The Next US President

[hardheadjarhead]

Can i jst say being a Scotish guy i think i hav it bad with Tony Blair but i really feel for u americans with people like bush over there. He is a real laughin stock over here! (no offence to his supporters........ahem, hehe only jokin!)

I see where you're coming from...but for those of us here who don't care for him, we find it very hard to laugh.


Regards,


Steve

 

[hkg]

I see where you're coming from...but for those of us here who don't care for him, we find it very hard to laugh.


Regards,


Steve

Point taken i would definetly feel the same if i lived over there So is there any decent politcians in america there is definetly a lack here. It seems once they get past a certain level they jst get corrupted by sooooo much red tape the world is in for a serious wake up call at some point.

 

[heretic888]

So is there any decent politcians in america there is definetly a lack here.

Yes, there are. The problem is these guys rarely get a shot at being president (i.e., are almost never picked as either major party's nominee).

On the Republican side, both John McCaine and Colin Powell are excellent examples in my opinion. Powell is probably the only reason Bush hasn't blowed us all up yet, and is a strong voice of reason within that administration's cacaphony of idiocy. McCaine is a man of great wisdom, experience, and moral conviction; his attempt to encourage campaign finance reform, and limit the degree of control that corporations and special interest groups have on our democracy should be commended. Not something I could say of Bush at all.

There are a few good Democrats, too. I quite like Howard Dean, who is usually unfairly portrayed by an agenda-driven media (an extremist he is not). Senator Joseph Biden also has my respect, as an intelligent, moderate Democrat.

Kerry, in my opinion, is kind of bleh. But I'll take him over Dubya any day of the week.

Laterz.

 

[Feisty Mouse]

As I've said before, I actively like Kerry. But any of the Dems would have been my pick over Dubya this year - he is just terrible.

I think the Bush Administration shot Powell's possible run for President in future years by hanging him out to dry (cutting him off) during the early days of Iraq. Powell at one or two points made statements that the Administration essentially contradicted. I think he's a very loyal and upstanding man who, unfortunately, is loyal to the wrong folks.

Although I don't agree with everything McCain says, I have a lot of respect for him, too.

 

[michaeledward]

This article, I think, will be helpful for any people undecided out there.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5709120/

Tuberculosis had sneaked up again, reappearing with alarming frequency across the United States. The government began writing rules to protect 5 million people whose jobs put them in special danger. Hospitals and homeless shelters, prisons and drug treatment centers -- all would be required to test their employees for TB, hand out breathing masks and quarantine those with the disease. These steps, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration predicted, could prevent 25,000 infections a year and 135 deaths.

By the time President Bush moved into the White House, the tuberculosis rules, first envisioned in 1993, were nearly complete. . . .

Then, on the last day of 2003, in an action so obscure it was not mentioned in any major newspaper in the country, the administration canceled the rules.

... Tomorrow's story will look at a lobbyist's 32-line, last-minute addition to a bill that created a tool for attacking the science used to support new regulations.

...Tuesday's article will document a one-word change in a regulation that allowed coal companies to accelerate efforts to strip away the tops of thousands of Appalachian mountains.

...Since the younger Bush took office, federal agencies have begun roughly one-quarter fewer rules than Clinton and 13 percent fewer than Bush's father during comparable periods.

 

[Flatlander]

An interesting article here on the possible ramifications of the election outcome.

Disclaimer - not my views, but interesting, nonetheless.

In his book The Rise of the Vulcans, James Mann writes of what he calls one of the most significant foreign policy documents in decades. Written in 1991 by the Pentagon's Zalmay Khalizad, the paper set forth "a new vision for a world dominated by a lone American superpower, actively working to make sure that no rival group or group of rivals would ever emerge."

Thoughts?

 

[kelly keltner]

Now this is not to get into a big debate or anything. I just want a name and perhaps a small reason why, but be careful, politics are touchy and I don't want any fighting.

So who do you want for next President

Bush :idunno:
Kerry
Other

M. Thatcher former P. Minister of Brittain. OOOps I forgot she's not a U.S. citizen. She's gotta huge set of huevo's, Right up there with John Wayne. I guess I'll have to settle for Bush.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Thought this might be of interest:


Date: The Kerry-Edwards Campaign
Mark Mellman, Senior Strategist
Where Bush-Cheney Needs To Be
August 24, 2004

As a senior strategist for John Kerry, I have prepared this update for the campaign's most active supporters as we enter the crucial weeks ahead. It's clear that your support has put this campaign in such a strong position as we enter a critical period. Your hard work, activism, and contributions have allowed our campaign to match the Bush campaign on the airwaves and on the ground. I can report that all you've done is now paying off when it counts the most.

By any standard, President Bush heads into his convention in a very weak position. His current position stems from the fact that voters judge the incumbent on his performance and on the state of the nation. By this measure, the president is in grave difficulty. To be counted a success, the Republican convention must fundamentally alter public attitudes on President Bush's stewardship of the country.

There are some basic benchmarks by which an incumbent's success can be measured as the campaign heads into the fall:

The average winning incumbent has had a job approval rating of 60%. Indeed, every incumbent who has won reelection has had his job approval in the mid-50's or higher at this point. In recent polling, Bush's average approval rating has been 48%. President Bush must emerge from his convention having dramatically altered public perception of his performance in office.

In recent years, when incumbents have gone on to victory, 52% of voters, on average, said the country was on the right track. Now, just 37% think things are moving in the right direction. Thus, President Bush must convince the electorate that the nation is in much better shape than voters now believe to be the case.

Every incumbent who has gone on to be reelected has had a double-digit lead at this point.

Following their conventions, the average elected incumbent has held a 16-point lead, while winning incumbents have led by an average of 27 points. Bush will need a very substantial bounce to reach the mark set by his successful predecessors.

Incumbents have enjoyed an average bounce in the vote margin of 8 points.
On average, incumbents' share of the two-party vote has declined by 4 points between their convention and Election Day.

President Bush has the opportunity to achieve an average, or even greater, bounce from his convention. Typically, elected incumbents go into their conventions with a 9-point lead, while incumbents who have gone on to win enter their conventions with a 21-point lead. Most current polls show the race quite close. This gives the president substantial room to bounce. By contrast, Senator Kerry entered his convention in a far stronger position than the average challenger. The average challenger goes into his convention 16 points behind, while Senator Kerry entered his convention with a 1-2 point lead. This gave Senator Kerry much less room to bounce.

However, as the data above makes clear, average is not enough for President Bush. Incumbents who went on to win reelection had an average lead of 27 points after their convention. Indeed, the average elected incumbent -- winners and losers -- had a lead of 16 points after their conventions. An average bounce would still leave Bush well below the historical mark set by other incumbents, particularly those who went on to victory.

Perhaps most important, the average elected incumbent experienced a 4-point drop in his share of the two-party vote from the post-convention polling to Election Day. Thus, to beat the odds, President Bush will need to be garnering 55% of the two-party vote after his convention. Anything less than that and the president will remain in grave political danger.



Regards,

Steve

 

[PeachMonkey]

M. Thatcher former P. Minister of Brittain. OOOps I forgot she's not a U.S. citizen. She's gotta huge set of huevo's, Right up there with John Wayne. I guess I'll have to settle for Bush.

I'm guessing, then, that you *like* the immense damage that Thatcher did to Britain's social fabric?

"There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families." -- Margaret Thatcher

 

[kelly keltner]

I'd have to know the exact context of the quote that is being cited. I would also have to know how to measure damage done to "social fabric".