# Lou Dobbs for President? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 26, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595 "2010-08-26T22:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/1 "2010-08-26T22:23:26Z")
I just watched an interview with Lou Dobbs. I had no real prior knowledge of him, but somehow had a vague opinion/prejudice that he was a far right guy who wasn’t quite a nutjob but not really completely sensible either. But after the interview I find myself thinking he was probably the most reasonable sounding Republican(?) I’ve seen in a very long time. Knowing hardly nothing about him I’m wondering what would happen if he was the Republican nominee for President in 2012? Is it within the realm of possibilities to happen? Ps. It was insinuated that he had some controversial views on immigration and that is also my prejudice against him, that he’s radically anti-immigration (as Pat Buchanan), but that issue was never brought up. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/2 "2010-08-26T22:53:41Z")
He’s the calm voice of nativism and bigotry, so nativists and bigots like him because he gives their cause a seemingly rational tone. I think David Duke got the same treatment when he took off his white robes and tried to seem more reasonable. But not enough people were fooled by Duke and I don’t think enough will be fooled by Dobbs. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/3 "2010-08-26T22:54:27Z")
Lou Dobbs was at one point a Republican, but he’s not anymore, and he’s distanced himself from the Republican Party. He’s also anti-free trade, pro-choice and pro-gay rights, all of which would destroy his chances of getting the Republican nomination. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/4 "2010-08-26T23:33:25Z")
He’s also a major spaceflight enthusiast, and one of the founders of [Space.com](http://Space.com). That surprised me when I found out - just never seemed the type. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/5 "2010-08-26T23:47:04Z")
Lou Dobbs for President? Most reasonable sounding Republican? No and No. > **[Lou Dobbs for president? - Salon.com](https://www.salon.com/2007/11/15/dobbs/)** > > A candidate for the "angry but average" voter. > [@](#): > > Lou Dobbs embraces the Birthers > > … > > Besides, Dobbs is completely wrong about the legal status of the certificate of live birth that Obama released. He said Tuesday that “there is no actual birth certificate. There is a document that says there is a birth certificate.” But what Obama has made public thus far is the same form that anyone requesting their birth certificate from Hawaii would receive, and state officials have made very clear that it’s authentic and shows he was born there. > > Taitz and others say, wrongly, that there’s a Hawaiian statute that applied to Obama that would have allowed his parents to register a foreign birth there, and somehow get state officials to say he was born in Honolulu. But as Janice Okubo, the director of communications for the Hawaii Department of Health, recently explained to the Washington Independent’s David Weigel, “If you were born in Bali, for example, you could get a certificate from the state of Hawaii saying you were born in Bali. You could not get a certificate saying you were born in Honolulu. The state has to verify a fact like that for it to appear on the certificate. But it’s become very clear that it doesn’t matter what I say. The people who are questioning this bring up all these implausible scenarios.” > > That gets to the heart of the problem here. While Dobbs’ colleagues at CNN, like Rick Sanchez and even Kitty Pilgrim, his own guest host, have debunked the birthers’ claims, Dobbs himself says he’s learned a lot about birth certificates and the whole issue from Taitz and Keyes. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/6 "2010-08-27T12:47:05Z")
Not to mention that Lou Dobbs has said, on television, that the NAFTA Superhighway is currently being built, that plans for the Amero and the North American Union are currently underway, and that the United States and Mexico are currently at war. (All of this can be found in videos that **jrodefeld** has linked to as “proof” that these various conspiracies are real.) Of course it leaves open the question of whether he actually believes these things; it could be just an act designed to get an audience for his show. Back when he did _The Moneyline News Hour with Lou Dobbs_ he actually seemed to be decently intelligent. Nevertheless, now that he has a trail of thousands of hours of televised garbage that he can’t shake, he won’t have much luck in politics. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/7 "2010-08-27T21:53:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > He’s the calm voice of nativism and bigotry, so nativists and bigots like him because he gives their cause a seemingly rational tone. That sounds like something a GOP candidate could capitalize on. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Lou Dobbs was at one point a Republican, but he’s not anymore, and he’s distanced himself from the Republican Party. So… maybe he’s a MAVERICK? > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Not to mention that Lou Dobbs has said, on television, that the NAFTA Superhighway is currently being built, that plans for the Amero and the North American Union are currently underway, and that the United States and Mexico are currently at war. (All of this can be found in videos that **jrodefeld** has linked to as “proof” that these various conspiracies are real.) This doesn’t sound insurmountable though. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > He’s also anti-free trade, pro-choice and pro-gay rights > [@Mach Tuck](#): > > He’s also a major spaceflight enthusiast. I just KNEW there was something I liked about him… If Lou is clearly unrealistic, another question: Assuming you’re NOT a republican, what would be a good Republican candidate assuming he would WIN. Ie: If there “had to” be a Republican president, who would you prefer that could realistically get it? ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/8 "2010-08-27T21:56:52Z")
Actually it’s better top put it like this: Which Republican\* would Democrats most like\*\* to see as president. - who could at least possibly get it \*\* or least dislike ---
