Charlie Rose

Bruce Josloff  11/01/2008 06:23 PM Report

" Obama is very much like a Lenin personality."

Tabs, I think you have bitten off a bit more than you can chew.

sock puppet  10/29/2008 07:06 PM Report

Re the election (imagine), Obama is going to campaign in FL with Clinton. With hind sight and the financial collapse, associating with Clinton is less than astute. Clinton and his Citigroup et al cronies are having as much of an affect on America - and ultimately our security - as Bin Laden and al Qaeda. The Commodity Funds Modernization Act 2000.

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Under the Commodity Funds Modernization Act 2000, which was part of a 262 page amendment to an even larger appropriations bill, the Shad-Johnson Jurisdiction Accord of 1982 was repealed. This act also had the effect of excluding regulation on exempt commodities by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

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Empires expire by economic assault more than by armed assault. Obama is shooting himself in the foot - with me anyway.

TABS  10/29/2008 07:05 PM Report

A QUICK TAKE ON THE CANDIDATES PERSONALITIES:

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Obama is a very calculating individual. He lives in his head with his intellectualism. Never showing emotion, which he avoids as it reminds him of the pain of his own childhood abandonment. That is why he projects wanting to help out the little guy the disaffected etc in America as it hark-ens back to his own childhood. Abandon by his father at 3 and foisted off on his Grandparents later....................

Obama is a chain smoker which would fit a compulsion which keeps his hands busy to avoid dealing with emotions. It is also likely that he is absent minded, and can't tie his own shoes without help, again that is because he is so remote and keeps his distance from emotion, aka not having your feet on the ground. That tendency shows up in his inability to hold a pointed or direct conversation with anyone. While his intellect allows him to write these beautifully eloquent speeches. He may have help from his wife on those speeches, as she is a very direct person..................................

Another aspect of Obama is his rubber stamping anything and everything Liberal in the past. In the future it maybe that he agrees with the excesses of the Liberal wing of the Democratic party and thus will approve. That will lead to another failure as President. However to govern EFFECTIVILY one has to be able to make both left and right turns and govern from the center. My guess from watching his campaign and the tight control that he has over it Obama is going to exercise the discipline of discounting his own ideological bias. So watch out Liberal Dems Obama is the kind O guy that will purge his own party of anybody that gets in his way. Either ya drink the Kool Aid and become an acolyte or your gona be OUT.......................................................

Obama is really a revolutionary and wants to put his imprint on America. This is going to be a secular Oliver Cromwell Round-head revolution. Where bling bling is going to be outa fashion. Austerity is comin back in a big way....DISCIPLINE DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE is GOING to be demanded...................................

What your really looking for is an integration of intellect and emotion. Obama is out of balance as he tends to favor the intellect over emotion.....................................................

Obama is very much like a Lenin personality. Lenin did not want to listen to music as he thought it would make him soft. Hitler felt that he had to be ruthless to be a great man. In each case the man would decide that a certain type of behavior would be in keeping with that of a great leader, and they would add it to their repertoire of behavior. Obama does the same kind of thing...........................................

Comapare that to Lincoln, Lincolns political decisions were based upon internally dervied conclusions. He felt and intellectually backed up those feeling with reasoning that led to making decisions in a timely fashion.

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McCain has always been a bit of a wild hot headed individual. He does not buckle under conventional authority he is going to do it his way and not what convention dictates. Thus his being a Maverick, and not going along with party orthodoxy. He has a very strong sense of personal idenity and confidence built in to be able to carry that off. One has to remember that what he was railing against was the tradition of being in a 2 generation Naval officer family. So he chafed under that discipline or constraint on behavior..............................

His time in the POW camp tempered him. I think it showed him that life is too short to do anything but what one wants to do in life. Maybe that is where he got to be SERIOUS and have a desire to be of service to others. HIS NATION..maybe that is where he decide to be a champion of FREEDOM. That he saw what repression really was and that it is a very real danger in the world..........................................

Intellectually McCAin is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and only sees the conventional. He is not a nuanced type of person. He is a seat of the pants if it feels right it is probably right so lets do it kind O guy. That is not to say he is stuborn and will not listen. That is kinda why he has TR as his hero.................

This is not to be mistaken for GW traits of having a lack of curosity, not paying attention to detail and not following up on decisions made. GW is the "Decider" and once a decison is made it is taken care of and on to the next decison.Those are the character flaws of GW which has made him a mediocre President.

