Anybody watching the debates?

N Sperlo wrote:

Fletch1 wrote: Personally, I'd rather have Big Bird as president rather than either of these two.

Cookie Monster will be the Cookie Advisor!

i'm guessing we'll get yet another food pyramid revision.

The problem is not so much who is president as is our disfunctional congress. As Obama said, we need to do the job we were hired ( elected) for. As a friend once said, "We are waiting for the man on the white horse." He hasn't shown up yet.

Congress hasn't been screaming "PASS THIS BILL. DON'T READ IT. DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT'S IN IT. JUST PASS IT!!!" for the last week.

These guys totally remind me of a Futurama episode:

Tastycrats' Jack Johnson and the Fingerlicans' John Jackson

In reply to iceracer:

Congress is an an impasse because both sides have policies that 180-degrees-out from each other's base.

The Dems are there because they mistakenly perceived the anybody-but-Republicans attitude as a majority mandate to push an unpopular agenda; the base is still incapable of realizing this. The Repubs got a deserved spanking in '08 and (at least) started acting a bit more conservative.

The 2010 mid-terms sent a strong message that both sides have misinterpreted and then used to re-invigorate the base constituencies. And, we also have a President who is too far to the right for his base while was always too far left for everyone else. After nearly three years, he still can't figure out how to lead anything except a constant election campaign designed by zealots.

Congress deserves its' bad reputation but it's also an accurate reflection of our societal attitudes, too.

poopshovel wrote: Congress hasn't been screaming "PASS THIS BILL. DON'T READ IT. DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT'S IN IT. JUST PASS IT!!!" for the last week.

You'd think the President and his handlers would've figured this out after the HealthCare fiasco.

These guys are fishing for a campaign issue because they have little else going for them.

iceracer wrote: As a friend once said, "We are waiting for the man on the white horse."

No, we already figured that one out. Have you been absent from this discussion?

N Sperlo wrote:

iceracer wrote: As a friend once said, "We are waiting for the man on the white horse."

No, we already figured that one out. Have you been absent from this discussion?

I just fell off my berkeleying horse.

My vote:

You know, if people would stop contributing to self-proving theories, we might actually get somewhere.

If you stop calling Ron Paul "unelectable" people will stop associating him with that attribute. He's the only Republican that can get a vote from me.

Elsewise, I'll stick with my voting Libertarian. Republicans want to shove Jesus down my throat and keep the wealth concentration rollin' as hard as they can and Democrats want to take my guns and money. Both of 'em are pushing for ridiculous copyright laws and pawning hard for the media industry.

Call it wasting my vote if you want, I refuse to vote for someone I don't want in that office just to keep someone else I don't want in office out of it.

In times like these, I always like to throw down the Douglas Adams quote:

[An extraterrestrial robot and spaceship has just landed on earth. The robot steps out of the spaceship...]

"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

"What?"

"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"

"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."

Ford shrugged again.

"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."

I'll vote third party (Libertarian) again. Maybe one day enough other people will actually wake up and join me, so we can stop this madness while there is still time.....

There IS still time right?

Voting Libertarian is fine; I did last time so it must be. The problem, however, is in doing so people like Obama get voted into office that cause so much damage it takes years to fix it all. I really struggled with how to cast my vote last time knowing full well it would probably not matter either way (and it didn't; my idiotic state voted for the Community Organizer). I now wonder if simply slamming the brakes on what's turned into the Socialist Democratic Party is more pressing than trying to make a statement or voting my conscience. Time will tell.

Is the popular vote a joke? Isn't it actually the electoral college that selects the president, and isn't it really just two parties that it chooses from? That said, isn't presidential voting just a waste of time, if you're not voting Rep or Dem?

In reply to ddavidv:

So much whining about the democrats, Obama, etc. Going back to do it again, I'd a dun it again. Our current office versus McCain, Palin? Yea. I'm sitting just fine. Presidential election is a joke with the way the electorate college works anyway. I'll be letting the local issues keep me up, not the presidential.

In reply to RealMiniDriver:

I swear I hadn't seen your post before posting.

oldsaw wrote: In reply to iceracer: Congress is an an impasse because both sides have policies that 180-degrees-out from each other's base. The Dems are there because they mistakenly perceived the anybody-but-Republicans attitude as a majority mandate to push an unpopular agenda; the base is still incapable of realizing this. The Repubs got a deserved spanking in '08 and (at least) started acting a bit more conservative. The 2010 mid-terms sent a strong message that both sides have misinterpreted and then used to re-invigorate the base constituencies. And, we also have a President who is too far to the right for his base while was always too far left for everyone else. After nearly three years, he still can't figure out how to lead anything except a constant election campaign designed by zealots. Congress deserves its' bad reputation but it's also an accurate reflection of our societal attitudes, too.

This.

Unless Ron Paul runs for the Republicans, I don't know who I will vote for. I haven't loved a lot of things Obama has done but I sure as hell am not voting for Bachmann or Romney or Bush 3.0 (aka Perry).

N Sperlo wrote: In reply to RealMiniDriver: I swear I hadn't seen your post before posting.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks that about the electoral college.

RealMiniDriver wrote: Isn't presidential voting just a waste of time, if you're not voting Rep or Dem?

It sure as hell is a waste of time as long as you (and others) think like this. Vote your conscience - that's never a waste of time.

<~~ hasn't voted Democrican or Republicrat for President in almost 30 years of voting.

I keep listening to the GOP candidates and think, 'damn... they still don't want the presidency...' I still believe McCain would have won had they chosen a less insane running mate. Looking ahead, we'll still be in the same situation 4 years from now - our problems simply won't get fixed that quickly - so the GOP is perfectly content to let the pain of the next 4 years continue to be the Dems fault.

Ian F wrote: I keep listening to the GOP candidates and think, 'damn... they still don't want the presidency...' I still believe McCain would have won had they chosen a less insane running mate. Looking ahead, we'll still be in the same situation 4 years from now - our problems simply won't get fixed that quickly - so the GOP is perfectly content to let the pain of the next 4 years continue to be the Dems fault.

Or it would have been close, youbetcha. Things won't change until everyone works together and understands, we will have to spend money to make money. We wont be able to break the deficit without falling onto more debt. We have to work together and pass some.

N Sperlo wrote: We wont be able to break the deficit without falling onto more debt.

Uh, you guys just did... again... for the third time. You WOULD be able to break the deficit, just you WON'T. There is a difference. Cut spending, LIKE MAD. When the economy returns, fix all of the stuff you had to cut. No different then anyone else. While a road with potholes does suck, it doesn't actually change anything besides someones comfort.

I kinda have to stay out of these threads, but I will say I'm hugely disappointed in my options for 2012. Ron Paul could have my vote, but even if he won I can't imagine him fulfilling 1/10th of the promises he's making.

Berkeley it, I'm voting for Putin.

In reply to Tom Heath:

Is there anything that man hasn't done?

HiTempguy wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: We wont be able to break the deficit without falling onto more debt.

Uh, you guys just did... again... for the third time. You WOULD be able to break the deficit, just you WON'T. There is a difference. Cut spending, LIKE MAD. When the economy returns, fix all of the stuff you had to cut. No different then anyone else. While a road with potholes does suck, it doesn't actually change anything besides someones comfort.

Doing it that way, do you have any idea how many if hundreds of years it would take. We have to create jobs, so we make money, so we can pay taxes. Even if taxes went up, we would have a long way to go. Thats why we need to spend to make.