That has not been my experience in GD, nor in Elections, nor even in CS or the Pit. If it has been yours, the problem lies in your own ability to perceive/appreciate arguments.
No, this is the place to debate them. Anything relevant to the Obama-vs.-Romney choice is open for debate here.
I do not consider it horrible for the federal overlords to not be able to pass any laws for a while. If that results in a power vacuum, I will be happy to see local governments fill it.
“States’ Rights” is a phrase/concept with a history in this country that is neither happy nor admirable.
Or in yours.
I’m a lawyer. I know what argument is and is not. And a Doper of many years’ standing, and no intelligent and fair-minded Doper who knows my username will fail to associate it with well-constructed (most of the time) arguments.
The only situation I can think of where a Romney win would be a good idea is if he turns out to be what the cynics claim he is, a competent technocrat who just panders to the tea party base but once in power will govern the country competently and completely disavow the rhetoric he is currently pandering with.
I have no idea if that is true (I have no idea what his track record was in MA).
But evenso, I don’t think his policies are good for the country. Corporations and the wealthy are rolling in money, but Romney seems to think tax cuts for them will spur economic growth. His economic opinions seem to be based on political ideology rather than pragmatism.
If Romney turns out to be a pragmatist, it wouldn’t be to bad if he won. But I still think Obama is the more pragmatic political leader of the two.
However overturning the ACA will not be good for the country because that was an attempt by Obama to bend the cost curve since long term medical costs are what are bankrupting the government. Also Obama has a very competent foreign policy. We are out of Iraq, winding down Afghanistan, Bin laden is dead, our reputation is better, etc.
Kinda “liberal,” actually. That’s why the Tea Parties hate him so much. (Well, that and his religion.) But they hate Obama more.
While I am still listening to what Gov Romney has to say I believe Pres. Obama should be elected
for another term. Some of my reasons echo comments already posted but I suspect the OP will not let me
get away with that so…
Admittedly, the bar is set pretty low for rating any president but overall I think he has done a good job,
especially in foreign affairs and helping revive segments of the economy. He has had to backtrack on a
few promises he made in 2008 but I see that as a necessary part of leading.
The GOP has been taken over by the crazies, many of whom do not seem to want to govern at all, so these
members of Congress are merely there to collect a pretty sizable paycheck and await the call from a Fox
News producer. Sadly, this is consequence of an inattentive electorate in the interim elections so this may
stick around for a while until more voters start to pay attention. Assuming the GOP retains a majority in the
House, having a Democratic President should help to mitigate some of the more egregious actions they will
almost certainly attempt.
On a purely selfish level, Pres. Obama getting re-elected would probably be good for my investments since Wall
Street hates change. Assuming, the GOP bosses can reign in the children in the Tea Party wing and not
have a repeat of the debt ceiling fiasco - that cost me a few bucks :mad: - things should be fairly stable.
I believe an Obama win is absolutely essential. Not so much because he has done a decent job of governing despite having the Republicans being all too eager to sabotage the nation in order to hurt him politically. Not so much as he has shown what can be done with small scale military action (bin Laden, Libya) as opposed to large scale disasters (Iraq). Not so much because the economy is slowly turning around.
It is essential because Mitt Romney must be defeated. Not merely because Romney has no convictions other than that Mitt Romney should be president. Not merely because Romney will sign whatever the GOP plops on his desk. It is essential that Republicans not be able to fill Supreme Court vacancies. It is essential that embracing the right wing agenda be seen as a fatal decision. It is essential that the Bush tax cuts NOT be made permanent. It is essential that attacks on women’s rights not gain any traction. It is essential that government spending not be cut irresponsibly. I don’t trust Mitt Romney to do the right thing in ANY situation. At the very least, Obama has good instincts about most things. Not that I agree with everything he says, but holy shit the alternative is utter disaster.
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Obama without a doubt. He’s turning the economy around. Sure it’s slow, but given the depth of this recession (Krugman calls it a depression - cite: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/paul-krugman-on-how-to-fix-the-economy-and-why-its-easier-than-you-think-20120502), it shouldn’t be surprising it’s taking years to recover. But we are recovering, in large part due to the stimulus.
On the other hand, when Romney says something as stupid as “I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was,” (0:14 in this video: Mitt Romney: "I stand by what I said, whatever it was." - YouTube), I believe he’ll say anything to get the vote. Add the other garbage said on his behalf (the “Etch-a-Sketch” moment), as well as other quotes, his kowtowing to the extreme elements, like Trump and the birthers, it all adds up to me that Romeny’s a coward, a liar, and virtually a puppet of the right.
