Political & Elections

I will never understand hope's disdain for Michelle Obama. I never thought it was wrong to encourage healthy lifestyles, especially given our obesity epidemic.

But hey, I'm just young and stupid, so what do I know? I won't be wise until I've lived through at least 10 or so more campaign cycles. ;)

lp- of course I remember. CCC planted most of the trees up north IIRC. I've only been to the UP a few times though so I couldn't remember whether or not the trees were freakishly straight like they are down here.

"She won't have time. She'll be busy driving her two Cadillacs - at the same time I'm thinking."

With all the pain she has had from MS, it is probably a challenge to get into one, much less drive it, sometimes.

"I don't think the republicans think that "trees are the right height and the streets are just right" are gaffes."

No, I doubt they do. It sounds like an obvious reference that everything in this place feels just right. Not controversial, not a gaffe, pretty much an inane meaningless comment, not worthy of being talked about. Then again, since almost every single thing that Obama has done or said has been attacked and often exaggerated, I suppose it's fair play.

Hindoo, 

Glad to hear from you again.

"Hope, it's just wishful thinking to say everyone will agree with you. The majority of people like Obama as a person. I'm not sure where you get the nasty part you keep referring to. Can you give us some examples of "nasty"? As far as his gaffes go, since you say the media covers them up, how did you hear about them? Frankly as far as gaffes go, Romney has had more in the campaign so far than Obama has had in the last 4 years. The republicans are tearing their hair out."

Hayden you're completely wrong on this.  I don't think the republicans think that "trees are the right height and the streets are just right" are gaffes.  Neither is saying effectively that $374k is nothing.  He can't make gaffes because he's a man of the people. 

Hope, it's just wishful thinking to say everyone will agree with you. The majority of people like Obama as a person. I'm not sure where you get the nasty part you keep referring to. Can you give us some examples of "nasty"? As far as his gaffes go, since you say the media covers them up, how did you hear about them? Frankly as far as gaffes go, Romney has had more in the campaign so far than Obama has had in the last 4 years. The republicans are tearing their hair out.

Did someone say landslide? I'm a Democrat and, let's just say, I'm smiling.  :)

Mitt is a better human being than Obama.

 

Omg is right. And you would know that ... how?  Did you come across a burning bush while you taking a break?

hope, you're kidding yourself if you think politicians are EVER going to stop telling us how to live our lives.

LP, yes, all the people with wealth at that level set up trusts to by-pass any estate taxes.

What makes me laugh, though, is in one of the debates Romney very earnestly said that he didn't inherit his money.  Well, duh - George Romney set up trusts while he was living, so Mitt got his before his father died.  Voila, no inheritance.

I'm glad to hear Ann Romney is symptom free. MS is a horribly cruel disease, and I wouldn't like to hear that it's ravaging her body. I also don't understand all the outrage over the fact that she drives "a couple of caddies." So the Romneys are rich... Didn't we all know that? The Kerry's are uber rich, too. So are all the Kennedys, and Bill and Hillary grow richer by the hour. I don't have a problem with rich people. I have a problem with rich people sheltering their money in off-shore accounts while insisting that poor people should pay more in taxes. I have a problem with the rich appearing to have callous disregard for the challenges faced by the working poor and middle class. Mitt has a problem with appearing not to care. That's going to be a problem for him as he tries to make the case that he should be the President of not just the monied and privileged, but the poor and middle class as well.

But, getting back to Ann Romney, she seems like a perfectly nice woman, supporting the man she married on the campaign trail, no different from any other Presidential candidate's wife.

and Michelle admonishing us to eat our vegetables or else.

I must have missed the "or else" threat. Seems to me the First Lady has been simply encouraging families and school systems to serve more healthful menu items in the interest of fighting an exponential increase in childhood obesity, and medical issues that result from such. Who would have thought there'd be so many people opposed to such an idea? If Michelle Obama is "lecturing" us to encourage children to exercise and make better food choices, Nancy Reagan was lecturing children to adstain from drugs, and Laura Bush was lecturing families and communities to make childrens' literacy a priority. Is there anything Michelle is doing that exceeds the platform boundaries these other First Ladies operated within? If you hate the woman, why not just flat out say so, instead of pretending she's some singular form of moral elitist?

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Monday 27th of February 2012 11:18:53 PM

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Monday 27th of February 2012 11:22:31 PM

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Monday 27th of February 2012 11:23:39 PM

With all the pain she has had from MS, it is probably a challenge to get into one, much less drive it, sometimes.[/qoote]

Nice try. She says she is symptom free and has been for some time now. She self describes as being in remission since 2002 and does 3-4 campaign events a day. She also competed at the Grand Prix level in dressage as late as 2010.  Handling a Caddy is nothing compared to her stable of warmbloods.

-- Edited by Cartera on Monday 27th of February 2012 09:58:45 PM

Too funny! Here's a link to that:

http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2012/02/26

hope said, "I do not remember G W Bush lecturing us. Maybe it's just me."