**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:** [August 31, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/9 "2010-08-31T18:06:54Z")
Well, Lou Dobbs isn’t a Republican, so he’s right out. **Bricker** presumably doesn’t fit your “could possibly get it” requirement. Shame, really, because it would be cool to follow up Obama’s second term with our first Hispanic President. We can’t get into a time machine and retrieve the 1999 John McCain (or his principles). How about Colin Powell? ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/10 "2010-08-31T20:10:05Z")
Yes… how about Colin Powell? He seems pretty sensible. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/11 "2010-08-31T20:40:03Z")
Well, to be honest, that kind of rules him out under the “could possibly get it” requirement in and of itself, in the current climate. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/12 "2010-08-31T23:12:48Z")
That’s more like partisan sniping than truth though. McCain was pretty sensible up until he became the candidate. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/13 "2010-09-01T03:08:53Z")
Hence the qualifier, “in the current climate”. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/14 "2010-09-03T22:04:18Z")
> [@Stoneburg](#): > > It was insinuated that he had some controversial views on immigration and that is also my prejudice against him, that he’s radically anti-immigration (as Pat Buchanan), but that issue was never brought up. Dobbs crusades against illegal immigration. This is controversial in Washington because it’s completely corrupt and there is a lot of money in exploiting illegals. It’s hardly controvertial on Main Street. There are plenty of us who would rather see American jobs go to Americans. For myself, I’m fine with legal immigration but there is no shortage of people who don’t consider Mexican-Americans to be Americans at all. I’m not sure where Dobbs fits in there. Public figures don’t come out and say they want to keep brown people out no matter what. So yeah, even if he were a loyal Republican or Democrat he would have no chance of winning a presidential nomination. You can’t buck the corporate masters and expect to move into the White House. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/15 "2010-09-03T22:29:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I think David Duke got the same treatment when he took off his white robes and tried to seem more reasonable. But not enough people were fooled by Duke and I don’t think enough will be fooled by Dobbs. Well Duke probably would have had a better chance at fooling people if he married a black chick and had a bunch of kids with her. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/16 "2010-09-03T22:41:37Z")
> [@Stoneburg](#): > > Actually it’s better top put it like this: > > Which Republican\* would Democrats most like\*\* to see as president. > > - who could at least possibly get it > \*\* or least dislike Joe Scarborough could win over a number of people in the middle or slightly to the left as well as moderate Repblicans. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/17 "2010-09-04T01:40:25Z")
I would not vote for Mitt Romney, who I see as an empty suit; but he could probably win independents. He has a passably sexy baritone & pretty hair. Further, he can pretend that his “executive experience” as a state governor translates to national/international politics. And that he somehow “knows something about business.” From Wikipedia: > **[Mitt Romney | Business career](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney#Business_career)** > > After receiving his JD–MBA from Harvard, Romney passed the Michigan bar exam but decided to pursue a career in business rather than law. He was recruited by several large companies but joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant for a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive. Part of a 1970s wave of top graduates who chose to go into consulting rather than join a large company directly, In 1977, he was... > [@](#): > > Leveraged buyouts such as those Bain Capital did sometimes led to layoffs. Of these, Romney later said, “Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong.” Bain Capital’s acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy. Bain was among the private equity firms that took the most such fees, and more cases happened as Romney was leaving the firm. He said in retrospect, “It is one thing that if I had a chance to go back I would be more sensitive to. It is always a balance. Great care has got to be taken not to take a dividend or a distribution from a company that puts that company at risk. [Taking a big payment from a company that later failed] would make me sick, sick at heart.” His company basically bought out other companies & did crap to them for profit. Scum if you ask me. But he’s the front runner. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/18 "2010-09-04T01:45:06Z")
Also, you’re in Europe, you don’t know. But the paranoia over the NAFTA Superhighway is associated with a surreal myth that the USA will be bisected by a transportation corridor from Mexico to Canada, & see no trade from it. Anyone pushing that is assumed to be detached from reality by definition. Dobbs may mean something different, I don’t know; maybe he’s a protectionist. But it sounds bad dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/19 "2010-09-04T14:42:51Z")
Powell is too old and his wife wont let him run. I think he was sick of the Washington political scene as Secretary of State. Trust me, his wife was too. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-dobbs-for-president/551595/20 "2010-09-04T14:53:49Z")
I liked the Romney story of when he and the family were taking a roadtrip with the dog and its carriage box tied to the roof of the car for a 12 hour drive from Massachuttes to Canada. (\*note, aren’t these people really rich, why drive 12 hours with kids and an animal?) Romney tells the little Romney’s that they are only going to stop for gasoline and that is it. The trip quickly scared the shit out of the dog. Literally. The dog shitted everywhere. I am picturing smelly dog shit everywhere on top of some expensive Volvo like car with Romney saying curse words like Fark! and Shat! because he is a Mormon and he can’t say the real swear words. Doing something stupid like that just makes the man more human. > **[Mitt Romney Transports Dog](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dog-carrier/)** > > Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney transported a dog atop his car. [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/29/romney-is-in-petas-doghouse/](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/29/romney-is-in-petas-doghouse/) (Romney states that the dog “enjoys” being on top of a speeding vehicle.)