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See, I TOTALLY blame Reagan on how we view the progress of our President. HE made it personal and now, nobody looks at the big picture at all anymore! Is the economy getting better? NO, because I'm not making exactly as much as I did before 2008! ****in' Ronnie.

Is this serious? Both Roosevelts made the presidency personal, and you could stir an interesting debate comparing Reagan and FDR in that department. Hoover, though many don't remember him outside of the Annie soundtrack, was also somebody who made it personal, though not in the way he intended, I'm sure.

 

:eek:

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I was a kid during Reagan's era in middle and high school. I seriously don't even remember the recession. I was too busy trying to get tickets to see the Cure, Erasure and crashing bars all underaged and stuff to see Slayer and Anthrax in Houston (what can I say, I hated Duran Duran and had wildly swinging musical tastes). Bush Sr was the president where I was actually on my own and doing stuff. Clinton was my trailer park in GA years as I struggled to make a living and go to college at the same time (MY GOD! I found some old payment receipts for school back then and it was 600 bucks a semester and all my books for classes totaled 100$ total when purchased). W. was actually the first president I openly despised. Poor Tsquare. I really disliked that president but feel like we were not half as bad at all the things we posted about W here that get said about Obama out in public. The Patriot Act, invasions and Rove and Cheney. Ugh.

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Did you vote for Obama? Are you a fan? What are you upset about RIGHT NOW regarding the White House? What's he handling well, what do you think he's dropping the ball on and what would you do about it?

I did not vote for Obama either time, but I wasn't particularly unhappy when he won either (both in '08 and '12). It was pretty evident from the beginning who Obama was going to be- basically an empty suit in the pockets of Corporate America and the defense-industrial complex. Really the only thing that differentiates him from Bush is a) his rhetorical style is different, and b) he occasionally throws a bone to social liberals now and then so they can forget that he has none of their class interests in mind (observe his "evolving" on gay marriage for a good example of this).

 

But be that as it may, since I happen to be in the socio-economic class that both Obama and Romney (and McCain) planned on governing for, it doesn't bother me too much. I got richer between 04-08, I got richer between 08-12, and I'm getting richer even still. Who wins US presidential elections is a lot like who wins the local YMCA kids 6-and-under soccer match. It couldn't possibly have less effect on my life.

 

Now that being said, what does get me annoyed are the stupid people. People on the right, for sure- few things get me worked up more than bible thumpers (or as I call them, adult Santa believers) and/or lower middle-class suburbia- people who have no idea how much I'm fleecing them, people who have no idea how utterly dependent on government assistance they are (e.g. Medicare), and people who are increasingly inconsequential in a global economy. But, as much as I despise these people, they don't bother me nearly as much as the Left, which is probably why I've never labeled myself as a progressive, even though I may have many overlapping political views. To me, while the far Right/Tea Party/etc is almost comically misguided, the Left is something, IMO, even worse- pathetic. The Left, as it currently exists, is a hodgepodge of a) latte liberals who pretend to care about issues like the environment and economic equality, but really are just bullsh-tting and never happier than when they are lapping up crumbs falling from the master's table; b) what I call, the "facebook revolutionaries," really pathetic people whose idea of societal justice is re-tweeting comments from whatever blog site and/or liking something on facebook- these people are easily bought off by someone pretending that they care about their issues, very similar to the Tea Party in that regard; c) the neo-puritan brow-beating crusaders who are more concerned with hunting down people that may have made an anti-gay comment 20 years ago, and getting them fired, than advocating for something that would actually meaningfully raise the economic well-being of a majority of Americans, such as say, lowering the unemployment rate; d) minorities of all types who just vote for the Democrat, whoever it is.

 

All those groups have various reasons for voting for Obama, but all are various levels of silly, since when it comes down to it, Obama had one agenda item, and one item only- to raise my wealth and the wealth of defense contractors and Wall Street. And in that sense, he's generally been a success. So no, Obama does not distress me in the least, although his supporters do- these are some of the types of people that make me wonder why the right to vote is universal. I hold special judgment for people who actually bought into the Obama campaign machine in '08 and devoured the hype- especially when there was absolutely no indication that he would be any different than what he is.

 

 

When you ask, MG, how much of a lame duck is he- well, pretty lame I suppose, but then again, so is every President in their last 2 years. Any given President usually has one shot in the first term to get a big piece of legislation through, before their political capital is gone. Obama decided to spend his on passing an old Republican health care plan that lined the pockets of big pharama.. LOL. Now whether that is good for the prices of insurance in the country remains to be seen (I've discussed in length that primary loophole of the act), but quite honestly, I quite selfishly want prices to be as high as possible, and hopefully Obamacare just makes it more expensive, because I have a lot of money in a health care mutual fund and I'm making money hand over fist right now- well over a 25% return.

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Made it inevitable that we now completely personalize how the Presidency affects the country?

Absolutely. Mass media and the gradual increase of executive power (thus increasing the president's visibility) made this inevitable. The president has become the US' #1 celebrity over the past 50 years. You work in media. You should understand this. I don't get why this is difficult for you.

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See, I TOTALLY blame Reagan on how we view the progress of our President. HE made it personal and now, nobody looks at the big picture at all anymore! Is the economy getting better? NO, because I'm not making exactly as much as I did before 2008! ****in' Ronnie.

Is this serious? Both Roosevelts made the presidency personal, and you could stir an interesting debate comparing Reagan and FDR in that department. Hoover, though many don't remember him outside of the Annie soundtrack, was also somebody who made it personal, though not in the way he intended, I'm sure.

