plan. 

Congressional leadership is dysfunctional, and Executive leadership is non-existant.  So the answer to your question is NO.  Without inspiration there will be no perspiration.

It's almost as if he does nothing but play Tetris on his Blackberry all day. 


In my opinion, a true moderate is someone who can see and empathize on both sides of an issue.  You can call that flip-flopping, others might consider it being open-minded.

Gaspar makes very good points about true leadership requiring the ability to compromise.  Unfortunately, our constituency has steadily veered in a direction that either the right ideology must be the solution for all problems or the left ideology is.  I suspect a great deal of that has to do with how large the theater has become for partisan political pundits to broadcast their views via the TV, radio, and all over the internet.  People who only follow liberal blogs and TV hosts start believing that anything to the right is evil and worthless and those who follow the conservative media start to believe that any thing to the left is evil and worthless.

That pretty well has set in the mind of legislators that their voters want only the most extreme views represented in the houses of Congress.  The goal in Washington has become power, not solutions or true progress, therefore no one cares about compromise anymore.  Legislators are afraid to stray from the party line because they want to keep their cushy job and they want to do the bidding of their largest contributors.

My personal opinion is our current president is far too consumed with campaigning to be bothered with making difficult decisions.  It simply amazes me he blows off other world leaders to appear on TV talk shows to polish his personal image.  Perhaps he realizes how poor his job performance is so he needs to keep inflating the cult of personality which surrounds him.

[Townsend]

Jon Stewart: ''The Closer We Get To The Election, The Dumber Mitt Romney Appears To Be Getting''

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-25-2012/democalypse-2012---every-which-way-but-lucid

Watch the end for the examples as to why Mitt Romney is now the Republican candidate for president.

[nathanm]

Gaspar makes very good points about true leadership requiring the ability to compromise.

Is funny. Lefties are damn near refusing to vote for him because he compromises too much, yet you maintain that he doesn't.

[erfalf]

I'm not offended but I fear the people who used to be against him who are now supporting him.

Ironically, there are people (if they were thinking straight) who would have supported him in the past, but now can't stand him. Perspective is everything I guess. Politics is insane.

[erfalf]

My personal opinion is our current president is far too consumed with campaigning to be bothered with making difficult decisions.  It simply amazes me he blows off other world leaders to appear on TV talk shows to polish his personal image.  Perhaps he realizes how poor his job performance is so he needs to keep inflating the cult of personality which surrounds him.

I understand some will call it playing politics when the side being criticized is being forced to do something or make a decision that may be unpopular in an election year (see Congress calling it quit for the year). And it is. But it does not mean that since that's the case, it absolves them of making said decision.

[erfalf]

Is funny. Lefties are damn near refusing to vote for him because he compromises too much, yet you maintain that he doesn't.

Some say...