Well Americas and Britains political systems still beat the hell out of Canada's right now. Harper's currently ruining the country with his majority.
Do you believe that obama will follow through at all on his message of change for the better
- Thread starter ScaryAlmond
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I don't believe he's able to even if he tries, but I don't doubt he will try. The economy has gone right down the crapper, there's debt to be paid so things don't look good. When he tries to pass something there's spent a lot of resources to avoid that from happening and when that succeeds it is used against him. I don't think things will get better for a long time no matter who gets elected.
President Obama probably should have been more aggressive when his party still had control over the house, he's been pretty much paralyzed for the last two years by the Republicans.
Personally I don't understand why anyone would vote for any party who, like many Republican pundits have advocated, pursues strategies that prioritize regaining control of the government over working to improve the country. It doesn't help that the electorate is so shortsighted either, for example, advocating being antagonistic to a major oil exporter (Iran), blocking new pipelines and then complaining when gas prices increase.
Personally I don't understand why anyone would vote for any party who, like many Republican pundits have advocated, pursues strategies that prioritize regaining control of the government over working to improve the country. It doesn't help that the electorate is so shortsighted either, for example, advocating being antagonistic to a major oil exporter (Iran), blocking new pipelines and then complaining when gas prices increase.
I'm not American, and therefore have no say on the elections or who becomes President. However, all the Republican candidates seem batshit insane, and Obama at least acts like a rational human being.
Theres always the high chance that once getting into his second term he will step up his game. Many presidents have done very little in their first term in the hopes of reelection, but once into their second term they have nothing to lose. If he is able, politically and financially, I think he will follow through with a fair few more policies.
Theres always the high chance that once getting into his second term he will step up his game. Many presidents have done very little in their first term in the hopes of reelection, but once into their second term they have nothing to lose. If he is able, politically and financially, I think he will follow through with a fair few more policies.
It's one of the few positives of his presidency to be honest, and even then it could use some work.dvd_72 said:
Frankly, I don't buy the idea that he's been trying to make the best of a bad lot when he hasn't really tried all that hard at all. In terms of civil rights he's actually worse than Bush was since he's continued with and, if I'm not mistaken, expanded government powers granted by the patriot act. He signed the bill allowing the military to detain people on US soil indefinitely without due process despite promising to veto it before hand. The list goes on from there but I'm not going to spend all day talking about his abhorrent civil rights record.
On top of that, he continued the Bush tax cuts for years, bowed to Republican pressure on budget issues, and let's just say the attempts to regulate financial institutions on Wall Street has not what it needed to be.
Honestly, going into the next election I don't see him as having much of a legitimate leg to stand on if you start looking past healthcare and the fact that they caught Bin Laden during his presidency. It's literally going to be a case of the other guy being worse so he'll get elected again. Hopefully if he does get elected he'll remember where he left his balls, accept that this is his last term and start delivering on some of the change he promised 4 years ago.
Wait, someone actually expected Obama to be able to do something no other predident in any really recent history could ever hope to accomplish(by that I mean make any reasonably reasonable change or improvement in any meaningful way)?
Why? Cuz he has different skin pigmentation than the rest of them? Y'know, the fact that the president's role is almost entirely cosmetic, a figurehead for the party they represent, who's power is only as potent as their party and opposition lets it be.
I mean presidential candidates are pretty much picked by how likely people are going to vote for them, in other words as soon as the democrats picked Obama it became more of a selection of "because he's black, people will feel like they're making history voting him in, so he's perfect!" than "He's going to bring all this positive change and fix America for us!" yeah, that's right, he was picked as a candidate on a purely form over function basis.
I never expected him to be able to do anything.
of course I'm a canadian so living outside the US I tend to have a more observational and less involved viewpoint, but still, I get access to american news and canadian news and the so called "world news" I can generally filter out enough bullshit through looking at stuff from a buncha differently spun angles to see what lines up.
Why? Cuz he has different skin pigmentation than the rest of them? Y'know, the fact that the president's role is almost entirely cosmetic, a figurehead for the party they represent, who's power is only as potent as their party and opposition lets it be.
I mean presidential candidates are pretty much picked by how likely people are going to vote for them, in other words as soon as the democrats picked Obama it became more of a selection of "because he's black, people will feel like they're making history voting him in, so he's perfect!" than "He's going to bring all this positive change and fix America for us!" yeah, that's right, he was picked as a candidate on a purely form over function basis.
I never expected him to be able to do anything.
of course I'm a canadian so living outside the US I tend to have a more observational and less involved viewpoint, but still, I get access to american news and canadian news and the so called "world news" I can generally filter out enough bullshit through looking at stuff from a buncha differently spun angles to see what lines up.
He ended two expensive, unpopular wars. He saved the US auto-industry, which turned out to be a great idea in retrospect. He made the right decision to go after bin Laden (we had to step on Pakistan's toes to do it, and if the intelligence had been wrong and Osama wasn't at that compound, it would have been Obama's failure to shoulder). He passed healthcare reform that brought coverage to millions of people who were being denied (this is easy to ignore if you have insurance and/or aren't sick, but if you or someone in your family is sick and being denied insurance it's a pretty big deal when the president steps in and fixes the situation). The only thing I wanted him to do that he didn't do is repeal the Bush tax cuts, but because of the recession it was the wrong time to repeal the cuts anyway.
Ah ok....yeah it is kinda weird to look at each one and see how different it is. I guess we've been shaped by our history. I don't know specifics for Britain, but I know the only assassinated British Prime Minister was back in the early 1800's, whereas ours was only 50 years ago. I don't know much about attempts either for Britain, but we've had serious ones on quite a few of our Presidents tooEsotera said:
No politician will ever make good on all of their promises...ever.
That's not to say I dislike or distrust Obama for failing to do so because I do see that he has at least tried to do right by some if not all of his campaign promises.
I'm actually hoping he gets a second term because I'd like to see what he can do without all of the "make sure he doesn't get a second term" cock blocking that the GOP has been doing for the past 4 years.
For the record, not a Democrat of Republican. Voting on party lines is a waste of everyone's time.
That's not to say I dislike or distrust Obama for failing to do so because I do see that he has at least tried to do right by some if not all of his campaign promises.
I'm actually hoping he gets a second term because I'd like to see what he can do without all of the "make sure he doesn't get a second term" cock blocking that the GOP has been doing for the past 4 years.
For the record, not a Democrat of Republican. Voting on party lines is a waste of everyone's time.
Nope, most of the others won't either, if they get elected. That Paul guy seemed decent, but looks like it'll be between Romney and Obama. And let's put it this way, my stepdad is a racist bastard, and he said he'd vote Obama over Romney.
Personally? I don't trust any of them, why should I trust someone that makes a living through politics, when I know they'll say what it takes to get re-elected.
Personally? I don't trust any of them, why should I trust someone that makes a living through politics, when I know they'll say what it takes to get re-elected.
No but its not his fault. There are too many Republicans in the house and senate for him to get anything through. Plus he is too easy to compromise with. I wish he had more of a back bone. Still I do like him for the most part. We are in the recovery stage of our economy and out of Bush's recession.
