Regardless of which Presidential candidate you favor...

[blue2blue]

Earmarks -- again -- account for less than 2% of the US federal budget. They're an issue -- to be sure -- but they are a small slice of the pie.

 

And, as Lee and others suggest, those who have tagged Obama's record the "most liberal" a) use criteria heavily waited toward the "culture issues" popular with the religious extremes in the far right of the party and b) would likely be saying the same thing about whatever Democrat was running.

 

 

 

With regard to those who try to minimize the racist component (note I said racist -- not racial) in the Republican campaign, perhaps they need look no further than McCain supporter Arlen Spector hoping out loud that the so-called "Bradley effect" will cause a massive McCain turnaround in Pennsylvania as voters who told pollsters they would vote for Obama -- supposedly because they were 'too embarrassed' to say the were voting for a white man instead -- will vote 'with their race' in the privacy of the ballot box.

 

Citing several "hidden factors" in the race, Spector said he had a sense that the election was going to be a "rude awakening" for Democrats: "The first is that people answer pollsters one way, but in the secrecy of the ballot booth, vote the other way."

[Krypter]

I wonder if all the "righteously patriotic" people will still support their president if the guy they DIDNT like gets elected.

 

Its curious.

 

I also wonder how many people truely love the constitution, or just love their idea of it.

[Philter]

Wow, they managed the impossible and made McCain look even creepier.

[alfonso]

From a very external point of view...the idea that the power and the influence of the U.S. of America in the world comes from the military and from the amount of fear (and hate) that it can suggest to the world is completely foolish and delusional. America has won the respect and friendship from all over the world every time it has shown its ability to bring history further, to make an utopia possible. The only weapons that really work are the "Weapons of Mass Attraction". So, I hope that America shows that it's able to go further and keep evolving.

 

Everybody in the world knows that race is an issue, not only because we know the American history, but because it is an issue everywhere, in the whole world, more or less....let's avoid hypocrite stereotypes. So, America, show the world that you have the balls to go further!

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After spending an amount similar to the recent financial losses for a war against terror that only increased the terror and sucked out the blood of all its citizens, after allowing the corporate sharks to cause what we all have in plain evidence, I'm still amazed on some people having the guts to question about who will bring more or less taxes..... who do you think that is going to pay for these disasters, and how?

 

That might be one of the differences, not IF this disaster will be payed for, because it WILL, but WHO and HOW will pay for it.

Ha, and as a side note, the incredible amount of money spent for the "war on terror" is not just disappeared....it might be useful to remember that it went in someone's pockets...

[Lee Flier]

Thank you, alfonso. And thank you for reminding Americans what we really represent to the world. Some people forget, and I hope we can get back to what's important.

 

"Weapons of mass attraction" - that's just awesome.

[blue2blue]

Another thanks to Alfonso for helping us keep perspective. We can get so caught up in specifics that we start losing track of the big picture. With regard to the 'follow the money' angle -- yes, indeed, the money did go somewhere and we can see where it went by looking at the redistribution of wealth to the wealthy during the last eight years, reflected in widespread figures that show the rich getting richer and the middle class and poor sinking, their buying power shrinking overall during the last 8 years.

 

The response of some to the current crisis is more of the same policies that got us here: more tax cuts for the rich and -- based on the historical record of Republicans in the last 50 or so years -- more empty promises of cutting spending matched by yet more borrowing just to pay current bills and the interest on the national debt. Sure... they cut a few benefits to the poor every once in a while, throwing the Republican core a bone who delight in seeing the poor get poorer -- but those cuts come out of what remains, despite right wing hype, a very tiny slice of the US expenditure pie. Most of our tax dollars go to supporting a military we were told could win two separate wars at once on opposite sides of the globe -- yet which cannot seem to win either of the relatively small wars that they have engaged in. That's not through lack of expenditure. We spend more on our miltary than any other major nation on earth. Our per capita military expense is truly stupefying. Yet it appears to be a very bad bargain. The fault, clearly is not our troops, which are among the best in the world. The fault is in the civilian and military leadership and the way that we allow the military expenditure process to be corrupted by inefficiency, misfeasance, and outright profiteering and criminality.

[pink floyd cramer]

 

I wonder if all the "righteously patriotic" people will still support their president if the guy they DIDNT like gets elected. Its curious. I also wonder how many people truely love the constitution, or just love their idea of it.

 

 

Great point. I think we're all sick of seeing politicians and their hyper-partisan followers vested in the failure of the US- for example, in Iraq- with the idea it would be worth it, for their party to gain power (and the opposing party being discredited). I intend to be better than that.

[Rabid]

 

Maybe where you live it doesn't. Here in WV it does. When whole counties which have been voting democrat for decades vote for McCain all of a sudden, conclusions can be made.

 

 

Sometimes jumping to conclusions can be a problem. Here in SE Kentucky it is not race I hear in anti-Obama talk, it is his position against coal. Take coal away from West Virginia and what do they have? Yes, race will be an issue for some, but what he might do to the WV economy is an issue for many.

 

It does surprise me that he came out so strongly against coal when imported oil is such a problem.

[Rabid]

 

For me, McCain is one of those people that I found far more appealing four years ago then now, as I've found out more about him. Again, for me, I feel he's become less appealing as his campaign has worn on, and I've found out about the way he treats people, the way he's crashed planes, the application of "Rove-ian" tactics (hiring the very same people who have lambasted him previously), ugly campaign tactics (robo-calls), etc. He doesn't strike me now as a "maverick" but more of a mean-spirited opportunist. Maybe you knew more about him than I did before, so you realized that he was pretty much the same guy. And I know some people, including many of my friends, have gotten very excited about Obama . I have not. I don't dislike him, either, but I am wary of his lack of experience overall, so it's very difficult for me to get too excited about him. I'm more enthusiastic about the Bush Administration finally coming to an end.

 

 

I think that reflects my feelings a lot. One thing I will add, I became worried about how the trials of the election have warn McCain down. The longer the campaign ran the more exhausted he looks and the more mistakes he makes. Now I wonder how he could handle the riggers of the presidency. I certainly don't want another puppet president that has his strings pulled by politicians I don't like and business people I don't respect.

[Anderton]

There was a buzz that Clinton was going to be a liberal president, but actually, he moved to the center (partially due to the Republicans taking control of Congress and the "Contract with America").

 

Bush was supposed to be a right-wing conservative, yet he's approved drunken sailer spending bills, nationalized several institutions, and presided over a huge redistribution of income.

 

Fact of the matter is that recent candidates tend to move more to the center when they become president. Regardless of who wins, McCain will be less right and Obama will be less left than either is advertised as being. There's too much pressure to do so from all concerned.

 

I'm not worried

[St. Mallarmé]

Well, I am not an Italian Saint like Alfonso...

 

 

... so according to this graph and the 1.4% nation, the United States of America owed me already 2007 exactly $5'133'333'333.00, or $17.11 per capita

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

 

... so according to this graph and the 1.4% nation, the United States of America owed me already 2007 exactly $5'133'333'333.00, or $17.11 per capita

 

 

Stephan,

 

I am a Saint, you know that, but holy cow Stephan, I'm also one of this rare Swiss, even found an earlier quittance of my $5'133'333'333.00 in the wine cellar just next to the bottles we emptied with Bill Clinton. On top of it he even got a Selmer sax I personally selected for him, and the president of Georgia presented to Bill at his state visit in Tibilisi, mama mia, how could I forget this quittance, now I can buy that mill in France without selling the house in Switzerland. Actually, I could collect the $17.11 from each forumite here for a start

 

 

-.--.-.---.