The Next President of the United States

[Dessa]

The tea party is conservative, and they have some measure of influence, thus, I consider them extremely dangerous, as I do any conservative with power.

Obama a liberal running as a moderate? I'd say the reverse, he's a moderate running as a liberal, and has done more for the Republican cause by accident than most people have ever managed to do on purpose. That anyone could call him "liberal" is proof enough to me that the Republicans have turned this world upside down, and that conservatism has won this decade.

I've never skipped a presidential election, but I just might this time around. I'm a hard-left liberal, and I can't choose between the far-right nutjob and the Uncle Tom. I just can't. America's best hope for a prosperous middle class any time soon is the death of Obama, so that we have a shot at electing a REAL liberal (not advocatin assasination, BTW. That would do more harm than good. Just a convenient heart-attack or something). Not somebody who negotiates away every liberal principle in advance, and only ever digs in when he's opposed by the left.

Still in Iraq.

Sill in Afghanistan (escalated, even).

Still illegal torture going on. Still Guantanamo.

Health care is still effed up.

Still regressive taxation. Still Bush-Era tax cuts.

Still a focus on cutting spending when the economy needs MORE spending, not less.

A more conservative Supreme Court.

And the worst part is, it would be much, much worse under McCain. Under Obama, we've been treading water at BEST.

We're screwed. Each and every one of us who isn't a millionaire is completely screwed, and our best hope is to live through conservative dominance without a complete governmental breakdown.

As for who's got the best chance of winning, nothing is settled, but Obama's very good at campaigning, and still enjoys the support of people who call falsely themselves liberals.

So yeah, I've got a few opinions about politics.

[Whooves]

I live in Poland but I was born in the U.S. so I can vote (I'll be 18 on Halloween so... ).

To be honest I don't have really idea. I'm more Republican if it goes for that they are standing for but I can't really see a candidate who could represent me.

... There is still time and I'm gonna watch carefully the news, debates and the hustings.

[AdamRB]

I'm voting Obama again. He may have not been strong these past 4 years, but that's partly because the Republicans have acted like such sore losers and fought unfair fights to diminish his popularity and get him out of office.

Add to that the GOP, where the only sane candidate seems to be the one no republican or news outlet seem to care about. All in all, I don't agree with many of the republican's policies, especially the ones influenced by the Tea Party and Extreme Conservatives.

I want Obama in the office and I really want a lot of his Policies to take shape in one form or another, I just want him to be stronger.

I still feel he's going to win; the silent majority in this country doesn't take to loudmouths and extremists. Plus the overly Christian overtones of the Republican base will turn off a lot of non-Christians.

[Dessa]

Obama's had the tools to win plenty of legislative battles. He just doesn't use them.

[Zephyr Breeze]

I'm most likely voting Obama. Barring tragedy. But yeah, most likely Obama. I'm a liberal tilted Moderate. I hate people arguing from a side and saying they're center (Thank you Dessa for being an adult and admitting you have actual opinions and simply stating where you stand. Same to you Phil.) I despise Fox News, but I also despise MSNBC. We kind of need an ACTUAL new station in America. The only station that is CLOSE to center is CNN, and all they do now is stupid stuff from Twitter. I find it sad that I have to watch the BBC World Report for news about U.S. not tilted with politics.

[Dessa]

BBC World news is good.

[brianblackberry]

I haven't decided yet on whom I will support for the President of the United States in 2012. My personal potential candidate, Jim Ryan, elected not to run, leaving me without a current candidate as I am not particularly pleased with any other. I guess I'll make a call after the two conventions next summer.

[Starfox64x]

Well, Princess Celestia has kept peace for over a thousand years for the most part, and even with the past two incidents with Nightmare Moon and Discord, they seem to be handled pretty well-

Oh wait... Serious topic? sorry...

I'll be honest... My opinion on politics is If you're dumb enough to run for president, you're not smart enough to be president. Everyone goes in acting like they will have control over everything and will be able to fix problems like its somethign that can be fixed easily and results will be noticeable in a couple of months... But they forget that Congress needs to agree with them... now about half of them already WON'T agree with the president, most likely because he's in the opposing party (Whether the idea is good or not, thats just how people are) The other half will have a few people who actually take a look at the idea and say it needs work and vote against it, therefor knocking down most of the ideas that the president promised.

Basically, trying to get hundreds of people to agree on something is hard... but in the end the president is the one who gets blamed because he's the icon of the country. Think of it this way, if you have a football team that sucks, its the coaches fault... It's not the players fault for not agreeing on a play to use, and then screwing it up once they finally compromised on something that neither side really liked.... Somehow the coach gets blamed for it...

So, frankly i dont care... the people of this country screwed up a lot of things, and voting for a single man or woman won't help much... That's my opinion anyway...

[Shyriath]

More or less what Starfox64x said. A major problem with politics in the US, I think, is that people in general have come to expect the president to have a plan and solve their problems, no matter how infeasible it is for them to do so. Therefore candidates act like that's what they can do, either to appeal to the masses or because they believe their own hype.

I tend to be of the view that not only can't the president take charge to the degree people expect, but they shouldn't be trying in the first place. The president's job should be to carry out big plans, not come up with them. The people who should be doing the legwork of deciding how to pull the country out of its problems are in Congress, and they seem to be successfully avoiding that duty.

[Dessa]

I think you guys are underestimating the massive power a president has. The veto pen doesn't begin to describe it, although it is a powerful legislative tool. Executive orders allow the president to enact sweeping changes very quickly. The president is a national diplomatic representative. And the most overlooked element, the president is a leader to her party and her people. The pres' party in congress, out of congress, and even at the state and local levels, to set the party's agenda. The people look to the president to direct their national priorities. The propensity of people to follow leadership is underestimated, but it is significant.

[Shyriath]

That's true, I suppose. I guess that, for my part, the point isn't so much that the powers don't exist, but that my interpretation of how it's appropriate to use them is fairly narrow. Possibly the president could use that influence to enormous effect, but it shouldn't be the business of a single person to fix things or run things, especially not if people come to rely on and expect that person to do the fixing/running.

Even if things go well, and the person proves capable and intelligent and responsive, and they handle all their responsibilities, and they don't abuse their power and so on, they're not going to last in the job forever. The next person to come along might not be quite so suitable, and then the expectations for the position are suddenly too high. That happened with a forum community I used to inhabit once: we had someone who was basically our leader and admin, and he did his job well and everyone liked him and he kept the peace, but because of that we never bothered to try to get him to share his duties with anyone else. And when he felt he couldn't do the job anymore, and we had to pick someone else... well, things went downhill from there pretty quickly.

[Skye]

What actually amuses me, is how many of our population over here seems to forget that Obama is entitled to a second term. A lot of people talk about a bunch of the other candidates but seem to omit mentioning Obama for some reason. I wonder how many people are going to be shocked when he shows up on the ballots.

[Skye]

What actually amuses me, is how many of our population over here seems to forget that Obama is entitled to a second term. A lot of people talk about a bunch of the other candidates but seem to omit mentioning Obama for some reason. I wonder how many people are going to be shocked when he shows up on the ballots.