tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post3930560977123546853..comments2024-03-28T09:55:42.123+00:00Comments on Capitalists@Work: What a way to run an opposition.CityUnslickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15929544047783163175noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-66652949269948208532013-08-01T16:51:41.563+01:002013-08-01T16:51:41.563+01:00"" But one thing the USA could learn fr..."" But one thing the USA could learn from the UK is how to do not being in government. consider the crazy idea the US has of holding primaries. What a dumb idea this is. Only 8-9 months before the election did the Republicans consider choosing a leader. How much time does that give the choice to make an impact? Virtually none. What brief do they have? What knowledge of what's been going on? What recognition do they have by the voting public? <br />The new challenger to the President has to start from near zero and come up with a whole raft of credible, measured, tested proposals in a matter of weeks. its near impossible.<br />""Agence communicationhttp://www.salisoft.manoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-60638489775488112472012-11-10T18:44:51.190+00:002012-11-10T18:44:51.190+00:00Simply not true that Romney lost because of 'h...Simply not true that Romney lost because of 'hispanics' most of those midwester swing states he was expected to have a possibility of turning around have a very small percent of hispanics, and even other minorities.<br />He lost because he was a rich guy that changed his position depending on who he was speaking to. He'd not been consistent over a period of time, as a result people could have no idea what a Romney presidency would look like.<br />Also he made several aggressive foreign policy statements, which was stupid considering Obamas rise to prominence came as a result of people wanting out of Bushes wars, they certainly weren't going to suddenly vote to start another.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-38193132905858812992012-11-09T11:49:55.647+00:002012-11-09T11:49:55.647+00:00Republicans have conceded Florida.
That makes for ...Republicans have conceded Florida.<br />That makes for a much worse situation for them and cancels out the popular vote argument a bit.<br /><br />Obama had a good victory. Romney did poorly. It can't be seen any other way. <br /><br />Seems Americans do trust Obama to sort everything out.<br /><br />Not really sure he will. Or even can.<br /> <br />Bill Quango MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14861116614665461655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-17862377825103901302012-11-09T10:58:53.212+00:002012-11-09T10:58:53.212+00:00Obama has been a lame-duck pres since 2010, when t...Obama has been a lame-duck pres since 2010, when the Dems lost control of both houses of Congress. He is now starting out as a lame duck. It seems that the US like him as Pres but they don't want him to do anything.Graemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11007306140530173428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-7583430912938635582012-11-08T22:03:03.198+00:002012-11-08T22:03:03.198+00:00Elby - "Obama creeps me out"
Yup, he do...Elby - "Obama creeps me out"<br /><br />Yup, he does the same for me. He is a demagogue.Budgienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-11215437100884486552012-11-08T17:51:40.158+00:002012-11-08T17:51:40.158+00:00It doesn't make much difference who "won&...It doesn't make much difference who "won" the recent American election -- which Obama did by a bare 2% in terms of the popular vote. And even that mainly because of support from Latinos, whose right to vote, or even to be in the United States, was in many cases questionable.<br /><br />The main issue is the unsustainable size of the American annual deficit, and of their National Debt. And of the two candidates available, the American voters have chosen the one least capable of dealing with it.<br /><br />All this newspaper talk about "deadlock between President and Congress" is like focusing the main attention on a couple of tourists wrestling on the edge of Mount Etna.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-86916119134848367742012-11-08T17:16:32.136+00:002012-11-08T17:16:32.136+00:00The Presidential process seems to have evolved so ...The Presidential process seems to have evolved so that the most accomplished liar wins. But what will Obama do for the next 4 years given that he will be dependant on Republicans bailing him out in Congress? My bet is that he will start another war.Graemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11007306140530173428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-31404605272499624732012-11-08T15:43:45.301+00:002012-11-08T15:43:45.301+00:00Dp : Not that bothered myself. Obama should have b...Dp : Not that bothered myself. Obama should have been given a bigger scare for being so careless with the economy. But the economic mess he inherited wasn't his fault. However the one he's leaving for Hillary will be.<br /><br />Seb W: Nice comment. They sure have one confusing system. Only the Canadians seem to bleat more.<br /><br />I do think you're partly right. But there are a lot of weirdos with a lot of baggage in the picture. The process culled the extreme ones. But also the sensible ones.