# Do we need a businessman in the White House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 23, 2012, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045 "2012-06-23T07:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/121 "2012-06-26T22:26:39Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Yet the GOP welcomed the Tea Party extremists and served them with an unbending rigidity that unfairly took advantage of the democratic process. If you still don’t understand liberal outrage at this, consider the mirror situation: the Democratic party taking an extreme communist group under its wing in order to get elected and holding the country hostage to achieve its ends. You think that wouldn’t bring a righteous hue and cry from conservatives? > [@Oakminster](#): > > Sounds like you have a problem with Democracy. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Sounds like you dodged the question. Still dodging it. ---
**Author:** ![IntelliQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@IntelliQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IntelliQ)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/122 "2012-06-26T22:32:50Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Obama has worked harder to reach out to Republicans than any Republican in my memory has reached out to Democrats. I say that counts as bending over backwards; something you said he didn’t do. > > So, yes, it is related to something you claimed. No, it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/123 "2012-06-26T22:44:29Z")
> [@IntelliQ](#): > > No, it’s not. You’ll have to do better than **that.** ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/124 "2012-06-27T02:32:41Z")
Pro tip IntelliQ: you can’t claim the Democratic party is in ideological Marxist lockstep (#75) and simultaneously point out that their compromise resulted from dissension in the ranks (#103). ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/125 "2012-06-27T02:39:00Z")
> [@IntelliQ](#): > > No kidding. It snowballed after I rebuked the notion of democrats “bending over backwards” to please republicans. Now someone is trying to hand me a homework assignment on the 20 year history of presidential appointments. :-/ The word is “rebut” not “rebuke”, but your posts really didn’t do either. Not that I care anymore. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/126 "2012-06-27T02:47:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’d go with the ex-governor, who understands government (which Obama does, BTW), or the community organizer, who understands the real lives of the people on the ground. Either might have a good grasp of macroeconomics as such, and especially government’s role in it. The CEO don’t even show. That’s funny. Both the way you included “community organizer” in your answer and the way you completely reframed the question you asked in order to not have it sound as if including “community organizer” in your answer wasn’t the height of ridiculousness. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/127 "2012-06-27T02:54:36Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > A question for you, BrainGlutton, regarding this: > > Let’s say there’s a lot of truth in that. Who do you think is more apt to understand those things when they look into them. Which of these people on the street would you put you money on. > > A) A person who is the CEO of a big corporation overseeing many companies and has spent time dealing with companies internationally > > B) An ex-Governor of a state > > C) a community organizer > > What say you? There seems to be an implication that being a “community organizer” (and I still don’t get what’s wrong with being one, or how being one is useless for politics or running for the Presidency) is all Obama can/could point to in the way of experience, or is somehow solely defining of his experience as a candidate and a President. Would you like to argue that this implication is correct, or am I misinterpreting somehow? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/128 "2012-06-27T03:03:24Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > There seems to be an implication that being a “community organizer” (and I still don’t get what’s wrong with being one, or how being one is useless for politics or running for the Presidency) is all Obama can/could point to in the way of experience, or is somehow solely defining of his experience as a candidate and a President. Would you like to argue that this implication is correct, or am I misinterpreting somehow? Feel free to offer other credentials that would likely increase his understanding of what BrainGlutton described. Theoretically, being a community organizer might be the best training in the universe for being President. But it certainly doesn’t increase the likelihood that one will be able to grasp the items on his list. If you’d like to argue that being a law professor helps, go right ahead. But I’d point out that it looks like that were’ about to find out on Thursday that Obama doesn’t understand the very Constitution he was teaching. Or maybe being a State Senator is somehow helpful. Possibly. Especially if said Senator was reading up on those subjects during all that time he was simply voting “present”. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/129 "2012-06-27T03:13:42Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > If you’d like to argue that being a law professor helps, go right ahead. But I’d point out that it looks like that were’ about to find out on Thursday that Obama doesn’t understand the very Constitution he was teaching. Or maybe being a State Senator is somehow helpful. Possibly. Especially if said Senator was reading up on those subjects during all that time he was simply voting “present”. No matter how you feel about the ACA, it’s undeniable (as far as I can tell) that there are many legal professionals who know what they’re talking about who think that it is constitutional (or, at the least, that the point of view that it is is reasonable). I don’t think it’d be fair to single out the President on this point, unless you think that all of his advisers (or, for that matter, the courts that ruled in favor of the ACA) also lack the same basic understanding, or are somehow so afraid of him that they’d let him humiliate himself such. I also don’t agree with the implication that voting “present” is a necessary indicator that the voter in question is ducking the issue, not actually there, or is otherwise somehow shirking his/her duties. At the least, it goes against my understanding. If you have information to the contrary, feel free to share. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/130 "2012-06-27T09:49:41Z")
> [@IntelliQ](#): > > I don’t think Americans will buy into the juvenile blame-gaming this time around, especially since democrats had a super-majority head-start before the President even took office - up until just last year. > > Hell I remember that excuse for failures being flung around when republicans were being shut out of meetings and democrats failed to come to agreements within their own party. Blaming republicans is fashionable but in the end I think will be largely ineffective this time around. I’m not running for office, so I couldn’t care less what political strategy is fashionable. I don’t know why you brought it up. I can only assume that passing off criticism of the GOP as mere gamesmanship means you don’t have anything substantial to rebut it with. > [@](#): > > Sounds like your talking about the president and his democrat senators. Have you already forgotten what the president and the Dems did last year to accommodate a deal for the debt ceiling? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/131 "2012-06-27T15:14:32Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > If you’d like to argue that being a law professor helps, go right ahead. But I’d point out that it looks like that were’ about to find out on Thursday that Obama doesn’t understand the very Constitution he was teaching. Or maybe being a State Senator is somehow helpful. Possibly. Especially if said Senator was reading up on those subjects during all that time he was simply voting “present”. It doesn’t look like that at all. The presumption is that the statute is constitutional. Even if it was struck down, inferring that he doesn’t understand the constitution from that is frankly moronic. Antonin Scalia is in the minority slightly more than half the time. Does that mean he doesn’t understand the constitution? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045/132 "2012-06-27T16:40:29Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It doesn’t look like that at all. The presumption is that the statute is constitutional. Even if it was struck down, inferring that he doesn’t understand the constitution from that is frankly moronic. Antonin Scalia is in the minority slightly more than half the time. Does that mean he doesn’t understand the constitution? It means he’s an “originalist,” which amounts to the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-a-businessman-in-the-white-house/626045.md?page=6)