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May 15, 2012 - 8:03 AM
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May 15, 2012 - 8:03 AM
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
THE ROANOKE TIMES
I haven’t paid any attention to the presidential campaigns lately. The “he said” ads are just getting old, and waste of my time sitting in front of the tube. I don’t care if it comes from Obama or Romney. They both need to be delivering visions, plans, and debate those instead of using sound bites, mud-slinging, and spinning to generate interest in their campaigns.
I think some voters are already tuning out both men until it get closer to November.
My biggest gripe toward the media is ignoring that there are actually more presidential candidates than the two Established Parties, the Grand Ole Party and the Democrats. There’s the Constitutional Party, Libertarian Party, Communist Party, just to name a few. Yet, the Roanoke Times along with every news outlet continue the practice of forcing the public to choose between the Republican and Democrat candidates.
Trevor I agree with you whole heartedly (sp?)
Don’t forget the Green Party or the Socialist Equality Party.
One of our big problems politically is we have a winner take all system. That is, you can have two similar candidates (maybe both are kind of liberal) which split the liberal vote 30%/30%. The more conservative candidate gets 40% and wins despite the majority of the population being liberal (in this case).
We cannot expect more than two strong parties or candidates so long as we keep this election system in place.
Imagine my shock and outrage when I learned a few years ago that presidents are actually elected by the electoral college. It almost (emphasis on almost) make it seem that popular vote don’t count. I realize the electoral voting system is a complex machine, yet it ought not to be.
When I survey the democracies around the world, I note that in several countries, they often have more than two political parties representing the people. Israel, for example, have at least 4 parties in their system, but they have to form a coalition in order to run the government.
Here, we have to pick between Republic or Democrat, and once in a while an Independent would be lucky to win a seat (unless it is Libermann, sp?).
Until 3rd parties can elect local and state officials in some numbers, they rightly should be ignored.
There is a reason that 3rd parties are ignored and it is not because they get no media coverage. It is because they represent a small fringe element and have no political clout.
The GOP was once a 3rd party until they unseated the Whig Party. So I say it’s high time to allow multiple parties to compete for a bid.
If journalism exist to inform, then why, o why, aren’t they informing voters there are alternatives to Republican and Democrat? My guess is they are in the back pockets of said parties.
How’s that for objective journalism?
Apologies for double-posting.
The last major 3rd party that came close to winning it all was the Moose Party.
Man, attending those Fowler lecture series at Roanoke College sure comes in handy.
Now that Newsweek’s cover this week declared that Barack Obama is the “First Gay President,” there is only one minority group left that the liberal media has not made him the leader.
I propose that Obama be declared the first “Islamic American President.”
In 2010, The Washington Post delared Obama our first “female president.”
In 2009, the AFP ran the headline, “Obama the first Asian-American president?”
In 2009 Geraldo Rivera declared that Obama’s immigration policies would make Obama “the first Hispanic president the same way Bill Clinton was the first black [President].”
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/05/obama-our-first-gay-female-black-hispanic-asian-jewish-president/52299/
Now it is time for Obama to be declared as the first “Islamic President” as his early upbringing and Middle East policies certainly make him qualified.
White working males are not considered a class worthy of liberal media recognition!
I completely agree that we need a good third party choice, but that has proven to be the niche for radicals, agenda driven loons and yes, “the fringe”.
If we could manage a good third party candidate, I think people would abandon the Dems and Repbs in massive numbers.
John R, your bitterness is showing. I know the world hangs on what the The Washington Post, the AFP, Newsweek and Geraldo Rivera “declare” but I am pretty sure that the right wingers long ago “declared” President Obama “the first Islamic American President.” And they did not mean it as a compliment, any more than you do.
It is a sad and pitiful thing when people cannot be proud of a good leader with broad appeal and understanding of things they are afraid of. No wonder Romney is their choice. He is none of those things.
I don’t like Obama. I don’t like Romney either. Ugh, two lousy choices. It’s kinda like going to the Golden Correl and being present with sub-par buffet.
Trevor
What has Obama’s $5T deficit brought the nation that is “good”? Three plus years of above 8% unemployment, Obamacare that about half the voters don’t like, a no growth economy, all failed policies.
Have you checked the polls matching Obama against Romney lately? Obama’s diversions away from the economy and toward women’s rights, gay rights, contraception, student loans, and everything but the economy is driving the independent voters away from him. It’s the economy stupid!
Obama isn’t drawing the crowds like he did in ’08. What happened in WV, NC, and what is going to happen in Wisc. are telling. He is heading for major losses in the SCOTUS next month.
Nothing has changed since Nov. ’10 and Obama and the Dems are headed for another smack down. He is too far left for the nation which is center-right politically.
The voters will fire Obama in Nov. big time!
#8 -”It is a sad and pitiful thing when people cannot be proud of a good leader…”
I agree.
Now if only we had a good leader in the White House right now…
Looks like you are destined to be disappointed either way then Michael.
And IF the voters take your “center-right”??? advice and “fire Obama in Nov. big time”, what on earth is it you actually think flip flopping, Wall Street Raider, Willard Romney will bring us? And based on what?
#12 – “Looks like you are destined to be disappointed either way then Michael.”
Not really, Sandi. Obama will get the boot in November and we’ll get to hear you whine about it for the next four years.
That’s a win in my book.
#7 Newsweek is a ridiculous piece of trash, John R. But thanks for quoting them.
gdad and I agree for once, this is a milestone in a rather stormy relationship!
I have never felt better about a presidential election than since 1980 when Pres. Reagan had a landslide victory over what’s his name. I shall never forget that the TV networks back then called that election for Reagan by 8:00 pm election night. The rest is history! It was morning in America again after a very gloomy time. The people were happy again!
I got that same “tingling felling up my leg” about the GOP chances that I had back then this Nov. Imagine, a trifecta: the WH, the Senate, and the House. Add in those liberal Supreme Court Justices that are approaching their 9th decade of life and it just doesn’t get any better than this for a conservative!
I promise not to glote the day after the election! Well maybe just a little.
Reagan was one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had. Not THE WORST, but in the top 10 worst ever. “Morning in America”?!? Not quite. Iran/Contra, ignoring the AIDS epidemic, backing the racist South African government, gutting education and social programs, creating policy and agendas based on The Book of Revelations, and Nancy’s ridiculous “Just Say No” campaign …a morning for Fascism perhaps, but not for real Americans. The true irony is that in the end of his life he couldn’t understand the damage he had done.
Always nice to know you like to hear my POV Michael, thanks. But I don’t believe I will be the one “whining” for the next five years.
Oh, you can “glote” all you like John R. It would seem odd if you did not.
If America votes for a Wall Street LBO vulture culture to enter the White House, it will prove a lot of people right about the prejudice and ODS that President Obama faced. It will also be a coup for the Plutocracy. But it will be the end of America as we know it on many levels. The TP/GOP is MORE incapable of fixing problems and finding solutions than the Dems and America will sadly realize that in very short order. Success requires a plan, and all you have is slash and burn. It made people hate Sherman and the government for over a century, so in the end, it works for me in 2016, but I hate to see America pay that kind of price.
If this nation chooses Romney over Obama, It will be the greatest con job that wealth and power have ever pulled off in this nation. And all things considered, that is saying a lot.
The commercials informing this nation exactly what a Wall Street LBO vulture DOES to “earn” their billions. I think morning will come to America before the November election and I will be the one who is able to gloat. Time will tell.