# Make the case that ObL's death increases Obama's re-election chances **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 2, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512 "2011-05-02T20:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/201 "2011-05-07T00:37:23Z")
> [@\*just\_some\_guy5](#): > > I certainly haven’t seen any open hostility from lefties in response to OBL’s demise. Looking at the old facebook… This “facebook” of which you speak?.. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/202 "2011-05-07T01:29:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think six months from now - nevermind when people vote a year and a half from now - not that many people will focus on what they learned about the bin Laden raid on what day. What they’ll remember is that he’s dead and Obama authorized the mission that killed him. The rest of it is essentially fluctuations in poll numbers that don’t have much meaning. I think the misinformation may be a cynical ploy by the Obama administration to create a bigger splash with the announcement, then get the facts straight, then cite the (real) confusion after the event to explain the discrepancies. Considering Obama earns about $1 million in political capital for killing Usama, and this move is the equivalent of buying a double cheeseburger for lunch in this context, I think it doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/203 "2011-05-07T01:37:51Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I’ll vote Kucinich in the primaries if he will run Whoa, there! [Don’t take your guns to town, son.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRls7nXI__U&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/204 "2011-05-07T02:27:33Z")
If Jesus Christ Himself ran on the Independent ticket, I would probably vote I. Bump in the polls when Jesus decriminalizes pot- face it, there is enough suffering in this world without pot prohibition laws, He would do it. Most other scenarios, I vote Obama. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/205 "2011-05-07T07:30:33Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > I don’t think it hurts him but it will not help him that much - after all, the overriding issue against him is the economy and not foreign policy. How exactly will his campaign position the killing of Osama bin Laden during the next elections? It’s hard to see how they could make a strong selling point out of it, not to mention the strong likelihood that this selling point will be strongly rebutted. It all turns on how well the economy would be 18 months from now. Osama’s death is a pleasing sideshow but it’s just that - a sideshow. Well selling points aside, it completely rebuts the Repub assertion that Obama is a weak leader. No one but the fanatics are gonna buy that line. It means Obama CAN concentrate on jobs. Don’t know if he will have the sense to do so … he seems curiously uininterested in doing so. Sure, he saved the economy as a whole, but almost ten percent official unemployment is VERY bad news for him. I hope he has staffers running around with their heads on fire trying to solve it, but I see him more taking the “long view” that it will turn around someday on its own, which of late is like saying “you will have pie in the sky when you die.” ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/206 "2011-05-07T12:28:42Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > … Sure, he saved the economy as a whole, but almost ten percent official unemployment is VERY bad news for him. I hope he has staffers running around with their heads on fire trying to solve it, but I see him more taking the “long view” that it will turn around someday on its own, which of late is like saying “you will have pie in the sky when you die.” I have no idea what he should be doing to “save” your economy, there is no way he would get a massive spending stimulus through the American congress, so what pray tell are you reproaching the man for? Not having a magic wand to make things turn around? Elected leadership have only the most indirect influence on the economy as such, and for a big one like the US, I fail to see what the man can do if he has no hope of passing a massive spending stimulus (or perhaps dubious end efficacity given debt fears, pity your prior government - like so many - did not use the boom years to pay down debt as they should have). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/207 "2011-05-07T12:57:31Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > There really are Americans on the left who are angry about the fact that Obama got Osama. Whatever their public reasoning is the fact is that they dislike the United States. Name even one. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/208 "2011-05-07T14:31:32Z")
