# Rumsfield claims a trained ape could manage war better than Obama **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547 "2014-03-25T19:48:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/181 "2014-03-28T16:06:25Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Yes. Famously, there was my opinion on same-sex marriage. I began my favoring civil unions but opposing same-sex marriage. Discussion here convinced me that stance was foolish. What’s your new stance on SSM? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/182 "2014-03-28T16:12:28Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > What’s your new stance on SSM? It’s correct social policy, and should be enacted by every state legislature. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/183 "2014-03-28T17:16:50Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Recently, I tried to express my opinion of the current POTUS and his wife and I see that many people strongly disagreed with me. In addition, many people were also quite cruel in their response to me. > > Well, … fair enough. I supposed that I asked for it and sure as heck did get it. > > I certainly can understand why people reacted in the way they did and I am truly very sorry to have created such a firestorm. > > However I do wish to say that I did express my true opinion of this POTUS and his wife and his abilities to govern. > > I truly do think he is a poor and foolish President and I’m sorry but I just cannot help thinking that in several ways, he is also a fool. > > I’m just happy that we all have the ability to stand up and express our opinions in this society. That is the main point I now want to make. > > Regardless of how I feel about this POTUS, I truly do love America and I do love the fact that we all have freedom of speech. Our forefathers had to fight and die for that freedom and we may well have to do the same one day. However, it is certainly worth fighting and dying to preserve that freedom and I want to say is that freedom surely is worth fighting and dying to preserve if we have to do that again. > > So, regardless of how much we may disagree about this POTUS, I wish to say that like it or not, we are all in this together. > > I can understand that many of you do not like that and many of you wish I would just leave or die or something similar. Well, that is your right and I just hope that you do not find yourself needing to fight to preserve that right any time soon. > > I wish us all the best of luck. Take heart in the fact that in a few years he’ll be a civilian. You, on the other hand, will be a lifelong douchebag. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/184 "2014-03-28T18:24:01Z")
A nitpick, a quibble, a minor point, perhaps, but that’s the trouble with quibbles… The President _is_ a civilian. Rather the whole point, given the inclinations and limitations of the military mindset. Yes, Col. Jessup, I need those armed men on the wall, standing their watch. But I am entirely content that they are under the orders of a man who never completed basic training. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/185 "2014-03-28T18:32:10Z")
You know, it’s one thing to go after Obama in a partisan manner. Partisans gotta be partisan. But Michelle? She’s clearly a very intelligent woman doing her best to take the back seat and do all the “First Lady Things” she has to do with as much grace and good humor as she can. It’s probably driving her batty 50% of the time, or more. I do not envy her her job. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/186 "2014-03-28T18:40:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You know, it’s one thing to go after Obama in a partisan manner. Partisans gotta be partisan. But Michelle? Yeah, that’s pretty unique to Teabilly attacks. Even at the height of anti-Bush insults, I don’t recall the left lobbing personal insults at his wife. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/187 "2014-03-28T18:47:54Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Yeah, that’s pretty unique to Teabilly attacks. Even at the height of anti-Bush insults, I don’t recall the left lobbing personal insults at his wife. You know, she killed a guy. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/188 "2014-03-28T18:49:11Z")
Hey, what happens in Reno _stays_ in Reno! ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/189 "2014-03-28T19:01:14Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Yeah, that’s pretty unique to Teabilly attacks. Even at the height of anti-Bush insults, I don’t recall the left lobbing personal insults at his wife. It happened with Hillary Clinton, too. I guess it still happens, but I won’t count that since she’s been a Senator and Sec. of State since then and fair game for her own actions. I recall both Presidents Bush called for more civility in political discourse. Which was of course taken by some of their supporters to mean bashing the wives of their respective successors. Major disconnect there. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/190 "2014-03-28T19:02:53Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > A nitpick, a quibble, a minor point, perhaps, but that’s the trouble with quibbles… > > The President _is_ a civilian. Rather the whole point, given the inclinations and limitations of the military mindset. Yes, Col. Jessup, I need those armed men on the wall, standing their watch. But I am entirely content that they are under the orders of a man who never completed basic training. Eisenhower, I recall, as president made a point of not returning soldiers’ salutes – because, as a career soldier, he knew that was improper for a civilian to do. Later presidents seem to have forgotten that . . . ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/191 "2014-03-28T19:11:40Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Eisenhower, I recall, as president made a point of not returning soldiers’ salutes – because, as a career soldier, he knew that was improper for a civilian to do. Later presidents seem to have forgotten that . . . He’s the commander-in-chief, and the military is required to salute him. He can return it if he wants to. That said, the modern tradition appears to have started with Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/192 "2014-03-28T19:17:29Z")
