World Politics

talkingtocactus said:
^ i really hope they don't. i really feel for obama. sure he's made the odd mistake but good god, the mess he was given, he'd have to be a miracle worker to sort that out.
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I'm bracing myself for the democrats to get trounced tomorrow, which is sad because I agree that there's no way in hell anything that was inherited by the last administration could've been straightened out by now. Once the GOP takes over Congress everything will just revert back to the way it was and no one seems to remember that it was complete shit under republican control.

I don't go for political ads very much, but I saw one that Roger Ebert Tweeted that I think is brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJfMPxQuiU&feature=share
 
What's sad is that in a recent Rolling Stone Magazine, and an interview with our president, Obama he said "QUOTE" "I'm half way through my first term, & we've probably accomplished 70% of the things we said we were going to do & BTW, I've got 2 years left to finish the rest of the list, at minimum, so I think it's important for Democrats to take pride in what we've accomplished" "UN-QUOTE" And he's the only president in America history who's done that in this short amout of time!

A short list of what he's achieved~

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_Barack_Obama's_accomplishments_as_president
 
PerfectAnomaly said:
talkingtocactus said:
^ i really hope they don't. i really feel for obama. sure he's made the odd mistake but good god, the mess he was given, he'd have to be a miracle worker to sort that out.
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I'm bracing myself for the democrats to get trounced tomorrow, which is sad because I agree that there's no way in hell anything that was inherited by the last administration could've been straightened out by now. Once the GOP takes over Congress everything will just revert back to the way it was and no one seems to remember that it was complete shit under republican control.

I don't go for political ads very much, but I saw one that Roger Ebert Tweeted that I think is brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJfMPxQuiU&feature=share
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the strange thing about that was that he retweeted it from me :D *feels smug*

seriously though, it's an excellent video. i agree, things will revert - the job will have been done, obama will be scapegoated, and the democrats won't have a chance in hell for a little while. it's pretty sad.


in a somewhat unrelated thing, i was reading an article today about the aftermath of the iran/iraq war (that happened in the 80s but is really still going on in a different way), and i read a couple of very interesting quotes - what do people think of these (i love em!):

some prof at LSE said:
the US intervened in the iran/iraq war to stop iranian expansionism. in a fit of historical amnesia, it is now leaving behind a political system in baghdad through which iran exerts the greatest political influence. what khomeini could not achieve through war has been achieved through the ballot box
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and
an iraqi politician said:
we've gone from US occupation to iranian occupation
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and to tie it back in to the votes in the states, i guess this is one big reason the gop piss me off so much (as a foreigner!) - it's the double crossing. it was the cia who armed saddam hussein against iran (while, naturally, supplying arms to iran in exchange for cash for narcotics and guns for nicaraguan rebels, another nation where "regime change" was all the rage), then he got too big for his boots (oh noez! he might steal "our" oil!) so he had to be forcibly put back in place. and by intervening in the way it did, us foreign policy has managed to make the vast majority of the middle east hate it, and then wonders why so many in the middle east are angry at america. er, hello?!

there's a song i love called "ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart" - i think it's pretty true.

nb please don't take that as an anti america statement, it's a country i love and lots of the people too, but god, the foreign policy over the last, well since ww2 i guess, has been as despicable as british foreign policy was when we were colonising and subjugating everyone (something i also deplore, to the point it makes me ashamed to be british) - in fact most of the above goes for britain too, we're just as bad.
 
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^ but i think the majority of voters (here too, this isn't exclusive to the us) have very short memories and far too much optimism!

also given how effectively and systematically the reps have undermined, sabotaged and generally screwed the dems this time, people are also disappointed that this 'bright new hope' character (like in star wars!) hasn't delivered. which, if they had any recall whatsoever, they'd know to be a fallacy - no one delivers in 2 years, politically. and given the amount of crap obama's had to sweep up, he's had a tougher hill to climb than most. and hills aren't easy to climb when the other side are covering them with ice, putting up roadblocks and generally being as obstructive as possible.

obama was put in as a scapegoat - 1: the reps will almost certainly be back in in 1 term, 2: the dems' reputation will be damaged to the point where no one will vote them in for a long time and 3: no more black/minority presidents in the foreseeable future.

so, angry white men, job well done. grrrrrrrrrrr.
 
oh, don't get me wrong, i think he *has* delivered, but i think the things he's delivered on are perhaps not the things that people think about when deliberating over their votes.

i should've phrased what i put above better; i think the problem is that the things he's delivered on aren't necessarily always the kind of things that get headlines (which translate to votes), and i think the big issues he's tried to tackle have been so shut down by the reps that all the headlines have been about him being thwarted.

part of it's a media thing - people just don't give a crap about stuff that governments do that is important but either unexciting or doesn't have a directly visible impact on their lives (as opposed to a more subtle one) - govts make all sorts of changes that impact our lives but on such a subtle basis that we either don't notice or don't care, although we sure as hell would notice if those things didn't happen! obama has tackled some big big issues that directly impact a huge majority (and good for him!), but because he's been so shut down on those it ends up looking to, say, the ordinary voter who maybe doesn't look into these things beyond just reading the daily news or watching a tv newscast, as if he's failed. anyone who looks a bit deeper knows that (a) he's had lots of successes and (b) most of his failures have been a result of sabotage by other politicians/lobbyists, but that's not what comes across to most people.

that's what i meant; that it appears to many average voters that he's failed because the gop and the media that's largely in their pocket, has set it up so it'll look that way. tbh i feel that whether he fails or succeeds is a moot point, he was put in as a scapegoat, he's been royally screwed, and that's that, the angry white man has won again.

hmm having just read that back i don't think i was any clearer in what i meant this time. oops. that's what having a politics degree will do to you, kids ;)
 
PerfectAnomaly said:
For anyone who doesn't think President Obama has "delivered," I offer this link:

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/?q
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Thank's I posted one too, he's a great president, but the GOP has been bound and determined to get rid of him and his steadfast policies since the onset.. I felt sorry for him this morning on his Press Conference watching how sad, confused and frustrated he was. The spark that he's aways had seemed to be gone, and he never smiled. He felt on the House taking the seats "really bad". Lets see what the Republicans do now and how things will get resloved:rolleyes:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/2010-Elections/
 
This isn't directed at anyone in particular.

Good God..America! What have you done to yourselves. I'm very disappointed with you.

Seriously, you elected one of the smartest people ever and you expect to fix the problems over night.

Honestly, now what!!
 
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President Obama realizes that in this new mixed majority government compromises will have to be made to get anything done. Too bad the republicans are hell bent on bullying and grinding the process to a halt in order to get their way. They disgust me.

GOP throws down gauntlet
 
the sad thing is he's been beset by these "compromises" ever since being voted in, he's wanted to get stuff sorted and people have thrown "compromises" at him that have meant he's been unable to. from here on in, it can only get worse. what were "compromises" will now be fully fledge "obstacles" and "obstructions"

it is pretty disgusting, i realise politics is a dirty game but it seems so petty as well at the moment "oh well we're not going to do what they want just because we don't like them" - some governments and oppositions have been capable of giving each other some leeway in certain issues in the interests of national benefit. that is called being grown up. so much for the non-partisan posturing.
 
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