Should the rest of the world worry??

It's  choose your poison.

Thanks for the solidarity, Stu.

Nick

They still need a warrant.

That fact seems to have been lost in the debate.

Most (relevant) facts seem to get lost in the debate these days.......its hopeless !

Cheers

Don

I spent a lot of time in US over the years & have a bunch of ol buddy's I still keep in contact with.

Some are far out right & between them can get into some highly entertaining disagreements about how their priorities should be.  Others are out on the left, are generally less vocal & seem to think passive is the way to go & they worship the water BO'B walks on. Out of aprx 20 regular e-mailer's no one seems to be mid stream or DGAF.  

My "Republican or Die" buddy's all seem to agree the selection ain't great.  

Romney will win but he is far away detached from real world & too influenced by pressure groups & will probably reverse the BO'B pushback on Israel & the Palestinian & Iranian issues will get more intense. 

Santorum is a rich kid trying to be a man of the people, confusing what he stands for & plays to whatever the crowd in front wants to hear.

Gingrich is the best man for the job based Washington experience & world wisdom front,  but is poluted with past misdemeanour's & that is baggage that will make him a non-starter.

Paul,  no one knows why he is still around. 

At least the mad bitch from Alaska is not in the running

Views, expressions & nicknames & are not easy to follow for us simpletons living too close to the Greenwich meridian,  but for sure its entertaining providing you are not overly sensitive, neurotic or fear the end of the world. 

Makes the UK lot seem like the cake making div of WI (sorry ladies) with a touch of Monty Python.

> Should the rest of the world worry?

We should ,,, here is what the former envoy to Czech republic had to say on the matter, shame neither he nor Václav Havel are still with us, which is a shame. 

Certainly on this forum? 

IMO, Obama will be re-elected, but it will be a very, very close election.  

Looking back, the US had eight years of W, and I just can't see us returning to a set of financial policies that led to the near-collapse of the banks, and the resulting 7 trillion of debt to bail them out.  Romney would return us to a game even more rigged in favor of the big banks.  No regulation, free to speculate wildly, as the new government would once again anoint them as too big to fail.   At least Obama has pledged "never again", and is attempting to get Dodd-Frank into law.

Convenient how so many Republicans now forget that this all happened under W's watch, and that this was the legacy Obama inherited.   I do not understand their cries of "regulation is killing the economy".  It was a lack thereof that almost did!

Anyway, you put that together with the amount of baggage and silly statements that Romney has made during the campaign, and I just can't see the US returning to a Prez who is that inarticulate, and that clumsy.   He is very W-like in a public forum.  Unlike his weak, under-funded competitors for the Republican nomination, the Obama campaign will have no shortage of dollars to advertise Romney's failings, limitations, and constant flip-flops.  As Newt and Sanctimonius have both correctly pointed out, the man has no moral compass, and will say anything to anyone to get their vote.

The Republican's biggest condemnation of Obama is, of course, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), referred to by Republicans as "Obamacare".  They are livid over the mandate to buy health insurance, and I've never understood why.   That is, and always has been, a Republican idea.  It was based on the idea of taking personal responsibility for your own health, a principle that I (as a Flaming Commie-Pinko left wing Radical Democrat) totally agree with.   I agree with it mainly because it is the only way other than single payer to make the numbers work so as to get the Insurance companies to agree to stop discriminating based on pre-existing medical conditions.  It is the only way to prevent a single illness from becoming the reason for an uninsured (or under-insured) family's financial ruin.  A good thing in my view!

And oh yeah, the blueprint for the whole PPACA idea was the Massachusetts plan built by Romney!  It is absurd to see him criticize Obama on this issue!  Of course, it may not matter since the the Republican activist Supreme Court may rule the mandate (and, therefore, the whole bill) un-Constitutional before the election even begins.  In which case, the Republican argument will switch away from the act itself, and to a tale that Obama wants to subvert the Constitution.   Even sadder than the mutts that make up the Republican candidates are the mutts that make up the current Supreme Court.  It is 5-4 along strict party lines on every decision.   The Court used to be apolitical.  They used to be all about upholding the law, and upholding the Constitution.  Now it is simply another hackneyed political body that has taken upon themselves to legislate.   This, I think, is the saddest thing of all!  There is no longer an objective backstop to party bias!   When the SC ruled that a corporation was a "person", and then eliminated all caps on corporate spending during elections, they turned the entire political process on its head, and returned the true power in this country to a very few, mega-rich people who are now funding the "Super Pac's".   These entities dominate the TV and radio airways during elections.  And, unfortunately, most people simply vote against the guy whose dirty laundry is constantly being paraded on the TV tube.  The saturation bombing of negative political ads works.   Always has, and always will.  The candidate with the most money always wins.  Always has.

The main reasons I think Obama will win is that the Republicans have moved so far right as to become anti-woman and anti-immigrant.   98% of all US women use birth control, and the Republicans want to roll the clock back 60 years, and take away their right to birth control as a component of their health plans.   They don't seem to realize that most Americans do not want the government inn their bedrooms.   20% of the US is Hispanic, and they are the fastest growing segment of the population.  The Republicans want to make it a lot harder for US citizens of Hispanic heritage to help get family members a green card.  I find this very curious, as immigration is what has made the US a world superpower.  We have always been an open door to the world's best and brightest.  I do not understand why the Republicans want to change this.  Anyway, the Dem's should get a significant majority of both women and Hispanics, and if they do, it could be game over.

Besides, IMO, Obama is moderate.  He is much more center than left if you judge him by his policies.  He hasn't exactly been soft on national security (eg, killing OBL).  He has even bowed to right-wing pressures to stay in Afghanistan (an absurd position based on history, or any other evaluation if US interests).  He is a Christian, though a vast majority of southern Republicans are still convinced he is a Muslim.   He certainly is not a perfect President, nor a perfect leader, but he has IMO gotten better at the job in the last four years. Personally, I would much prefer a more left-leaning Prez, but we liberals are a minority here in the US, and so this rarely if ever happens.

With an economy that continues to sputter along at 2% growth, and with rising gasoline prices, even a baffoon like Romney could easily get elected on the premise of "voting your pocketbook" of  "voting the bum out".   Obama will not get credit for ending the recession, nor for dealing well with the big bag of shite that W handed him.  I've grown used to having an adult in the White House, and I think it would be sad to see that end.  But it easily could.  Come to think of it, would not be at all surprised to see a major flip-flop -- the Republicans gaining the Presidency while losing the House of Representatives!

All these ramblings are just my opinion of course...

Hook

But your ramblings make a lot of sense . Generally I can't follow US politics any more. I like your summary, and hope Obama gets in again.

Dave