I don’t understand the idiotic commentary that accompanies US presidential elections. To read this nonsense, you would have to assume that the president is a man with magical powers; he/she is able to make the following problems go away!:
-Education: education in this country is handled by local government. The fact that kids can’t read is because the prevailing culture does NOT require them to read; there is no evidence that any action by the White House will have any effect upon the reading performance of grade-school children.
-“Family Values”: I like this one! What on earth can any president do to influence what parents do to raise their children? WE had 8 years of a completely immoral cheat (Bill Clinton); I don’t recall seeing any children being harmed by his nefarious behavior!
-Gun Control: There is no evidence that federal regulation s have any influence on the levelof gun-related violence. Each state has its own firearm laws, and there is no conclusive evidence linking crime levels to the levelofgun ownership. (Massachusetts has hundreds of gun relaed laws, no more than a fraction are ever enforced. One (the Bartley-Fox Law, is routinely ignored by stae judges).
-The economy and unemployment. Can the president just raise a wand and magically put people back to work? The economy is a huge sysem, and it goes through cycles of boom and bust…I don’t think the president has a lot of control over this.
-Trust: No president can be trusted. His actions are checked by the congress and supreme court-that is the whole basis for the separation of powers.
I think that we should elect a duck as president for 4 tyears-then compare the results with the preceding administrations. We might be pleasantly surprised!
He cures scrofula with his touch, didn’t you know?
He could issue an executive order that all illiterates above the age of nine be shot. That might help.
Yeah, I know…stupid Congress would probably veto that. Feh. Bunch of lousy paperpushers…
If Presidents and candidates didn’t make promises on all of these issues, perhaps you wouldn’t hear all the commentary that upsets you so much.
That only works for kings. “The President’s Evil” doesn’t have the same ring to it, unless you’re a Democrat.
The thread title made me think of George Bush flying through the air ala Pee-Wee Herman and saying, “I’m the luckiest boy in the WHOLE WORLD! Everybody wants to be me, because I’m Georgie!”
FDR made a good bit of difference, and you might make the secretary of treasury cry with that comment
See there was this little thing called WWII, it put a lot of people back to work…
Not many people know that the President visited the deepest part of the world’s oceans. But just once. For 20 minutes. In 1960.
Pretty magical, though.
Yes…of course he does. He got re-elected didn’t he? 
The problem, of course, is that most people have a pretty murky idea of exactly what a President can…and CAN’T…do. Hell, they have a pretty murky idea of exactly what a President DOES do for that matter.
-XT
This guy seems to think so. Or at least Bush has magicians working for him.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/pagan/1334906.html?thread=14767226#t14767226
This is the funniest thing I’ve read for weeks.
Rant, let me introduce you to The BBQ Pit.
Pit, this is my good friend Rant.
I’d stay and chat with the both of you, but I see that the horsey dovers tray just got refreshed and I do so love them little hotdogs wrapped in Bisquick.
Watches TV and attempts to eat pretzels. Hell, I could do that.
Funny, I recall a lot of non-conservatives saying this during the height of the Lewinsky bruhaha. But we were all drowned out by the right-wing dittoheads who insisted otherwise.
I agree. Which is why bullshit unfunded mandates from the federal government need to stop. But the President doesn’t seem to agree with us. coughnochildleftbehindcough.
As rj just pointed out, lots of people believe that there were. Face it, the President is one of the most visible people in the world. Even without mandating morality (marriage amendment, anyone? I believe it’s President Bush on point there), his words and behavior can arguably set an ethical and moral tone for the nation.
Again, you think the POTUS is without power or influence here?
Not directly, but he has huge amounts of indirect power. The POTUS nominates Fed members, for one thing. And has the power and authority to dump lots of money into the ecomomy in various ways for another. Loach’s (IMO incorrect) comment that recovery from the Depression was solely due to WWII notwithstanding, FDR had an immense influence on the economy.
I think you’re wrong here. The purpose behind separating powers was to protect against an untrustworthy President (or Legislature or Judiciary). that’s nto the same thing as saying none of them can ever be trusted.
Ok, that’s funny. But untrue. You seem to be making the claim that the office of President is entirely meaningless. And that’s just completely and utterly wrong.
FDR became president in what-1934? The second WW didn’t even start until 1939 and the US didn’t step in until 1941.
Right, and the claim here is that “FDR did some good”.
While the economy certainly didn’t grow much worse under FDR, it didn’t improve much either till we started to gear up for WWII. People can claim that if it weren’t for FDR’s policies it woulda been a lot worse, (some even claim a communist revolution was possible,) but it remains to be shown that FDR had much positive net direct effect on jobs and production.
No shit.
The live action version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas sucked big green ones. It completely lost the spirit of Ted Geisel’s original story or the magic of Chuck Jones’ (I know, he wasn’t yet dead then, a minor detail) animated version. I recently got a chance to watch The Cat in the Hat on cable. Apparently Dr. Seuss’ body hadn’t been adequately sodomized the first time. Now they’re making a Curios George movie starring SNL buffoon Will Ferrel. Won’t they let H. A. Rey rest in peace and refrain from plowing under another pleasant childhood memory. Aargh! Fucking fuckers! Sonofabitch I have to kick something!
Now they have a car commercial, a blatant ripoff of Field of Dreams though that part doesn’t bother me so mcuh. Instead of a baseball field the corn farmer makes a road racing track and pulls the new Mustang out of the barn so the steely eyed ghost of Steve McQueen can appear and drive a few circuits. Is nothing sacred? The thing that pissed me off the most is that the commercial made me really want to get a new Mustang.
Goddamnit anyway. I hit the wrong button. I meant to start a new thread. Mods, can you please correct my error? At least it was in the right forum.