TABS  10/29/2008 02:25 PM Report

Dear Reality: Yes I do have that kind of "AFFECT" on people. Mother is always throwing up her hands and stomping about the room in anger. Telling me that I am "just a worthless twit, and how did she ever have such a worthless child....I must be Gods curse on her." To which I usually reply, "You reap what you sow."

TABS  10/29/2008 02:24 PM Report

Dear Reality: Yes I do have that kind of "AFFECT" on people. Mother is always throwing up her hands and stomping about the room in anger. Telling me that I am "just a worthless twit, and how did she ever have such a worthless child....I must be Gods curse on her." To which I usually reply, "You reap what you sow."

TABS  10/29/2008 02:21 PM Report

Dear Reality: Yes I do have that kind of "AFFECT" on people. Mother is always throwing up her hands and stomping about the room in anger. Telling me that I am "just a worthless twit, and how did she ever have such a worthless child....I must be Gods curse on her." To which I usually reply, "You reap what you sow."

Reality Check  10/29/2008 01:37 PM Report

To TABS. You wrote: "But the salient point is that you do read me, and I do effect your thinking or you never would have responded." First of all, It is "AFFECT your thinking." My thinking, I believe, was effected before I got to read your nonsense. I second Sock Puppet's comment. It is not only the ego, it's the lack of self-awareness. How do you affect my thinking? I am going to tell you: now I am convinced that fora, such as this one, with contributors like you are a waste of time. Good work!

Kyle  10/29/2008 02:04 AM Report

Comment by ana on Monday, Oct 27 at 09:13 PM

I really hope Charlie would learn how to behave like a decent journalist. He lacks even the basic temperament and etiquette. Mr.Rose, please take a lesson from Jim Lehrer or Judy Woodruff. How long do we need to wait? Sigh.

Sending Report...

Abuse Reported

Ms Gore (sigh), You don't have to wait. Just stop watching...

sock puppet  10/28/2008 11:26 PM Report

Well now that that's cleared up we can set about to continue to solving the world's problems. I wont demand kudos and accolades if you wont. Polite applause acceptable if with decorum and respectful of our exalted rank among men and women. Sycophancy should be discouraged. It's so unseemly - as has been demonstrated. Embarrassing actually.

TABS  10/28/2008 07:41 PM Report

Dear Sock: Let us get it straight I said, "barbarous little sand monkeys" and not "sand monkeys." Did the juxtaposition of the 2 ideas I presented on that Thread ever give you pause? How could the 2 extreme points of view coexist? One has to be real and the other well a lie or a sarcasism.

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Well it is a relief that we are not talking about an over inflated ego. So there has to be some merit involved in having "an ego as big as the outdoors."

sock puppet  10/28/2008 06:46 PM Report

TABS cum ERN (erudite red neck). Sympathetic to Reality Check's reaction as I too have accused you of having an ego bigger than all out doors. CR blogging is a rather pathetic venue to vent your erudition(?). Especially if you take yourself too seriously (ding, ding). Your last two sentences: "But the salient point is that you do read me, and I do effect your thinking or you never would have responded. For better or worse that is the way it is." That's true! RON effects me with his posts as well. Negatively! You were a mixed bag until your, "Iraqi's are sand monkeys" gem. Now you and RON are in the quick perusal category - primarily just to see how wacko they are. (Addictively? - hardly.) Lastly, Charlie by now surely has put these board inanities out of mind as merely an aside sop to the retired, or otherwise idle viewers without a life. Collectively, we're probably to be pitied more than attributed (as I presume your presumption seems to demand). Lighten up ERN, no ones fifteen minutes is going to emanate from these blogs.

TABS  10/28/2008 05:47 PM Report

Dear Reality: My ideas "HALF BAKED!" I'll have you know they are FULLY BAKED, thank you.

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There is something called curiosity. Whenever a person appears on stage and gives a performance or presents ideas it is human nature to be curious about how they are received. That ultimately is the rational for this Board to be in existence. The very structure of this Board indicates that purpose as everything is geared to a single subject, with no ability to cross reference topics or posts.

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Mr Rose does have his Moderators who do filter through these posts for several reasons. First is to delete anything objectionable. Two is to do a tally of positives to negative responses (the gist of what is being said) and third, to catch anything of interest that might give a unique or poignant point of view, and those posts are passed on to Mr Rose. This largely can be said of Mr Roses guests or their assistants as well. Third, any viewers who might have a vested interest in the guest on the show, might also take a quick view of what the response is to the show, as well. The idea is to be able to reach out and touch someone and effect their thinking.

