Discussion Forums > Politics
2012 US Presidential Election
krumm:
I can't wait for this to be over. Living in Ohio sucks due to all the ads. I don't know if I even care who gets in anymore.
Are the ads so bad elsewhere? I cant remember the last time Ive seen an ad that was not political. between Obama, Romney, Josh Mandel, and Brown all the ad space is taken.
Burkingam:
--- Quote from: Monkeyfinger on November 03, 2012, 12:07:33 AM ---Careful 5cats, challenge a liberal's way of thinking and you will be subject to incessant foam-at-the-mouth accusations and insults. Burk, meet Brian Williams.
As for Obama's promises, they fall into one of these categories:
A. no one gives a damn
B. bad ideas to begin with
C. broken. (these are the big promises that people are harping on and actually care about, like cutting the deficit in half and unemployment staying below 8% if we passed the stimulus package)
--- End quote ---
So in what category would you put "end the war in Iraq", Monkeyfinger?
zherok:
I love this idea that the few conservatives on the board are offering startling rebuttals to Obama's agenda, when you can barely even be bothered to mention your alternative by name, never mind justifying his policies (well, jaybug tried (albeit, also couldn't mention the guy he's obviously voting for by name), but somehow we ended up on space stations and how overqualified astronauts are.)
You've got a candidate with a flimsy, arbitrary policy of across the board tax cuts just a few years out from when it was last tried. These are lazy numbers that pretend that you just can't help cutting taxes on the most wealthy in order to help everyone else. Surprise, this disproportionately benefits them more than the rest, but it'll all work out in the end! Except as mentioned earlier the upper class tends to save their refunds rather than inject it back into the economy.
Were he all that focused on the deficit maybe he'd have something to talk about, but outside of perennial Republican favorites like public broadcasting, we're just told we have to trust the numbers wonk with the ? step in his magic recovery plan. Too bad he offsets whatever he could save by cutting public broadcasting by planning on increasing the military budget by a trillion dollars. Unless we've got a couple thousand PBS/NPRs lying around, we're not even revenue neutral on just THAT part, never mind offsetting the tax cuts. You'll pardon me if I'm skeptical that saying you're really serious about the deficit actually makes you serious about the deficit given these plans. Slashing social services to fund tax cuts doesn't even begin to touch the deficit.
Then you couple it with religiously motivated regressive social policies. Republicans can talk about the economy all they want as being more important than social rights, but it's HIS social policies, no need to act as if saving the economy is irrevocably coupled with denying equality to gays or attempting to ban abortion.
So yeah, lapsing the Bush-era tax cuts and slowing military growth sounds like a nice alternative. And I'll take diplomacy over saber-rattling and trying to conjure up a Rocky IV-era Russia to pick a fight with.
--- Quote from: krumm on November 03, 2012, 01:06:10 AM ---Are the ads so bad elsewhere?
--- End quote ---
All my television watching is done online now, so I have no idea. From what I've seen it's pretty bad even here in California, but I can only imagine what it'd be like in Ohio right now.
Nikkoru:
--- Quote from: zherok on November 03, 2012, 01:28:17 AM ---
--- Quote from: krumm on November 03, 2012, 01:06:10 AM ---Are the ads so bad elsewhere?
--- End quote ---
All my television watching is done online now, so I have no idea. From what I've seen it's pretty bad even here in California, but I can only imagine what it'd be like in Ohio right now.
--- End quote ---
I watched an hour of television from Michigan. Of the 12 minutes of advertisements, 2 minutes were devoted to selling actual products. Everything else was about propositions, state supreme court justices, state senators, congressional races, and a few on the presidential election. Watch 6 hours of television a day as is the average, and I'd be surprised if you weren't a massive cynic and possibly suicidal.
The sad thing is, as an outsider who doesn't know the issues -- nothing actually makes sense. No one explains anything, it's all just "proposition (#) will lead to our collective doom", and "candidate (X) supports the molestation of children, terrorism, and Satan". Even the positive advertising is just meaningless fluff, "candidate (Y) is a family man, who supports goodness and the American way" or "Judge (Z) hates crime and will see criminals vanquished from the face of the Earth".
I weep for Canada's democracy if this is what we've apparently decided to be emulating.
AceHigh:
--- Quote from: Burkingam on November 03, 2012, 01:15:33 AM ---So in what category would you put "end the war in Iraq", Monkeyfinger?
--- End quote ---
In combination with "lets fire 100+ tomahawks in Libya and start a war there", the category would be "hypocrisy" ;)
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