# American's are too dumb for an Obama presidency. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 8, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295 "2008-12-08T20:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/101 "2008-12-10T02:21:37Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I have a bad memory. What was it that Nixon did, other than go to China? 1. Through his connections, **scuttled the Paris Peace Talks** in 1968 from behind the scenes, ensuring that the war would not end that year and **he** could run as the “peace candidate.” 2. Ran as the “peace candidate,” when in fact he never had any intention of ending the war (which he had decided long before was pointless and unwinnable) on any terms that could not be considered an American victory. 3. Kept the war going – **and expanded it,** into Laos and Cambodia – until he was forced out of office, leaving Ford to wind it up. Much, much blood on his hands. All documented in [_Nixonland,_](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200805/nixon) by Rick Perlstein. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/102 "2008-12-10T03:13:41Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I’d actually like to thank **Shodan** for reminding us that while this discussion may be about whether or not Obama is bringing people into his cabinet that are “too smart”, 8 years ago, Bush’s team were whining like little titty babies about missing keys and writing on washroom walls. > > It gives me great hope for the future. I have pointed this out several times - this is a willful misreading of what went down. Bush downplayed initial reports of damage - it was Congressional Republicans that reopened the issue by directing the GAO to conduct an investigation. And while that likely makes little difference to you, it doesn’t change the fact that you are wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/103 "2008-12-10T03:25:36Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Perhaps the Obama transition is going better than that of, for instance, the Bush one because Obama isn’t dealing with people who are so spitefully petty that they trash the White House on their way out. I doubt it. However, it might be going better because this time, the election was clearly decided on Tuesday night, not fought about bitterly over the following weeks. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/104 "2008-12-10T03:34:44Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I have pointed this out several times - this is a willful misreading of what went down. > > Bush downplayed initial reports of damage - it was Congressional Republicans that reopened the issue by directing the GAO to conduct an investigation. And while that likely makes little difference to you, it doesn’t change the fact that you are wrong. Of course, it doesn’t change the fact that whatever vandalism that occurred as Clinton left office happened _after_ any pre-inauguration transition efforts by Bush, and could not possibility have hampered his transition team, making **Shodan** ’s post just another bullshit example of “Yeah, but Clinton…” Of course, what really would have been hampering the Bush transition team’s efforts at this point in 2000 was the fact that it was only about at this point that the various court cases deciding the election were decided. They certainly did get dealt a pretty shitty hand as far as that goes. It’s a good thing we didn’t find ourselves dealing with both that mess and the current economic meltdown at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/105 "2008-12-10T03:35:49Z")
I would modify the title slightly: **Most American’s are too dumb for an Obama presidency.** That would be the Americans who didn’t vote, computed with the following formula: 1-(( Obama\_voters + McCain\_voters)/US population) = 1-(69,058,185+59,700,776)/305,847,124 = **57% of American’s are too dumb for an Obama presidency.** A slightly more cynical person might use this formula: 1-(Obama\_voters/US population) = 1-(69,058,185)/305,847,124 = **77% of American’s are too dumb for an Obama presidency.** ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/106 "2008-12-10T04:34:43Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I have pointed this out several times - this is a willful misreading of what went down. > > Bush downplayed initial reports of damage - it was Congressional Republicans that reopened the issue by directing the GAO to conduct an investigation. And while that likely makes little difference to you, it doesn’t change the fact that you are wrong. Gee, I’m so fucking sorry that I didn’t know WHICH PART of Bush’s team were the whiney titty babies. But then you KNEW that I “willfully midread” this because of what now? Bite me. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/107 "2008-12-10T11:09:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 1. Through his connections, **scuttled the Paris Peace Talks** in 1968 from behind the scenes, ensuring that the war would not end that year and **he** could run as the “peace candidate.” > > 2. Ran as the “peace candidate,” when in fact he never had any intention of ending the war (which he had decided long before was pointless and unwinnable) on any terms that could not be considered an American victory. > > 3. Kept the war going – **and expanded it,** into Laos and Cambodia – until he was forced out of office, leaving Ford to wind it up. > > Much, much blood on his hands. > > All documented in [_Nixonland,_](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200805/nixon) by Rick Perlstein. Oh, yeah, I remember now. Wasn’t there also something about armed soldiers and college kids? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/108 "2008-12-10T11:23:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Shodan** : > I’m almost hoping Obama invades Iran or something, just to watch you clowns soil yourselves coming up with rationalizations. We hope to hire you as Chief Consultant for Rationalizations. Your expertise in that field is widely recognized, if not much admired. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/109 "2008-12-10T14:18:28Z")
