The Presidency

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 2:01 pm

Far be it from me - a non-American to give his opinion as to the relative merits of Mitt and Newt, the two Republican hopeful candidates for the Presidency. So I wont!

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 6:48 pm

I suspect this thread will probably be moved over to the rant thread. Tho Im staying out of it. There was an old saying about politics, like sausage, should not show how its made. This last few months have been a perfect example of it.

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 7:46 pm

[quote=""Ash""]I suspect this thread will probably be moved over to the rant thread. Tho Im staying out of it. There was an old saying about politics, like sausage, should not show how its made. This last few months have been a perfect example of it.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure you mean "There are two things you should never see made, laws and sausages."

But I get what you mean. I've got a ton of opinions on the presidency right now, but I still want people on this thread to like me.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 7:59 pm

I see no reason for this thread to devolve as long as we stick to discussing Ken's non-discussion.

Actually Ken there are more than two, those two just get most of the press. Eventually it will be one person who gets the nomination and then one third of the country can hate him while another third hates President Obama, and the remaining third keep their heads down and vote quietly. [Oversimplified but fun explanation.]

Also Ken, I appreciate your non-sharing of your opinions about our country's circus-like process. I will be equally non-sharing about your country's politics (about which I don't really have many opinions anyway).

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 9:42 pm

[quote=""Ken""]Far be it from me - a non-American to give his opinion as to the relative merits of Mitt and Newt, the two Republican hopeful candidates for the Presidency. So I wont!

[/quote]

As a Brit, I quite agree-- it is not for me to comment and I have found the comments made about ours really quite irritating.

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Sun January 22nd, 2012, 10:08 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]I see no reason for this thread to devolve as long as we stick to discussing Ken's non-discussion.

Also Ken, I appreciate your non-sharing of your opinions about our country's circus-like process. I will be equally non-sharing about your country's politics (about which I don't really have many opinions anyway).

[/quote]

Hubble bubble toil and trouble!

Not a political siding, just a commentary on how, from a population of almost 300 million, the American voters just seem every four years, to be restricted to a choice between a small handfull of candidates, some of whom have already had a go (Mitt. Not sure about Newt?) or those who have had the fortune to belong to a 'Presidential' family; the Kennedy's, the Bush's (the Clinton's, next time round?)

To even things up, this situation is mirrored on our side of the pond as well. We have had in the UK the fratricide of the Milliband brothers for the leadership of the Labour Party and in France the leader of the opposition to Nicolas Sarkozy for the Presidency is the ex-husband of the 2007 failed candidate, Segolene Royale!.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Mon January 23rd, 2012, 7:55 pm

Actually, Ken there are dozens of people running for President each election year. The media chooses to focus on the handful that represent the Republican and Democratic parties though so we usually don't hear much about the other candidates. And if we in this country don't hear about them, there's no reason anyone across the pond would.

Politics these days takes a lot of money and most of the people don't have that much, so it's no wonder that we keep hearing the same names over and over worldwide.

rebecca · Post by **rebecca** » Tue January 24th, 2012, 12:25 am

I can't understand how Americans can stand electioneering for 2 1/2 years. In Australia we'd have a revolution and then vote for Captain Kangaroo

.

Bec

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tue January 24th, 2012, 3:17 am

We do the same thing, without the revolution!

DianeL · Post by **DianeL** » Tue January 31st, 2012, 1:03 am

[quote=""rebecca""]I can't understand how Americans can stand electioneering for 2 1/2 years. In Australia we'd have a revolution and then vote for Captain Kangaroo

.

Bec

[/quote]

We can't. Unfortunately, there are careers - and perfectly obscene amounts of money - to be made by talking heads and lawyers (er, politicians) in self promotion (er, campaigning), money laundering (er, campaign finance), and the marketing of everything from authorized books to unauthorized books to Donald tRump's latest loudly stated opinion and loudly styled hairdo - so on it goes.