W did lecture us.

The problem was that we drifted off because we could never understand his speeches, even when he had the use of teleprompters. Do you remember how Ari Fleischer trying to explain W's speeches to the press.  

-- Edited by longprime on Monday 27th of February 2012 08:56:22 PM

Oh yeah, true, I forgot. Mitt is out there lecturing us about contraception, abortion and gay marriage day in and day out. How could I have missed that.  Exactly parallel to Barry's neverending reminders that to whom much is given much is required, and Michelle admonishing us to eat our vegetables or else. Right, got it.

-- Edited by hope on Monday 27th of February 2012 07:29:38 PM

Ha.

www.Doonesbury.com

 Sunday, Feb 26, 2012. 

 

 

-- Edited by longprime on Sunday 26th of February 2012 10:06:24 PM

I saw ONE pro-Romney ad. Something about him shutting down his business to look for a little girl? It didn't come on until about 10:30 though.

I have no doubt Mitt will win. It's just baffling to me that there's even a race around these parts considering we're Romney's "home" state and most people hadn't even heard of Santorum until a few months ago. I have friends in a far more conservative part of the state and I guess Santorum ads have been running there like crazy.

Oh and Ron Paul is coming to my U sometime this (?) week. My boyfriend is a registered Republican and he's getting all sorts of political texts, calls, and emails encouraging him to go out and vote in the primary. I feel left out :(

I'm at 11 anti-Ricky ads since 5:00 when I turned on the TV. Watching the Big 10 network and Food Channel (Network?). I'm keeping a tally. This is a tad bit ridiculous.

Not a great quote in Michigan where people are struggling mightily even in comparison to the rest of the country. The recession hit us before it rippled out to the rest of the country. We still haven't recovered. Not smart. He's had a lot of gaffs which surprises me. For some reason, I thought he'd be far more calculated in how he talks.

I still wanna know what the "right height" for trees is lol. The irony, of course, is that most of Michigan's forests come from the CCC and FDR's New Deal. I don't think those would get much support today from conservatives.

I can't believe that anybody let alone a candidate for president could make such stupid remarks - particularly about trees and streets.   Its insulting the intelligence of Michigan republican voters.

With comments on the stump like this from Mitt, Ricky has it in the bag:

"It just feels good, being back in Michigan. You know the trees are the right height, the streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. And I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered," he said.

Yup, "hysteria" pretty much describes it. Well, so does "base motivation" and "pandering"- sort of -  but if ginned-up outrage for a purpose is the definition of anything, it would be "hysteria".

You know it's a complicated issue when someone who believes contraception should be available to all, and abortion services to darn near all, and does so in spite of agreeing intellectually with these sentiments:

Birth control is not a health issue at all; pregnancy is not a disease or an illness and termination of it is not a cure to a medical problem.

manages to feel dirty from the company they're keeping.

And it's mainly the hysterical, over-the-top, slippery-slope arguments that are reflexively used on dissenters, you see, because you can believe in contraception and abortion rights yet still believe this:

Couching it in these terms is an assault on all those who believe in any notion of spirituality, the sanctity of life even as a conditional concept and not an inflexible rule, or in any position for ecclesiastical moral leadership. It is, to boot, an assault on the constitutional rights guaranteed to religious practice in the First Amendment.

Better to be upfront about it and argue the poverty/disadvantage/drain on society aspects, in my opinion.

 

 

-- Edited by catahoula on Friday 24th of February 2012 08:01:58 PM

The only reason the "Personhood" and the "Transvaginal Ultrasound Requirement" bills have not been signed into law here in VA is because McDonald has national ambitions. Our good guvnah had stated earlier that he would sign both bills once they landed on his desk. However, it was only after national media picked up on the story, and it received such negative blowback (duuuh!), that he was strongly advised now was not the time to do anything that might damage his prospects at a VP nod. His is among a short list of names being bandied about among GOP insiders for VP.

The ramafications of the personhood law alone would have been immense; Not only could abortion be potenially defined as 1st degree murder, but the birth control pill, and the IUD could suddenly be deemed the equivalent of a handgun in the commission of homocide in the State of Virginia. Republican lawmakers used their majority in both houses to ram these bills through our legislature, knowing that they could never pass a state-wide referendum. Had McDonald not been thinking primarily of himself at this juncture, those laws would be fact in Virginia, even as we speak. For years, liberals have been insisting that the anti-abortion lobby in this country has been working to legislatively weaken or restrict the right to an abortion, with the view toward rendering it practically impossible to impliment, and conservatives have been poo-pooing the charge, claiming pro-choicers are "paranoid." Well, pro-choicers are not paranoid. And Obama cannot be blamed for the rhetoric coming out of the mouths of extremists GOP frontrunners, or for bills like the ones being rammed through GOP state houses.

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Friday 24th of February 2012 06:21:26 PM