<br /><br />EK: our media delight in portraying US runners as gun totin' rootin' tootin' war lovin' extremists. Since Jimmy Carter lost the fuzzy luvvy media have never got over it.<br /><br />Poor old George Bush and Reagan were treated like evangelical lunatics. Clinton like a wise and caring prophet. Its bizzare. Our media would never portray a European leader as a "machine gunning a pick up wreck in the desert" frothing bible eyed rabid illiterate cripple brain. Yet they do for the US.<br /><br />BE: good points! And we didn't find out what biscuit Brown liked until 3 days after Mumsnet asked him, and Campbell and Mandelson had chosen a suitably vague answer.<br /><br />Idle: Yes, I have seen your quality post. Recommended to all. Our politicos may not be up to much and all from a very narrow sliver of life<br />but they do get a chance to make their administration their own. But maybe having Lord Ashcroft and Lord Sugar as leaders would be better for the nation. At least they know the cost of things.<br /><br />Elby : So...not a fan then?<br /><br />Asquith. It must be liberal heaven with Barry back in the big chair.<br /><br />I don't think its so much his own personality that is keeping him from Iran as the knowledge that the US couldn't possibly occupy that country. <br />Bush would have been advised by the military that they could easily win and by Rumsfeld that any war would pay for itself. <br />No both know better. So Obama wants nothing to do with the Mullahs.<br /><br />A weak, as is a strong, America is bad for everyone.<br />Bill Quango MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14861116614665461655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-62433120478165788902012-11-08T14:18:22.042+00:002012-11-08T14:18:22.042+00:00Another noteworthy thing about Obama is its locali...Another noteworthy thing about Obama is its localism. The headline news was what I wanted, and I was also pleased by the fact that some of the most hardline twats like Allen West were defeated in the legislature.<br /><br />But you've also got local elections which for the most part have also gone my way. They've legalised recreational use of marijuana in 2 states, which I'm delighted with, and equal marriage in 4 states. You've genuinely got localities being able to make their own decisions.<br /><br />Obama wields great power in the wider world, and I should sincerely hope he avoids another huge-scale war of the kind the right want to launch against Iran. But in America, his power is fairly limited. And of course whether people like that or not will depend on whether they agree wiith most people in their locality.asquithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14246701347539264295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-21882310428562435852012-11-08T13:40:45.282+00:002012-11-08T13:40:45.282+00:00What astonishes me, regardless of procedures leadi...What astonishes me, regardless of procedures leading up to the election, is that the USA, having had a four year lesson from the EU on why Social Democracy is a disaster, opt for a full-on Social Democrat with as full-on an antipathy for the notion of Civil Liberty as the twunt Blair. <br /><br />Doesn't get more stupid than that. Actually it does - he's also got into bed with the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><br />Dick - Obama creeps me out. He is NOT nice guy. Nice guys don't leave their ambassadors to be torn about by savages who the USA probably armed. No, the man is a nasty little identity politics driven demagogue. The USA has had it. <br /><br />FUBAR. <br /><br />The Decline and Fall of the American Empire. It won't make pretty watching...Elby the Beserkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15060519682739666145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-5933502517426314562012-11-08T12:42:55.885+00:002012-11-08T12:42:55.885+00:00BQ, you and I were writing similar posts concurren...BQ, you and I were writing similar posts concurrently, it seems. Our opinions on the primaries are more or less identical. Romney reached the convention ready for A&E rather than a coronation.<br /><br />I agree it seems odd that the challenger is almost never a 'leader' of his party, as we understand it. He may not even be in Congress, but Governor of a self-contained state a thousand miles away.<br /><br />We like to see our opposition leaders at the despatch box and managing an embittered and unmotivated parliamentary party, whilst providing a critique of the government and developing policy. <br /><br />Our leaders are pretty poor, though, are they not? Their own tale is one of a career of compromises and bribery in equal measure, for it is the only way to climb the greasy pole. Look at Ed Miliband and how he achieved his current job.<br /><br />Reagan would not have been Reagan after twenty or thirty years in Washington as a Congessman.idlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09938525768274527540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-60763649269084265642012-11-08T00:13:35.673+00:002012-11-08T00:13:35.673+00:00Potato/Potatoe was Dan Quayle, the Vice President....Potato/Potatoe was Dan Quayle, the Vice President.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-90834670870148402452012-11-07T23:16:27.927+00:002012-11-07T23:16:27.927+00:00Brilliant blog post!
