For at least the third time I will state that the president, IMHO, is a figurehead.
If you want to go on record that you believe that the president of the USA orchestrates things in the way you are constantly portraying a president as doing, then fine.
Is that what you are going on record as stating?
The (eventually snarky) thrust of my OP was that I am beside myself that people put too much effort into maligning a mere figurehead and not being smart enough to go after root.
Iranians/Carter caved in 12 hours before Reagan’s inauguration.
Communism caved in three years before the inauguration of a then unknown USA presidential candidate.
Is there a definition of “imminent” that I am missing?
Its just not fair, considering the strict rules of GD, to offer straight lines like that.
I am being very careful to not cross the rules. I asked this thread to be pitted in the first place if it was an overstep.
If I did cross a rule, I will apologize/retract.
So is it that to say Reagan was the greatest President of the 20th century isn’t saying so much, since the presidency is itself is so vacuous? It’s like your talking about the greatest Starbucks barista in Greater Akron?
He was the greatest figurehead, yes.
I honestly do not know a single thing about the lines that formed for any other 20th century president’s funeral. Not only was I impressed by Reagan’s funeral turnout, but I also am impressed with the act while he sat in office.
I liked his attitude and I especially liked his administration.
William Casey was my president from 81-89(87 as it were) as far as I am concerned.
Not that you have stepped over any lines, but that your straight lines offer too much temptation for the sarcastic. They tend to have poor impulse control, or so I’ve heard.
If the President is just a figurehead, couldn’t we forgo all this tedious electoral bullshit and just have a national poll to choose the best logo? I like the one showing the scowling eagle disemboweling a whimpering camel.
More seriously, it’s fairly obvious that the President of the United States has sweeping powers far in excess of what any reasonable person would consider appropriate for a ceremonial figurehead. Some might say the President defines new powers for himself all the time. Some might even say “holy shit… how do we stop this guy, again?”
If anyone actually believes that the president is as all-powerful and in control as they pretend he is (or was, in the case of President Ronald Reagan), then yes, I am an open target with my straight lines.
Go back to my OP and set your mind right.
It is bad intellectual form to pretend that you can capture a statement or line of thought in place without acknowledging previous statements and/or lines of thought by the same poster laid out only days before. I am obviously capable of memory and a slightly advanced thought structure. If you have people to impress or fool, then fine… try to strike a balance. It is not my job or mission to upset your goals in the regard of whatever the fuck you aim to disrupt with sentiments like pegging my straight lines as “poor impulse control”.
Sincerely.
I have also been told that Cheney really runs the presidency… which I do truly believe.
That leaves Bush, once again, as a figurehead.
Prove me wrong, I ask of you.
Associating this administration with hillbillies is a slur on us hillbillies!
I demand satisfaction!
Okey-dokey, let’s take it in this way…
The majority of leftist, USA-hating rabble is trying their dangest to portray our president GW Bush as a moron. Fine.
Why don’t they, then, go after his puppet-masters with deft logic and laser precision instead of engaging in the futile task of essentially jumping up and down like doofuses trying to convince everyone of what is practically obvious?
I am a right-winger and for the love of all that is holy, I am not impressed with our president as far as slickness, intelligence, and right-wing-happy Reaganism is concerned. President GW Bush fails. Yay for y’all. So what gives with the insane chittering from the opposition instead of the easy takeover? Why must the lefties dwell in lameness and annoy me and my ilk instead of actually doing something to either neutralize the “destruction of the USA” or simply take it to their next level?
I am calling shenanigans on the leftists.
It has been over six years now. If president George W Bush actually did anything bad or evil, then results would be had. If he was a puppet, then someone else would be in the sights by now.
Shenanigans.
Totally.
This is the GD. I am constrained from expressing my true feelings about this post.
Probably just as well. I, at least, now have serious doubts about the OP’s sincerity.
:dubious: What exactly do you base this on? I know enough history to know of a certainty that most American presidents have not been figureheads in any sense. If Bush is a figurehead, it is only because he lacks the personal capacity to be more.
Name them, if you please. Are you referring to Cheney, or to Rove, or to persons nominally outside the Administration entirely?
No. Sorry.
The executive branch of our federal government is quite the entity, made up of thousands of people in almost as many positions. While the hierarchy and balance of power of our federal government is laid out simply enough to grasp in a few hours of study, the subtleties of the power and interconnecting relationship of each individual component could take years to understand.
Here is a start for you:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/browse-gm-06.html
Pay particular attention to the cabinets.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html
President Bush, within his first year in office, told us that he does not pay attention to the news at all and doesn’t like long explanations from his advisers. Ding, ding, ding! The man has told us all that he is not actively participating in, well, anything except for rubber stamping, making a speech here and there, and entertaining various world leaders. Just a few days ago, Cheney affirmed president GW Bush’s dislike of detailed explanations. The evidence is overwhelming after six years. The man is the epitome of an empty-suit figurehead… and a damn great one at that, judging by the fervor with which the enemies of the USA attack him personally on any given matter.
Of course Cheney is the first one to be mentioned when discussing who makes the real decisions. The man is very intelligent and capable not only in the scope of governmental functions, limitations and possibilities, but he is a beltway juggernaut. The administration would be in sad shape without him.
I am sure you have heard of Bernanke.
Here is a fun little excercise… Google “The most powerful man in America”. See what pops up. See that president Bush does not make an appearance until like the 16th page… and that is a snide remark. So who is/was making the grade as most powerful man in America according to a Google search? In the first few pages:
Rupert Murdoch
Rove
Cheney
Drudge
Bush I
Alexander Hamilton
Greenspan
Vernon Jordan
George Washington
Richard Nixon
Hearst
Kissinger
Yet the leftist rabble insist on going after Bush. Heaven forbid they learn something before mindlessly giving into groupthink.
If you choose to evade logical thought on the matter in favor of discrediting my writings in order to maintain your current beliefs, then go for it. Seeing how I am fully aware of what my level of sincerity is, you have told me a great deal about how you think.
And how is your little Google exercise not groupthink? Isn’t it just a reflection of the most popular misconceptions about power? The presence of Drudge on your list is proof of that. I must conclude that Bush’s absence from your list is meaningless.
Thank you, I already know a lot about how the executive branch is organized. But when you speak of “puppet masters,” you seem to be talking about somebody outside the Admin or very highly placed within it – not the career bureaucrats, whom this Admin has done more to micromanage and politicize than any in living memory. In that regard, the strings are definitely being pulled from above, not below. (More on the bureaucrats.)
That’s just Bush. You seemed to be saying that all American presidents are figureheads by nature of the office; which goes clean against everything I know about the administrations of FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, and Bush I. (Reagan . . . maybe a figurehead. Maybe. And Eisenhower. WRT Ford . . . who gives a shit?) And I have never in my life heard anyone try to characterize Clinton as a figurehead.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Rather than a figurehead who simply takes orders, I think you have provided evidence of a bright, but lazy, thinker. One who does not want to expend the energy to consider all the facts, relying on intuition to make his choices. He does not demonstrate the dithering that a puppet would typically display when suddenly confronted with new information; he generally sounds as though he is simply impervious to contradictory information once he has made up his mind.
I think the people who dismiss Bush as stupid are doing themselves no favors–regardless whether they are with him or against him.