USA election thread - If you're not interested, then don't look!

[Bangkoktraveler]

I knew this one couple - he was Canadian and she was USA. After they got married, she came down with cancer. She had no health insurance in the USA and could not get any even if she could afford it. They had to wait several years before she could be elegible for Canadian health care. When she became eligible for Canadian health care, she used it.

 

It was Canadian health care that saved her life.

 

I see no great influx of people coming from Canada to the USA for healthcare.

 

This is just another urban myth.

 

.

 

I don't see the GOP trying to get rid of socialize medicine available for Congress nor do I see the GOP condemning socialize medicine that makes up the VA hospital network.

[Flashermac]

The Decider returns to haunt Mr Nuance as George W. Bush eclipses Barack Obama

 

 

The 43rd and 44th American presidents are a study in contrasts, but the link between them is symbiotic, argues Toby Harnden. There could have been no Obama without Bush, and only Obama's stumbles could have made Bush look good again so quickly.

 

By Toby Harnden

 

 

Say what you like about former President George W. Bush, but his sense of timing is impeccable. Just after his successor Barack Obama took a self-described "shellacking" at the polls, Dubya was back, mocking the current occupant of the White House by his very presence.

 

For the 43rd President, the return must have been sweet.

 

Obama was elected in large part because he was the unBush: biracial not bluebood; silky tongue, not foot-in-mouth; reflective not impetuous; cool rather than hot.

 

During the 2008 election campaign, Obama slammed Bush at every turn. Since then, the 44th President has almost ceaselessly blamed his predecessor for everything, even stooping to lambast Karl Rove, Bush's long-time aide, by name during the recent mid-terms campaign.

 

But the anti-Bush shtick soon wore thin. Two years after Obama was anointed, the halo around his head seemed distinctly tarnished. In his post-defeat interview with 60 Minutes, Obama was at his most listless and meandering, projecting all the certainty of a Hamlet on the Potomac.

 

Right on cue, Bush entered, stage Right, clutching a copy of his 497-page memoir Decision Points, a tome full of breezy certainty.

 

Did he order the waterboarding of terrorist suspects? "Damn right."

 

Did he ever have doubts about pre-war intelligence on Iraq? "I really didn't." Boring of Mr Nuance, Americans lapped it up.

 

Whereas Obama was glum, wondering aloud whether 9.6 per cent unemployment might be "the new normal" and griping that as US president "you're held responsible for everything but you don't always have control of everything", Bush used his interviews to display an almost giddy insouciance.

 

On the Oprah Winfrey Show, Bush charmed the woman who had proclaimed Obama as "the One" and hailed his "tongue dipped in unvarnished truth" in Iowa back in 2007.

 

"When it [the presidency] was over, I knew I'd given my heart and soul, I'd poured everything I had into the job and was grateful for the opportunity to serve," Bush said.

 

With his characteristic corny self-deprecation, Bush said he had enjoyed the writing process. "I know full well it's going to come as a shock to some people. A lot of people didn't think I could read, much less write." Boom boom.

 

Whereas Obama's memoir Dreams From My Father is a reflective and lyrical work, Bush's Decision Points is a quick, rather shallow read.

 

They share, along with virtually every other major political figure, the same literary super-agent, Robert Barnett, a Washington lawyer and influential Democrat. Beyond that, the two have little in common as writers.

 

In his book, Bush views Obama with a kindlier eye than he does John McCain, the Republican candidate.

 

Obama responds "graciously" in a phone call, spoke with a "calm demeanour" during the financial crisis and "stood up to critics" by ordering a troop surge in Afghanistan. He seems genuinely affected by the election of the first black president of the United States.

 

Bush must know, however, that his steadfast refusal to make any comment at all about Obama's presidency stands in stark contrast to the derision he has received from his successor. He is self-aware enough to realise that his pithy, confident interview answers are sharply different from Obama's wordy circumlocutions.

 

Who would have thought that the man hailed as a great American orator and whose stage at the 2008 Democratic convention was a faux Greek temple would be shown up in terms of the theatricality and articulation of the presidency by the man derided as a tongue-tied bumbler and global village idiot?