Most people understand that Obama inherited an economy in collapse. They can see that he is trying to fix it but the Repubs ,voting as a group ,are trying to stop him. The Repubs want the presidency and will sabotage any attempts that Obama makes to mend the economy. The control of the Supreme Court is huge. Corporate personhood, unfettered corporate contributions and so many other pro corporate positions have been instituted by the court. They were not passed by the House and Senate. No vote was needed. The people do not speak. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/209 "2011-05-07T14:39:32Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Most people understand that Obama inherited an economy in collapse. They can see that he is trying to fix it but the Repubs ,voting as a group ,are trying to stop him. The Repubs want the presidency and will sabotage any attempts that Obama makes to mend the economy. > The control of the Supreme Court is huge. Corporate personhood, unfettered corporate contributions and so many other pro corporate positions have been instituted by the court. They were not passed by the House and Senate. No vote was needed. The people do not speak. What the fuck does corporate personhood have to do with your modern politics? It’s an old common law tradition (and damned useful one). I just looked it up, and your Supreme Court decided on that as far back as 1816… What any of this rot has to do with OBL escapes though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/210 "2011-05-07T15:46:31Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > What the fuck does corporate personhood have to do with your modern politics? It’s an old common law tradition (and damned useful one). I just looked it up, and your Supreme Court decided on that as far back as 1816… The idea that a corporation could be treated as a person for the purpose of owning property or entering into a contract has long been established. But recently, corporate personhood has been greatly expanded and corporations have been granted civil rights. The biggest controversy has been the right of corporations to make political donations. The precedents are clear - there’s literally a hundred years worth of decisions that state this is, at best, a limited right. But all of this was overturned in 2010 by the Supreme Court, which held that corporations have an unlimited right to make political donations. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/211 "2011-05-07T16:02:53Z")
Well this doesn’t have anything to do with OBL to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/212 "2011-05-07T16:22:24Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > Well this doesn’t have anything to do with OBL to say the least. Maybe that’s the point. OBL’s death improves Obama’s poll numbers but there are a lot of other issues that will affect the election too. I agree with the poster whose answer to the OP is that it doesn’t matter because Obama would win regardless. He’s doing well and his opponents look terrible. I think this is independent of the validity of conservative/liberal points of view- the GOP just really stinks. IMHO people who say a big financial collapse might change people’s opinions also have a point. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/213 "2011-05-07T16:41:15Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Name even one. :rolleyes: Oh, come on, you know that out there in the Internet somewhere some crackpot blogger who calls himself a Dem is in a furor over Osama’s death. Just as there’s probably a crackpot blogger who calls himself a Repub who is probably in a furor over Osama’s death. Doesn’t mean a damn thing, of course, unless either one has following of more than a dozen, becase crackpottery will always outweigh political affiliations. It is in fact a very stupid and obnoxious attack to make, however. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/214 "2011-05-07T17:08:46Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > I have no idea what he should be doing to “save” your economy, there is no way he would get a massive spending stimulus through the American congress, so what pray tell are you reproaching the man for? Not having a magic wand to make things turn around? Elected leadership have only the most indirect influence on the economy as such, and for a big one like the US, I fail to see what the man can do if he has no hope of passing a massive spending stimulus (or perhaps dubious end efficacity given debt fears, pity your prior government - like so many - did not use the boom years to pay down debt as they should have). Well this is off topic, but since you asked: Things Obama could have done/could do to improve jobs situation for Americans 1. Institute tax incentives for corporations that ACTUALLY HIRE PEOPLE. That is, reward corporations for HIRING, don’t give them tax breaks for “business expansion” or anything like that. Give larger breaks to corporations that provide decent paying jobs rather than McJobs. 2. Set up major infrastructure improvement/maintenance programs similar to the WPA and hire lots of people to do it. Do not allow big business to capture the program, they’ll just use the most automated stuff they can to pocket as much profit as they can. Our infrastructure is in bad shape, here’s a chance to kill two birds with one stone. And infrastructure is an investment that tends to pay off. 3. Use tariffs to discourage companies from moving jobs overseas. Yeah, I know, tariffs bad, unemployment good. I beg to differ. 