2012 Presidential Race

[FIAT1]

I find it funny that there are actually people here trying to defend the President's "debate" last night. Even when guys as far Left as Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, and James Carville are telling the truth, that Obama was a disgrace last night. He really is only as good as his telleprompter.

Good article here about last night.


HURT: Obama the debater: Making Jimmy Carter look awesome - Washington Times

[Rollo]

More to the point, every little bit helps. I think it was Senator Everett Dirkson, back in the 50's, who said (more or less, I don't have the exact quote handy) "A million here and a million there and pretty soon you'll be talking about real money.

Just over half the US Federal Budget is made of Medicare & Medicaid, Social Security and Defence Spending. Those first two sections of pie will grow massively over the next twenty years as the baby-boom starts drawing pensions, getting old and causing vast expenses.

According to the NRA, it has just over 4 million members. In contrast the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) probably has 40 million members, or roughly ten times as many.
AARP

Which parts of the US Federal Budget are the AARP more likely to lobby for?
"Protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security for the future are the very heart and soul of our mission."
A Vote for the Future - Course of Medicare, Social Security - AARP

Who is going to pay for the oldies? This is a generation which will expect to maintain or improve their standards of living unlike their parents. The most immature, selfish generation of people the world has ever created is over the course of the next 20 years, set to also be the most expensive...

...and yet Romney speaks of PBS.

[ArrowsFA1]

A word of warning to those celebrating Romney's "win" in the first debate. As I recall a certain Nick Clegg was considered to have done very well in the first UK election debate in 2010. There was even speculation that, on the basis of his performance, he may be considered a realistic prospect for Prime Minister.

[janvanvurpa]

A word of warning to those celebrating Romney's "win" in the first debate. As I recall a certain Nick Clegg was considered to have done very well in the first UK election debate in 2010. There was even speculation that, on the basis of his performance, he may be considered a realistic prospect for Prime Minister.

That Obama guy seems to be able to hold himself back, bide his time. He knows the American people, he came out of the most American city right in the heart of middle America....he probably knows the attention span of "the undecided" has to be in the range of minutes, maybe at best hours or days.
It could very well be that he's waiting to a later--a closer date to the election ---to turn up the heat and ask Willard about
His tax returns
his Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts
his predatory capitalism at Bain
his frank contempt at---and misguided---"the 47%" (misguided when looking at the Rebublican "base" like the 3rd World Paradise of Mississippi when there has been for years the highest % on Federal assistance of various sources and which has voted solid Repo-gun for decades---)
The flip flops he is notorious for.----but that of course could be limited by the time available...

[Rollo]

This whole discussion is an aside:

As I recall a certain Nick Clegg was considered to have done very well in the first UK election debate in 2010. There was even speculation that, on the basis of his performance, he may be considered a realistic prospect for Prime Minister.

If Clegg was going to be the Prime Minister, in a coalition he would usually have been the leader of the majority party within that coalition. There are of course exceptions to this.
The vote for the president though, is a single post constituency with a set of weighted votes.

The other difference is that the Prime Minister is selected from the elected members, whereas the President candidates are nominated before the election.

Actually technically the position of the Prime Minister doesn't actually need to exist. In some Westminster parliaments where there is a set of codified rules, they're not even mentioned at all. The Prime Minister is not outlined in the Canadian Constitution and as far as I know is only mentioned in the supplement Schedule B. In the Australian Constitution there's not even a specific mention of the Prime Minister.

[Starter]

Just over half the US Federal Budget is made of Medicare & Medicaid, Social Security and Defence Spending. Those first two sections of pie will grow massively over the next twenty years as the baby-boom starts drawing pensions, getting old and causing vast expenses.

According to the NRA, it has just over 4 million members. In contrast the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) probably has 40 million members, or roughly ten times as many.
AARP

Which parts of the US Federal Budget are the AARP more likely to lobby for?
"Protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security for the future are the very heart and soul of our mission."
A Vote for the Future - Course of Medicare, Social Security - AARP

Who is going to pay for the oldies? This is a generation which will expect to maintain or improve their standards of living unlike their parents. The most immature, selfish generation of people the world has ever created is over the course of the next 20 years, set to also be the most expensive...

...and yet Romney speaks of PBS.

You have missed, perhaps because you don't get all the info over there, exactly what Romney said. He said he wouldn't change Social Security for those already on it or soon to retire. That's only fair as those people made their retirement plans based on what our political leaders promised over the years. (Yes, the Repubs were just as phoney as the Dems.) He said there would be changes, including means testing for those below, I believe, age 55. All the figures show current reserves should be able to accommodate that.

The real budget busters are Medicare and Medicade. There will have to be substantial changes there to keep the country solvent and he acknowledged that also. Something Obama has NOT done. By the way, don't go just by AARP membership numbers. It's not a monolithic bloc. Many members vote conservatively.

Defense spending was not a subject of this debate. I'll wait to see what he says on that. IMO, our country can't go on spending the amount of money we do now on defense. Though I'm not for draconian cuts either.

[Rollo]

The real budget busters are Medicare and Medicade. There will have to be substantial changes there to keep the country solvent and he acknowledged that also. Something Obama has NOT done. By the way, don't go just by AARP membership numbers. It's not a monolithic bloc. Many members vote conservatively.

Something Obama has NOT done... or Bush Jr, or Clinton, or Bush Sr, or Reagan, or Carter, or Ford, or Nixon, or LJB, or JFK... I mean come on, it's not like there hasn't been forewarning of this. I need to find a copy of the Federal Paper on this commissioned on the need to save for this right at the end of Eisenhower's presidency. I came across that once, but can't remember when or where I saw it.

[Roamy]

That Obama guy seems to be able to hold himself back, bide his time. He knows the American people, he came out of the most American city right in the heart of middle America....he probably knows the attention span of "the undecided" has to be in the range of minutes, maybe at best hours or days.
It could very well be that he's waiting to a later--a closer date to the election ---to turn up the heat and ask Willard about
His tax returns
his Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts
his predatory capitalism at Bain
his frank contempt at---and misguided---"the 47%" (misguided when looking at the Rebublican "base" like the 3rd World Paradise of Mississippi when there has been for years the highest % on Federal assistance of various sources and which has voted solid Repo-gun for decades---)
The flip flops he is notorious for.----but that of course could be limited by the time available...

so you figure what we saw last night was "rope a dope"

[Starter]

Something Obama has NOT done... or Bush Jr, or Clinton, or Bush Sr, or Reagan, or Carter, or Ford, or Nixon, or LJB, or JFK... I mean come on, it's not like there hasn't been forewarning of this. I need to find a copy of the Federal Paper on this commissioned on the need to save for this right at the end of Eisenhower's presidency. I came across that once, but can't remember when or where I saw it.

Only a fool couldn't see this looming on the horizon. Well....a fool and politicians running for reelection.

[Rollo]

The thing is that I don't see either Obama or Romney doing anything about this at all; not do I see the candidates in 2016 doing anything about it either. Maybe in 2020 there'll be talk about it, but I doubt it.

It'll be when all the bills really start to roll in about 2022 that the excrement will hit the oscillating air current device and I suspect that the 2024 and 2028 elections will be very heated indeed.