Search: “Americans”
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To the OP:
Thats Americans not americans.
Geez! First you call us suckers then you don’t even capitolize our…
Ah, never mind… pearls before swine…
:wally
The irony here is of whoosh-like proportions. The OP’s projection of his own inferiority complex would be comically caricturistic if it wasn’t so pathetically sad.
err caricaturistic.
you have a point there
Because Americans are conditioned to like sound bites. We’re inundated with advertising for all sorts of things that are complex. We don’t care how sodium bicarbonate neutralizes stomach acid to relieve heartburn, we just need to know “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz!”
Cheap rhetoric works much in the same way. We don’t want to hear Steve Forbes explain his flat tax methods. We want GHWB to just tell us “No New Taxes”. We’re all conditioned for the mundane from birth in this country. We’re not going to have debates in this country between candidates, we’re going to have a Slogan Contest, and that’s the extent of millions of peoples understanding of things and basis for their own judgment.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need some Alka Seltzer…
I wish it would work in Iraq.
Sader is a flip-floper. First he attacks, then he agrees to a cease fire. Then he attacks agian?!?! Which is it Mr Sader?
This ad paid for by friends of the transitional goverment.
Play that in Iraq and see if Saders ‘numbers’ drop.
Don’s an 88 in more than just name? I probably should have been paying him more attention. I don’t recall him being all THAT misguided (I’m not saying “crazy” in deference to the forum) so I figured he’s just a 16 year old or owns an autographed Don Martin cartoon from 1988. And how come he’s not banned? I thought That Crowd always manages to get themselves banned the first day. 
Dropzone: Draw your own conclusions.
I’ll give you a “maybe” on it, John. Maybe a wannabe who took the 88 it to look tough. Maybe shares some views with the regular SF types but isn’t as over the top. Maybe he has some potential for full domestication since he behaves well enough that he hasn’t been banned. Maybe we should stop stop second guessing what he means and accept that he’s at least as as housebroken as my puppy (who tries but doesn’t always succeed) and adopt him as our own pet stormtrooper.
Back to the OP, Americans are far from alone when it comes to a love of cheap rhetoric over substance. Look at, oh, ANY other country and you’ll see the same patterns repeated.
Perot appeared to have a plain-speaking manner. But if you looked at the content of what he was saying, there was not much there. A lot of Americans are pretty shallow and fall for this aw-shucks persona.
What’s this stuff about “88”?
The most significant factor seems to be “conservative values”. By this I mean abortion, gay marriage and so on. Bush has them, Kerry doesn’t. Voters who support “conservative values”, who are many, don’t care a whole lot about anything else.
Who was it who said something like “no one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the public”? was it W.C. Fields? I looked at several find-a-quote sites without success.
H. L. Mencken.
“H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Some Neonazis incorporate two of them in their usernames as an abreviation for “Heil Hitler.” But 88 can have other meanings, too. One could own an Olds 88, for instance. In DonMartin88’s case he claims in John’s linked thread that it is because he is a fan of 80s music. Yeah, it’s a pretty lame explanation but you meet all kinds on the internet.
What is easier to accept ?
Fighting for Freedom or Fighting for “Geo-political” power ?
Fighting to keep terrorist’s on the defensive or We’re just kicking arabs around ?
Even if we imagine for a moment Bush has a viable plan to take down terrorists… he can’t openly say what he is doing. Rhetoric is a necessity in a way. People don’t understand or want to understand complex issues.
People all over the world are suckers too… btw … americans sadly too.
Can you help me parse this? From the rest of your post, it seems as if you are saying Bush is not taking down terrorists even in his own mind, even if that is his plan.
If we assume:
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Bush has a plan which he belives will take down terrorists
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Bush is engaging in activities designed (again in his own mind) to further that plan
Then why can he not say openly what he is doing? I understand that he cannot reveal specific operational details in advance. Is that what you meant?