Agree with SW and EK. Even ...Brilliant blog post!<br /><br />Agree with SW and EK. Even in the UK the system rewards the dull who have made no mistakes in the past. Remember the uproar when Cam refused to say whether he'd done drugs in the past? I'd like to know the proportion of the population that hasn't. Do they automatically get to run the country?? Madness.<br /><br />Then again, we didn't learn what brand of toothpaste Blair used until GWB told the world.<br /><br />I doubt there can be a perfect system for choosing a national leader. As CU said before, at least the Americans get people who've been successful at other things before politics, occasionally. We've broken that system with money so now politics is a good career option in its own right.Blue Eyesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-59434304045758879042012-11-07T23:08:25.526+00:002012-11-07T23:08:25.526+00:00BuggeryBuggeryElectro-Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18073103431166273080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-10385953124698363432012-11-07T23:05:17.583+00:002012-11-07T23:05:17.583+00:00All this scrutiny and rigorous selection.
So why...All this scrutiny and rigorous selection. <br /><br />So why can't they get presidents who can spell ?<br /><br />We've had one who thought potato was potatoe and who didn't like being misunderestimated at all.<br /><br />What was difficult to understand from the CIA brief "She is a drug addled depressive - what ever you do do not fuck her or she will splooge her affections for you live on a public stage." ?<br /><br />Or "You will make a second term, by bugger !" (burglary)<br /><br />Another even thought it was the Oral Office and got his cock sucked in the political Holy of Holies. <br /><br />Not very effective, this US Presidency selection procedure.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Electro-Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18073103431166273080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-30981782065586923862012-11-07T22:55:15.995+00:002012-11-07T22:55:15.995+00:00"At the end the Darwinian process has weeded ..."At the end the Darwinian process has weeded out the weak and left only the strong" <br /><br />I respectfully beg to differ. The circular firing squad they all indulge in gets rid of the interesting, the Maverick, the opinionated, the principled, the original... and leaves the dull, the cautious, the trimmer, the inoffensive bleating milksop. They succeed by revealing as little as possible and by being conventional and unoriginal. Wonderful teeth though, I give them that.<br /><br />When I look at the American system - at the Federal level, I mean - it seems to me that they never really had a revolution in the true sense of the term. Really they just took the powers of George III and called his replacement 'President'. He essentially has strong powers of patronage but is hamstrung by a legislature and judiciary he cannot control. Which is how parliament used to work here, of course, until the party whip system and the neutering of Royal prerogative and the Lords gave PMs virtually dictatorial powers. Sebastian Weetabixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32841798.post-37313497879784966372012-11-07T22:04:48.884+00:002012-11-07T22:04:48.884+00:00There's still a lot of baggage from Bush and O...There's still a lot of baggage from Bush and Obama does seem a nice guy whereas Romney seems a knob. Obama is wrong on most things economic but Romney couldn't be trusted so it was kinda game over.<br /><br /> The Yank electoral cycle just brings them in and chews them out. $6.2 billion seeems a lot especially when a Denis MacShane clone is the accountant but you've got to respect their willingness to put their money down. It's nicely brutal. <br /><br /> Quite chuffed that Obama won - not my money.Dick the Prickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02683095612320513712noreply@blogger.com