I for one welcome our slightly-left-of-center intellectual overlords. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/110 "2008-12-10T15:08:08Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Oh, yeah, I remember now. Wasn’t there also something about armed soldiers and college kids? No, that wasn’t Nixon, you’re thinking of a gay porn film. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/111 "2008-12-10T17:33:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, that wasn’t Nixon, you’re thinking of a gay porn film. You’re right but weren’t a lot of them wearing Nixon masks? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/112 "2008-12-10T19:14:48Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > Of course, it doesn’t change the fact that whatever vandalism that occurred as Clinton left office happened _after_ any pre-inauguration transition efforts by Bush, and could not possibility have hampered his transition team, making **Shodan** ’s post just another bullshit example of “Yeah, but Clinton…”. Fixed your coding. And, of course, you are incorrect - the Bush team was forced to deal with the sort of people who engage in petty vandalism thru out the transition, who had every opportunity to hamper the transition - with, for instance, lawsuits and whining. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/113 "2008-12-10T20:07:31Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Fixed your coding. > > And, of course, you are incorrect - the Bush team was forced to deal with the sort of people who engage in petty vandalism thru out the transition, who had every opportunity to hamper the transition - with, for instance, lawsuits and whining. > > Regards, > Shodan I agree with you that Bush’s team were a bunch of whining crying tittie-babies, whereas Obama’s team have been masterful and statesmanlike. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/114 "2008-12-10T20:12:15Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Oh, yeah, I remember now. Wasn’t there also something about armed soldiers and college kids? > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, that wasn’t Nixon, you’re thinking of a gay porn film. > [@LouisB](#): > > You’re right but weren’t a lot of them wearing Nixon masks? This is truly Everything I Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Was Afraid To Ask. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/115 "2008-12-10T20:49:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I agree with you that Bush’s team were a bunch of whining crying tittie-babies, whereas Obama’s team have been masterful and statesmanlike. Strange, though - Bush has been getting a lot of credit for making the current transition as painless as possible for the new president (or at least as much as external events will allow.) An unprecedented amount of planning has been done at every federal agency, and the Office of the President-Elect has been elevated to far more stature than previously held. Frankly, I give Obama and Bush alike credit for this - they have been going about this the right way. The variable seems to be Bill Clinton, and we can surmise from how he handled himself in January of 2001 that he hadn’t gone about making things easier for the incoming administration. Indeed, even on Inauguration Day he was still inspecting troops and doing his level best to hog the spotlight for as many minutes as he could. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/116 "2008-12-10T21:22:22Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Personally, I have nothing against Ivy Leaguers - I’m even related to a couple. But I got a pretty good education at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m sure posters here attended college all over, including (like my brother) the proverbial College of Hard Knocks. > > It’s a shame that such people as us won’t likely be considered for high picks in an Obama administration. And frankly, that seems strange - Democrats _seem_ to look out for the little guy and did so much in the past to build up these land grant and other public colleges, not to mention small private schools. Hail to Pitt! Hopefully I’ll be working in Gov’t here shortly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/117 "2008-12-10T21:46:41Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Hail to Pitt! Penn State sucks! Penn State sucks! P-E-N-N-S-T SUCKS! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/118 "2008-12-11T01:13:23Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > The variable seems to be Bill Clinton, and we can surmise from how he handled himself in January of 2001 that he hadn’t gone about making things easier for the incoming administration. Indeed, even on Inauguration Day he was still inspecting troops and doing his level best to hog the spotlight for as many minutes as he could. Ah yes, how I well remember how Bill Clinton was trying to thwart Mr. Bush’s orderly transition at every opportunity. Wait, I don’t You would not have a cite would you? Hopefully something stronger than “hogging the spotlight”. That seems very lame. A rhetorical question? How long are we going to have to put up with the fairytale that Bush would have been a great president if it were not for that Pesky Clinton? ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/119 "2008-12-11T01:36:54Z")
Jesus Christ-how is this different from any other “elite” institution trying to attract people who have demonstrated academic achievement in some measurable fashion? Take a gander at the academic backgrounds of anyone at a top law firm-nearly all of them are cut from the same Top 25 school cloth-and honestly, most of them are Top 14. And they have GPA requirements on top of that (Baker and Mackenzie once automatically kicked me off the OCI list because my GPA was something like .01 below their cut-off, my ex-boyfriend got rejected from Skadden Arps as head of the law journal at UCLA). Where do all the monkeys in private equity, hedge funds, and investment banks come from? Have you taken a look at the application to work at Google? They bloody well ask for your SAT score the last time I was looked! Is **Mr. Moto** whining about the recruiting policies at Cravath, Oppenheimer and Google? All these institutions make a small percentage exception for people who may not have attended Ivy+ schools but have proven themselves with stellar GPAs, publications, and the sort of snivelling rapacious social climbing ambition necessary to claw your way into and up the ladder at these places. If you spend umpteen hours on the Dope, you don’t have it. If you did you’d be too busy grubbing your nose to the grindstone and stabbing your co-workers in the back to climb to the top of the midden heap to spend any time pontificating to the masses on the internet. Granted these morons greedily ran the economy into the ground but until someone complaining about Obama’s appointees makes the case that Berkshire Hathaway ought to be managed by Koko the Gorilla and Sarah Palin they ought to just shut up. Goddamn, the next four years are going to be the last 8 years in reverse. Bush does maybe one thing half right and the lefts still jump all over him. Obama decides maybe he’d like the goblins in charge of your tax money to have aspired to more than the Staten Island Community College School of Finance and Such and it’s a “damn shame folks like us won’t get the chance to serve.” Well, fuck, this is America, the land of Second and Third Educational chances. If you screwed up undergrad, study hard for your LSATs and Nixon it up to the White House. It’s not like he went anywhere special for undergrad either (couldn’t afford it). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295/120 "2008-12-11T01:40:38Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > You’re right but weren’t a lot of them wearing Nixon masks? I actually did see a porn film in which someone wore a Nixon mask, but it was not during a naughty part. It was a brief interlude when a main character walked past a used-car lot, and Nixon was a salesman trying to get him to buy a used car. This was back in the days when porn movies still had story lines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-are-too-dumb-for-an-obama-presidency/476295.md?page=7)