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If history is any indication of future events, then TABS has a very addictive quality if for no other reason than to love to hate him. But the salient point is that you do read me, and I do effect your thinking or you never would have responded. For better or worse that is the way it is.

sock puppet  10/28/2008 05:46 PM Report

From Marilyn's cite: "As president, Obama also would issue an executive order establishing clear guidelines for the review and release of government scientific publications, to ensure that political appointees don’t tamper with or suppress research findings that they don’t like." Works for me. Just wish he were more objective on finance related issues. Fearful he is headed toward continuing Hank and Ben's bailout policies. And without prosecuting the financial wise-guys cause they own him (McCain too however).

Marilyn  10/28/2008 10:20 AM Report

Perhaps the most vitally important way to meet the future in this election is to unleash the chains and politic agendas on science and research, allowing for unimagined potential to flourish. Check this link for candidates positions on this, and perhaps that will help in making a choice. Settling for the one that satisfies an immediate personal predicament in time is short-sighted and trivial, no matter how important it may seem at the moment, but that is what drives politics as usual.

http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2008/10/is-mccain-or--1.html

TABS  10/27/2008 10:15 PM Report

The title of the latest edition of Mr Roses show should be the selling of Obama. Mr Meacham is trying to make Mr Obama palatable to the other 50% of the American voters by claiming that America is "center right" and that Mr Obama is a moderate candidate. That said Mr Meacham has addressed every issue that was posted by myself on this Board for the past several months.

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Mr Klein on the other hand gave the audience a load of horse manure. Americans before GW mentioned the "Collapse" word and saw the NY Stock Exchange melt down was blissfully unaware of the danger that lurked beneath the surface. Why else would the calls AGAINST the B Bill have been running so heavily against it. So to say that the American main street "reverberated" Wall Street before the fact is just well Horse manure.

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To state once again Obama hiself might be Center of the road if ya wana give him some. HOWEVER it will be the Democratic Congress with that Super Majority that will pass every passing Liberal whim. The question is will Obama agree with them ideologically and rubber stamp Congress. Or will Obama have to put his foot down and veto the sure to come excesses of a Democratic Congress (If ya doubt that will be the course of a Democratic Congress take a look at the state that CA is in financially). If the Centrist option is chosen then Obama will have to purge his own party of its radical elements at some point.

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This author does not mind if his ideas are used, however it would be appreciated if the source of those ideas were cited.

Reality Check  10/27/2008 10:04 PM Report

To TABS: "This author does not mind if his ideas are used, however it would be appreciated if the source of those ideas were cited." All that after a pretty incomprehensible post, with creative spelling and questionable word order? Who do you think you are? And what do you think you do by posting on a rather pathetic blog? (If it's not a pleonasm!) Come back to earth, man, if it's not too late... From my cursory reading of most of your postings, along with others here (the lengthy ones) who seem to think highly of their sloppy and half-baked ideas, you don't seem to make any sense after two lines. Typical of a particular type of people who, since they think they understand their own writing, believe it's the ultimate word on everything, and that everybody should read them.

ana  10/27/2008 09:13 PM Report

I really hope Charlie would learn how to behave like a decent journalist. He lacks even the basic temperament and etiquette. Mr.Rose, please take a lesson from Jim Lehrer or Judy Woodruff. How long do we need to wait?

Sigh.

Snazel  10/27/2008 07:26 PM Report

Russert was a loss, of that there is no doubt.

We still have Charlie though, and as the avenues for decent, intelligent dialog on television diminish, I find I treasure this show even more.

michelle priddy  10/27/2008 04:25 PM Report

Charlie,

It's obvious the news networks want Obama. So obvious I'm wondering about their ability to report. I mourn the passage of Russert. He got to the bottom and let us make our own decisions.

Snazel  10/26/2008 11:22 PM Report

Not the best political panel in Charlie Rose history, not by a long shot.

It was still worthy viewing though, and my general thoughts:

Jon Meacham - This man has always rubbed me the wrong way. I find him arrogant, aloof and holier-than-thou. I know he's a trusted friend of Charlie's (and a frequent guest on Russert's CNBC show), and I know he has a great resume. Still, I just have a hard time listening to the man. I feel he's the kind of man, who would curl his nose at me on sight.

Joe Klein - I expected more from the man who gave us "Primary Colors".

Charlie Cook - I thought he had the best comments of the night, and in general, I enjoy his perspective. He seemed to annoy Charlie at one point though, as if perhaps at one point he spoke out of turn.