Eisenhower was so dedicated to the principle of military subordination to civil government, in fact, that he considered it improper to **vote** while serving as a soldier, or so my Dad once told me. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/193 "2014-03-28T19:18:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Later presidents seem to have forgotten that . . . Not just Presidents. There was that recent “outrage” about Obama not returning a salute from a Marine. These days, the POTUS salutes a member of the military in uniform, or there’s hell to pay from the hoi-polloi. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/194 "2014-03-28T19:30:31Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The environment is too acidic. A number of conservative posters over the years have been driven away, and the mix has always been liberal in any event – undoubtedly a result of the newspaper column’s publication by alternative city papers, which themselves attract a strongly left crowd. > > I, personally, am here for the acid. My view has always been that I can’t weigh the strength of a position if I advance it to a crowd of like-minded people. My views should be tested against highly motivated, intelligent opposition. That’s why I’m here. > > Unfortunately, along with the highly motivated, intelligent opposition, there are fools who share the political positions of the majority. > > There doesn’t seem to be a way to get rid of the chaff and leave the wheat. To follow up on this comment – for the most part, even the leftists here that I consider to hold loony economic ideas are not woo-filled nutcases across the board. While the board is very sympathetic to claims that involve settling income inequality with massive redistribution, it comes down very hard on midwives that recommend Stevia, acupuncture and massage for a pregnant woman who’s lost her amoniotic fluid. That kind of fuzzy thinking is routinely pilloried, and I am glad to see it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/195 "2014-03-28T20:14:00Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > While the board is very sympathetic to claims that involve settling income inequality with massive redistribution I guess it depends on what you mean by massive redistribution, but generally, ‘redistribution’ is taken to mean taking money from rich people via taxation, and handing that money to people further down the economic ladder. I doubt that very many posters here favor that on a massive scale. Now if by ‘massive redistribution’ you mean providing good public services for all, and taxing the rich more heavily in order to pay for those services, I think that’s a position favored by pretty much all of our left-of-center posters, but it seriously stretches the meaning of the term. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/196 "2014-03-28T20:29:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Eisenhower, I recall, as president made a point of not returning soldiers’ salutes – because, as a career soldier, he knew that was improper for a civilian to do. Later presidents seem to have forgotten that . . . More like they realize the inevitable partisan response: “Durr! Obummer hates the troops so much he won’t even return their salute!” ---
**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:** [March 28, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/197 "2014-03-28T20:29:12Z")
Meh, it’s easy to make broad, vague accusations about “the board”. Personally, I doubt “the board” is sympathetic to claims to _settle_ income inequality, which sounds to me like something permanent, i.e. communism. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/198 "2014-03-28T21:04:08Z")
Its almost this simple: we have built a consumer economy. Not crazy about that, but there it is. If the consumers don’t have money, we have no economy. Therefore, some mechanism must be constructed so that money flows into the hands of people who will spend it buying our loud, shiny crap. Otherwise, our economy will center around gated communities, and for-profit prisons. I am open to suggestions as to how that mechanism be constructed, but it must be done. It isn’t working, if we don’t fix it, we are boned. Period. Full stop. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/199 "2014-03-28T21:38:42Z")
> [@bup](#): > > You know, she killed a guy. Am I the only guy who thought that was hot? And Laura’s such a purty li’l thang… ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547/200 "2014-03-28T21:53:39Z")
> [@bup](#): > > You know, she killed a guy. > [@elucidator](#): > > Hey, what happens in Reno _stays_ in Reno! > [@dropzone](#): > > Am I the only guy who thought that was hot? And Laura’s such a purty li’l thang… Can anybody please help a EU hillbilly like me with figuring out was this is all about? 😕 (well I know my Johnny Cash, so you don’t have to explain the Reno part) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfield-claims-a-trained-ape-could-manage-war-better-than-obama/684547.md?page=11)