4. Set up a government pure science research program, in areas related to medicine, biology and physics. Not as much of that going on as before. No oversight as to the nature of the project, let the scientists pick their studies. Discoveries made by the pure science guys can be used by ANY US corporation, big or small, to develop new inventions. I know that academia is SUPPOSED to function this way, but to an increasing degree, academia has been captured by business via research grant funding, which tends to lead to small gains, not breakthroughs. Think about all the advances we have made thanks to NASA, all the industries that have sprung up, the products. No reason the biological sciences can’t be similarly productive. The only catch for the program is, YOU CAN’T EXPORT THE INDUSTRIES OVERSEAS!!! As occurred with VCRs, for example. The corporations that use these discoveries have to manufacture and so forth in the US, and hire US citizens to do the work. I’m sure I could come up with more if I thought about it harder. But that’s the stuff that comes to mind offhand. 1. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/215 "2011-05-07T17:15:07Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > Well this doesn’t have anything to do with OBL to say the least. I’ll grant you that. As I posted above, issues like corporate law are not button issues with most voters. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/216 "2011-05-07T17:16:27Z")
He should have taken over one of the banks and started lending to small businesses. Corporations are the people who lay off workers and offshore jobs. That is not where job creation growth will come. In the 60s, 30 percent of our tax base was provided by corporations. It is now under 6. There is a program on History of a guy who travels the country inspecting our infrastructure.It is called “Inspector America”. Bridges are built to last 50 years. The average age of our bridges is 43. Sewers are underground ,so we don’t fix them until they break. That is bad policy. They cause damage when they go down. There is a lot of legitimate work that needs to be done. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/217 "2011-05-07T17:28:42Z")
I will not continue the hijack, but it seems to me the two extreme left posters are engaging in fantasy, as I rather believe every action they cite would require congressional action, and are not things the executive can execute by fiat (for which rational persons should be happy to be sure). So, as I have understood even the modest measures your president passed were a massive uphill struggle, I find it … interesting that there is a belief that sweeping measures redolent of the failures of 70s economic policy would have been achievable. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/218 "2011-05-07T18:05:01Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Don’t challenge Obama, challenge the\* menshevik\*, Blue Dead Dog, Clintonista “centrist” Congresscritters who have a “D” attached to their names for no good reason. The first and foremost challenge is getting people to the polls. The Pubbies did that rather deftly when they put gay marriage on all the state ballots they could manage, thus ensuring a major turnout amongst the anti-gay crowd. And, of course, as long as they were there taking care of their number one concern, they might as well vote Republican. > > If we challenge a Blue Dog, and he wins the primary, but gets the fear of Og put into him, good. If he loses the primary to a more lefty candidate, also good, even better, so long as the candidate is not so radical lefty as to lose in a mixed district. Because if I can’t have a “real” lefty, I still want one with a “D” after his name, seeing as how no “R” candidate is likely to be any more acceptable. _Tres duh, mais non?_. > > We don’t need so much to fire up the base as we need to fire up the people, all of them, get out the vote, and let the chips fall wheresoever. > > Then maybe my spellcheck will stop asking me if I want to ignore Obama. I wrote a response to your post, realized it was massively off topic, so moved it to the Elections forum and broadened the scope to include progressive strategies generally for the 2012 election. [You can find it here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13773528#post13773528) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/219 "2011-05-07T18:32:07Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Oh, come on, you know that out there in the Internet somewhere .. It is in fact a very stupid and obnoxious attack to make, however. Of course. I was just curious where our friend \*found \*this person he uses to personify “the left”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512/220 "2011-05-07T20:36:34Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Set up a government pure science research program, in areas related to medicine, biology and physics. Not as much of that going on as before. No oversight as to the nature of the project, let the scientists pick their studies. Discoveries made by the pure science guys can be used by ANY US corporation, big or small, to develop new inventions. I know that academia is SUPPOSED to function this way… You’re getting two things mixed up. Academia is a _venue_ for research to be done, not a source of funding for research. Most research is done in the universities, with the money coming from elsewhere (some private industry, and mostly government). Even government agencies like NASA mostly just function as funders and facilitators for research done at universities, and most NASA research centers are co-operated by various schools. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-case-that-obls-death-increases-obamas-re-election-chances/580512.md?page=12)