Matt Bai - Seemed like the lowest guy on the totem pole, and not given much time, or any follow-up questions.

I look foward to seeing Charlie Rose on the eve before and after the election. I think his political round tables, provide some of the best political dialog on television.

TABS  10/26/2008 06:10 PM Report

Mr Rose keeps asking the same question to get different peoples take on the situation, eg their opinion. It is not so much the opinion that is important but the reasoning that led to the opinion. Also to check for internal consistency one should ask the same question several time over a period of time.

Lance Dugger  10/26/2008 01:42 PM Report

I guess we should have expected the sour grapes from McCain/Palin supporters, but after, not before the election. You know the fat lady has sung when even the most ardent escapee's from the McCain asylum are looking for scapegoats. Let's see, who hasn't been blamed for this debacle yet? Tina Fey, SNL, Obama's grandmother's preacher, Black people, White people, Anycolor people, Illegal Aliens, Outerspace Aliens? Have they left anybody out?? To paraphrase McCains chief economic advisor, Phil Graham, "Quit whining you wimps".

Eleanor Clift  10/25/2008 07:42 PM Report

Doris! You TRAITOR! SHUT-UP I'M SPEAKING!

Frontline Sober  10/25/2008 06:41 PM Report

Those with objective good memories know.

Doris  10/25/2008 06:36 PM Report

EVERYBODY! Look on the bright side. No matter who wins or loses. The President of the United States, WILL NOT BE, HILLARY CLINTON!!!-------- Neil, the answer is, worse.

Neil MacCallister  10/25/2008 04:59 PM Report

Does America still desire "fair and honest" elections? In Chicago, after some school charity money is lost, a Senate campaign is started. Other candidates are pushed off ballot by legal challenges, and the Senator wins! Now told to "lay low" in his voting record, so he will have no "paper trail" to the Presidency. Ted Kennedy announces him, calls him "JFK", says he will run against "George Bush" in 2008. The candidate claims he will cut taxes, but he raises tax rates. Candidate gets media partners to publically denounce all opposition as "racists", while his lawyer friends tie up opposing candidate with frivolous lawsuit for her removing a police officer who Tazored his own son to "discipline" him. The opponent rose in polls anyway, so Wall Street friends were called to fake a "crisis", and they respond quickly, ..for a $700 billion fee. To try and ensure the election, people are paid to stuff the ballot box with names from the phone book, casting those votes for the man who is paying them, who hopes a large number slip through. (Doris? ..has it always been this bad?)

Your Shrink  10/25/2008 04:06 PM Report

So how does that make you feel?

Dav Lev  10/25/2008 03:45 PM Report

Creeping socialism is what the problem is all about, aggravated by an Obama Presidency. Tax and spend Republicans, morphed into tax and spend Democrats. What's the difference? Aren't both parties really nothing more than legitimized mafia? When you give gov't the authority to tax, this is what happens. What ever happened to a flat tax? Everything we stand for (I presume), like the Protestant ethic, self-reliance, perseverence, honesty, hard work, savings, has disappeared. Charlie Rose gave air time to these four journalists. But let's be fair, he has also interviewed others directly involved in one way or another, from present Fed Chairman to former stock holders and corporate officers of companies which failed or have been bailed out. Look fellow posters, a very small percentage of the US public watch PBS, and an even smaller watch Charlie Rose. His program is interesting at times and informative. He has his agendas..and he, like the candidates tends to flip flop..asking the same questions, giving the same answers, alluding to other interviewees. This is his "Schtick". For example, he has asked over and over again, is this the worse foreign policy mistake ever? Usually his anti-war interviewees say, yes! Occasionally someone says no. He already knows the answer, so why ask, except to make HIS POINT. Charlie, like these four and others, knows nothing about economics..I listened the other day as one person said the hundreds of economists who wrote letters to Paulson, are simply wrong.

Okay, who are we to refute that? The Fed can print money at will, AND they did. They can bail out insurance companies and they might?

We have strongly criticized Russia for decades over their socialism (some say Communism), and now are doing the same thing. We make a move (Iraq, boycotting Russian defense firms for violating our Iran/Syria acts, and they respond in kind by beefing up their defenses, and military). So who gains what? In the end, however someone will lsoe. Worse foreign policy, tell that to one of the parents of those 55,000 who lost their lives in Vietnam.