No good would come from a Romeny presidency. While Obama certainly has had his faults (I believe in compromise, but he took it too far and should’ve been more forceful when it was clear the GOP would barely acknowledge his presence in the room), I believe Obama is clearly the better choice. Not perfect, but I give him a passing grade.
As someone who has frequently voted ® in the past…
Obama.
After the last Republican performance in the debt ceiling crisis of last year, I found the Republican performance bordering on if not actually crossing into treason. It was certainly clear they did not care about the United States of America.
Until they apologise for this abhorent behavior/change their ways so that I can be assurred that they actually care about the United States of Amercia/are not treasonous scum…I will NEVER vote Republican again.
In short, Republicans cannot be trusted with the Office of President…and should not have it for the good of the United States.
Is Romney going to inexplicably nominate Dennis Kucinich as his running mate? No? How about Jerry Brown? Bernie Sanders?
So long as Mitt Rmoney continues to be the incarnation of economic elitism, then Obama is clearly the lesser evil in the near term. I’m not convinced either of them is good, but what use is there to me in voting for a greater evil?
Obama, because I agree with him on about 60 percent of the issues, as opposed to 25 percent or so with Romney.
As John McLaughlin would say: “Wrong! The real answer is: there should be no favorite in this race.”
Obama has a lot of things going for him: incumbency, a proven campaigner, economy that’s slowly rebounding. Obama versus generic Republican should be a comfortable win for Obama.
Romney is not a generic Republican. He’s his own candidate. He defeated a weak field and still has some challenges ahead of him, but as of this moment, he has been doing well on closing the gap on the popular vote. I think his biggest challenge to come is how to deal with the eat-their-young Tea Party types who would rather nominate losers like “I am not a witch” and hand elections over to Dems on a silver platter, rather than swallow a bit of pride and unite in favor of a Republican candidate who can win but might not be 110% Tea Party approved. If Romney can balance the short-sightedness of these extremists while appealing to moderates, that’s an impressive feat and he may deserve the win.
However, I’m not convinced Romney will be able to do that.
Obama
Everything that needs to be said about why Obama should win reelection has already been echoed in this thread. The bottom line is that this country can never again have another Republican in the Oval Office, period.
The two biggest reasons, for me personally, that I want another four years for Obama are that (1) I’m a huge supporter of the ACA and I want to see it fully implemented, and (2) the SCOTUS needs to be shaken up. Seriously, that’s probably the most far-reaching dilemma in another GOP presidency; somebody said it earlier, but if we get another conservative on the SCOTUS bench, we might as well hang up our country right now. An unrestrained far-right agenda from the Court would absolutely decimate the nation.
I am definitely in favor of Obama and will vote for him in the fall, but there is a tiny voice that says that the country might be better under Romney for just the opposite reason as that expressed by Terr. With another Obama term, the Republicans will continue to put party ahead of country and oppose everything he does with the result of nothing getting done. With Romney in charge, I don’t think the Democrats will be as blindly partisan and so it might be possible to move the country forward on some of the less controversial legislation, such as raising the debt ceiling.
The flaws in this reasoning is first that the Republicans may have irrevocably gone over to the crazy side, and are actually serious about destroying the government, rather than just using it as an attack against Obama, and Romney would let that legislation pass. Also there is the possibility that the Democrats wanting revenge for four years of obstructionism will put on their own 24/7 filibuster, meaning that we will have unending gridlock for the foreseeable future. For these reasons I have to go with Obama. Also one more pro business justice on the supreme court and we might as well just give up and restart as a plutocracy.
Have you seen some of the legislation put out by local governments? It makes Sarah Palin look like Solomon the wise. As bad as the pettiness and corruption is as the Federal level it’s nothing compared to the local level.
If you don’t like your local government, it’s fairly easy to escape it. Much harder to do so with the federal government.
Since neither will stem the growing debt or end the war on foreign brown people they would both be disastrous for the country.
The only positive I can think of is if Obama is elected is there will be opposition to the all-powerful executive. The role of the executive branch has far outgrown its constitutional bounds and must be put in its place. Only the Republicans have a constituency that is opposed to the growth of executive power, especially in the hands of a Democrat. It is in the Democrat’s DNA to either grow the office or sit idly as power is wrenched from the people. We saw that party flopping around like a fish for 8 years under GWB.
If Romney is elected the conservative Republicans will go back to sleep and the Democrats will reassume their role of feckless lackeys.