 

Obama might well reflect that all presidents, even Richard Nixon, are popular after the fact. Bill Clinton (who has magnanimously, or perhaps mischievously, praised Bush's memoir) is currently experiencing a renaissance, especially among conservatives. No doubt Obama, even if he fails to win a second term, will bounce back later.

 

[color:red]Looking at the 43rd and 44th American presidents right now, it is worth reflecting that it was only the unpopularity of Bush and all he represented that enabled someone as inexperienced and unproven as Obama to ascend to power.[/color]

 

[color:red]By the same token, perhaps only a performance in office as myopic, self-absorbed and hubristic as that of Obama could have brought about a Bush rehabilitation so swiftly[/color].

 

In two years, American voters might well decide that having lurched from Bush to Obama the time has come to choose a new president with a character and approach somewhere in between.

 

 

The Telegraph

 

[Hugh_Hoy]

I bought Bush's book earlier this week. Not far into it yet. "Shallow"? I guess so, compared to what more "academic" types would appreciate. But there's no question that GWB did the writing. It's his style. Down-to-earth, matter of fact, and with a bit of humo(u)r from time to time.

 

It's not an autobiography. So far, it's his account of various phases of his life growing up (Chapter One) and how he became involved in politics (Chapter Two). That's as far as I gotten now, though it's an easy-enough-to read book to finish in a couple of evenings or three.

 

(I read where some Washinton Post columnist was making a big deal over Bush "lifting" exact verbage from the authors of other sources. I just wonder if the columnist really read this book. If he did, he didn't bother to read Bush's preface in which he specifically notes that he has used records of others to record his memoirs. Oh well, that's the WP for ya. )

 

Will interesting to read the memoirs of Obama in about three or four years from now.

 

HH

[LizardKing]

Did he skip the boozehound & coke-head years? Or did he just black out for them?

 

BTW: crediting someone is still not acceptable for more than a sentence or two a work; if I did that on any newspaper/magazine, I'd be told to re-write it, if not sacked. But it is Chimpy, so it was the best he could do, I suppose. He has NEVER successfully completed a thing on his own in his life, so why should this be any different.

 

He continues to embarrass both himself & the country.

[Hugh_Hoy]

LZ...indeed he spent several paragraphs talking about his "addiction" to booze. I suppose it isn't much different than addiction to pussy. LOL.

 

Complete nonsense that he never succeeded at anything...and you know it. Just a very simple way of "dissing" a guy you don't care for.

 

BTW, he hardly plagerized his book. Comments from those here who bother to read it would be a bit more "interesting". 555555 You know: "informed opinions". Oh,that's right: you're a Demoncrat, negating the "informed" part.

 

HH

[LizardKing]

What has he succeeded at? Seriously. Every biz he touched either failed or had to be bailed out by family/friends. And he was the worst POTUS ever.

 

There is no such thing as addiction to pussy. That is some FemiNazi crap to make men ashamed of wanting to fuck!!!!

[Hugh_Hoy]

Well, he succeeded in confronting his booze problem; he succeeded in being elected as Governor of Texas; he was TWICE elected POTUS; he succeeded in becoming a fighter pilot. He graduated from Yale and Harvard. Only a Demoncrat would think that those accomplishments were less than being a "community organizer".

 

As for being the "worst POTUS ever", that's a value judgement. He's already looking better than your man Obama...and we won't even mention Carter, as that would be too easy.

 

No such thing as "addiction to pussy"? LOL. Ok...called it an "obsession".

 

HH

[Steve]

Didn't want to start yet another politically based thread so will stick it on here.

 

China has a part of the taxpayer owned GM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gm_ipo_china

 

Its too late folks, I keep saying.

[Flashermac]

Al Bore started graduate school but never finished. Al started law school but never finished. Al couldn't even hang on to his wife.

 

[USVirgin]

Might be worth a read. The excerpts I've read almost make him seem like a human being worthy of sympathy. I want to see his explanation for Iraq.

 

I know you'll find this disgusting, but I'm nearly done reading Ted Kennedy's autobiography. Took me almost a year to get through the first couple of chapters. A childhood spent sailing small craft around Hyannisport is not something I can relate to. However, the man had some serious connections and, as a result, some exposure to national and world events. It's a pretty good time capsule.

 

Once I finish this book (in about a decade ), I look forward to reading GWB's bio.