Maybe we should have done nothing to Saddam and left his son's in charge someday? Perhaps we should have sent in more troops initially? Perhaps we should have withdrawn 6 months after the March 2003 invasion, and allowed Iraq to govern, for better or worse? Maybe bringing democracy to an Arab country was pure fantasy considering their past history and religious conflicts? Maybe Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice should have seen through the Iraqi dysfunctional society before sending our troops in? All these journalists and pundits say little or nothing about racism, except to point fingers at whites who will not vote for Obama, caus he is black (he is mulatto-bi racial). Yet I haven't heard anyone condemnig blacks for voting for Obama because he is an African American. Like the bail-out, everything is spin, twisted, upside down. John McCain's choice of Palin has been under attack since. Yet both she AND Obama have no meaningful foreign policy experience. What has Obama ever done to show that he can handle a major crisis? His history is backing out of even innocous legislation. He would have voted, against the Iraqi war? Okay, would he then have admitted responsibility of failure to do so? His claim to fame by some reporters, is, he is "Unflappable". Well, maybe he is just emotionless, without feeling, devoid of the ability to care, aloof, above it all...except for making inspirational speeches, and threatening to tax hard working, successful, diligent, responsible Americans who already pay over 50% of their earnings to the taxing authorities.

Here in California, 5% pay 90% of the State income taxes. What we may see is a real taxpayer revolt. You want figures, there is a tax gap (Federal) of 300 billion year., taxes presumably owed and never paid. And most is not from the upper one-forth, it's from your small mama papa shops. Get it.

Preston  10/25/2008 03:25 PM Report

Dear TABS, I am not as cultured and sophisticated as you, so I am not familiar with Hemingway and Chandler.----------- Sometimes I understand you COMPLETELY. And when I don't understand, I just know it's coming from a good place.

TABS  10/25/2008 03:15 PM Report

Dear Preston: "Mr Krugman says the same thing over and over again. If one keeps it up long enough sooner or later it is going to be thought of as being good."

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Raymond Chandler said that about Ernest Hemingway in one of his novels (Big Sleep if I recall correctly). If one remembers Chandler wrote the screenplay for "Double Indemnity" and Hitchcock's "Strangers On a Train" as well.

Preston  10/25/2008 03:13 PM Report

Mother Lode, Obama and the Democrat Congress will get their chance again for 2 years. If either one of them "disappoints", then we'll be back to a Democrat President with a Republican Congress. Because it's all about change. Change is all around. Piggy BANKS love change. Just like the leaves on the trees.

MotherLodeBeth  10/25/2008 02:35 PM Report

Here's a serious question I want answered. If both the House and Senate, as well as the President are ALL one party will we have mob rule or actually have good government? Look at what we got when the Republican were in control from 2001-2006. Bigger government, huge debt. And now we are bailing big business out because those in office didnt do their job. And then today (Saturday Oct 25) on CNN they noted that the Treasury Dept is looking into helping insurance companies who are in trouble with penisions etc. The men running the country and companies are making a mess of everything!

MotherLodeBeth  10/25/2008 02:34 PM Report

Here's a serious question I want answered. If both the House and Senate, as well as the President are ALL one party will we have mob rule or actually have good government? Look at what we got when the Republican were in control from 2001-2006. Bigger government, huge debt. And now we are bailing big business out because those in office didnt do their job. And then today (Saturday Oct 25) on CNN they noted that the Treasury Dept is looking into helping insurance companies who are in trouble with penisions etc. The men running the country and companies are making a mess of everything!

MotherLodeBeth  10/25/2008 02:29 PM Report

I have to laugh literally when I watch PBS, CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets, because the first thing I think is 'why arent they wearing OBAMA t-shirts?'----------- Have yet to see any of them say anything nice about Palin. And why in the hell should I listen to some media type be it those outfits or someone from Holllllllywood? What the hell do these folks know about real American where real American live and work, and have to actually work for a living?------And when will the media actually do their job and help third party men/women get attention? Citizens need to hear about the third party folks, if we are to have a country that is run for the citizens and not a bunch of CEO's from big business.

Lance Dugger  10/25/2008 01:27 PM Report

Charlie, Aren't you guys talked out yet? Obama by a landslide!!!