 

:eek:

 

I miss Ike.

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I don't categorize society based on White House administrations. I base eras on tv image quality. There was the 00s with the era of Early HD. Last decade they made an effort to make TV look more cinematic. Then it got all shakey-cam. Then we got 1080p and shows look like they're filmed under intense fluorescent factory lighting. It really brings out the varicose veins in womens legs. Now I'm starting to notice some pixilation when the characters move around too fast. They almost look like they're swimming.

Hopefully, with the new Star Wars coming out and Stephen Colbert coming to Late Night 2015 could mark the start of a new era in filming.

I write this as clips of Community and Modern Family whiz around on the tv next to me. Hopefully, shaky-cam's reign of terror will soon be OVER!

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Made it inevitable that we now completely personalize how the Presidency affects the country?

Absolutely. Mass media and the gradual increase of executive power (thus increasing the president's visibility) made this inevitable. The president has become the US' #1 celebrity over the past 50 years. You work in media. You should understand this. I don't get why this is difficult for you.

 

Yeah...you're right as much as I hate to admit it. I guess I just has a knee-jerk, misplaced reaction. I do understand it-I may not want it to be this way, but I do get it. It just saddens me.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

I have a serious question, and this is still sort of related to this thread: does anyone here think their vote actually matters in presidential or congressional elections, based on where you live?

 

While the horse race interests me, I am positive my vote doesn't matter, but I vote anyway.

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There's definite truth to that. While your vote is statistically very unlikely to be a deciding vote in any given election, the probability of it happening is orders of magnitude greater in your case.

 

But more importantly that that, your vote is much more likely to be reflective of a general mood in key swing counties that are very close to the American voting median in a swing state; thus listening to (and trying to appeal to) voters such as yourself is significantly more important than people such as MG, Pong, or even myself. Therefore, if I'm a campaign manager, I'm pretty much ignoring what anyone has to say on this board except for you.

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Until there is a legit third party in the government or the electoral college is revised I don't think there will be an effective president. Politicians are more concerned with blocking each other out of reflex as opposed to negotiating any sort of compromise.

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I'm making more but am in much worse financial shape. Does that mean I like or hate Obama?

I am the same.

 

Until there is a legit third party in the government or the electoral college is revised I don't think there will be an effective president. Politicians are more concerned with blocking each other out of reflex as opposed to negotiating any sort of compromise.

Word, bro.

 

 

As to the original questions: I voted Obama the first go round, and Green Party the second time. Generally I am unhappy with Obama as a whole, though during his administration the economic downturn did right itself- at least statistically, actual people don't seem to be feeling like they are doing as well as they were before 08 but I guess that's a slightly different topic. Whether or not the increase in jobs is due to anything the O administration did is really not something I know enough about to say one way or another.

 

I can tell you this- he is not particularly charismatic and certainly doesn't have enough gravitas to be the kind of President that inspires or makes anyone feel better about anything. Maybe the days of those presidents are gone.

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I didn't vote for him and think he's pretty bad. Not as awful as some would make him out to be, but I also think that anyone who still buys into any of his crap is basically brain dead.

 

He'll go down in history for being black, and that will be his entire legacy. Bush Jr. will be remembered as the second son of a president to be president and for 9/11. Neither is as good or bad as the other side wants to pretend.

 

Having said that, I disagree entirely with Copper. Obama is insanely charismatic, that's the main reason anyone ever voted for him - certainly not because he had anything else going for him that made him seem like a good choice. He barely had more governing experience than Pong, and I would argue that Pong has more of a record. No, he's charismatic, he just doesn't care. The only topic I've ever heard him speak on that seems like he really cares is his distrust of police (remember his beer summit because he couldn't keep his mouth shut?) and his pro-abortion stance. Otherwise he wants to be president and will say anything to get there, but he doesn't give a shit about most of the issues facing the country.

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He's charismatic? Really? When? When he's trying to be elected? That's pretty much the only time I've ever seen it. Even then, during his re-election campaign he stumbled a few times during the debates and was rather snooze-worthy. Turning on charm to get elected doesn't make you charismatic, it just makes you an actor. Bleh.

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Hmmm. I for the most part agree with Brando. Obama is so the opposite of W. that he is charismatic. I also really believe that Obama is more intelligent than the average politician. If you were Obama's shoes you'd feel like every day you get up you'd expect more bad news. I can see how this may make a presidency seem ineffectual. Perhaps if we focused on the good that has been done since Obama's taken office. I think the gay rights community can say that a great deal of strides have been made in their primary goals towards equality. More so than in the past 50 years even if it is incremental I think more people are not as opposed to gay marriage than before as many states see their marriage laws upheld and gays are allowed marriage. (Women's rights movements may point out that we've taken some steps backwards but I digress as I am trying to point out positives). More people are paying for insurance which they may not have had since Obamacare was enacted which has increased jobs to help process and handle insurances. Osama bin Laden is dead. And - I consider this a positive - the IRS stirred the ire of Tea Party people by rejecting their status for claims.

 

In other positive news, I have not had my house invaded and my gun taken away from me. I still am able to moan on the internet and have way more platforms to bemoan my issue through. I can still stream movies on my computer and football and baseball have not collapsed and died because people get injured in these sports nor chose to juice to hit a ball further.

 

Life is good and everyday is my day off. Really if I think about it and never voted or turned on my teevee set, I wouldn't owe any of my success to who was in office. It is all me. I got my degree, earned my money and bought my house. So... Jessica for president!

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