Preston  10/25/2008 10:54 AM Report

Tell me baby-boomers. Is it time to unleash - ZARDOZ!

jad233  10/25/2008 09:26 AM Report

Newsweek is center right, and Time is center right and Meacham is center right and Joe Klein center right, but most of America believes in socialized medicine, redistribution of wealth and human rights -- quite unlike Meacham, Klein, Time and Newsweek. _________________________________________________

Would it kill the show to offer a liberal or even left-wing perspective once and a while? Or does acceptable Responsible Opinion range only from Time to Newsweek? ___________________________________________

And only in America could a centrist politician like Obama be considered something of an extremist. Meanwhile, there's no extreme the right can't embrace, and no get a respectful hearing on the Charlie Rose Show

TABS  10/25/2008 04:04 AM Report

Mr Meacham made an erroneous statement. That was that Obama "raised himself." No one raises themselves. Some have affirmative parents, some have mediocre parents and some have abysmal parents and everything in between (Even a lack of parenting is still parenting). The parental role is essentially to teach, guide and protect their young so that they can function in the world. So to conclude that Mr Obama raised himself is a statement of arrogance.

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Mr Obama realized that he had a dearth of parental tutelage and set out to rectify that state of affairs. Yet the core concern about Obama, is his parential abandonment still echoing in the decisions that he makes. Or does he have the disciple to set aside that idelogical bent and move to the right and moderation.

Marc  10/25/2008 01:46 AM Report

CENTER-RIGHT COUNTRY LIE: More drivel from Meacham. The "biggest liberal in the Senate" is up 10 points, the Democrats lead on every line item domestic issue across the board, yet the usual suspects from corporate media come running with the false meme: "this is a center-right country" and Obama *better behave*. Meacham and the others obviously do NOT pay attention to the actual country of the EVENTS that change it. Wake up consumers of media. The usual suspects, as usual, totally fail to explain the real story behind Obama and the real shift to a center-left country. The United States is a center-left country and corporate media (the same guys for 8 years, rarely a new face) are telling you it's not. The intellectual insincerity is appaling from these media gatekeepers. How can you look at the line item issue polling for 6 years and suggest this is a center right country, Meacham? They don't believe in sceince (clear opinion polling) when it doesn't jive with their meme. That is fraud.

sock puppet  10/25/2008 12:27 AM Report

RE Mant - I'm effectively voting 'present' or I'd rather think of it as a pox on both your houses. Try Nader, Barr, yadda, yadda. Unless you're in purple state and want your vote to count, of course.

RE Mant  10/25/2008 12:18 AM Report

A case can certainly be made that McCain made a mistake when he failed to follow up his reform program from the convention and to distance himself from the neo-cons then. That is likely due to fund-raising concerns, as I mentioned several weeks ago. But it is the neo-cons, except perhaps some of the more religiously motivated among them, who constitute the New South, which I think will prove to be the crux of the matter. I think it is clear that the New South and the areas which benefited most from the expansive and reckless policies of the last several decades, will likely jump from Republican to Democrat, voting their pocket books, rather than embracing reform, because I think foreign and social policy has nothing really to do with it. I think tho they will find the Treasury devoid of everything but money illusion and wealth effect, and that instead of ending war in the Middle East, it will be expanded and a draft re-instituted, in the name of fairness, with no mention of the rightness. It will be alleged that it is all the fault of the last party, when it was their own party which rescinded the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, a main cause of the credit collapse, and which just as certainly would have become involved in war. The Democrats have promised consideration to every voting population they can think of - middle-class, rust-belt states, seniors, migrants, poor, teachers, etc - which, while it not an argument that they are not ailing, is nevertheless an example of the pandering that party has been noted for, as far back as Andrew Jackson. Even so many will not vote for them, because, though needy, they know better, want a hand up, not a hand out, and know that it is government policy or, more precisely, lack of it, that has created their situation, and not any fault of their own. The inflationary, profligate monetary and fiscal policies promise to continue, nevertheless.

Tocqueville, tho, was quite right about us: "They [the Americans\ combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite; they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large that holds the end of his chain. By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master, and then relapse into it again. A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large."

Mr Obama is, like W. and Billy, not ready to be president, and that may account for some of the cucumber quality. "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." It is too bad there is no option to vote "present."

Gina  10/24/2008 07:30 PM Report

An American Icon and an American Legend...Ron Howard (AKA), Opie and Andy Griffth are running a campaign ad in support of Barack Obama with Ron reprising his original role as Opie (a spoof of course). Ron Howard is very selective in everything he does which is why is so well respected in Hollywood and extremely private, yet he came out! I LOVE America. 'Game Over'!

sock puppet  10/24/2008 06:11 PM Report

Charlie - imho you would gain credibility if you would say at the outset that you lean toward Obama, but that you will not 'totally' ignore McCain's campaign. I don't care as I'm voting for Nader (I come from a solid McCain state). You need to try to be more objective. If only a mere sop to your McCain supporters.