Presidential Election 2012

[Ek155]

So, pretty far out but seeing as I am currently living in America and studying a political science course, I thought it would be interesting to see who Farkineers want to win.
I'm pretty much set with Obama, I just can't understand a Republican's way of thinking. Such a different mindset!

And just for a laugh

[video=youtube_share;bxch-yi14BE]http://youtu.be/bxch-yi14BE[/video]

thoughts?

 

[Spike-X]

I just can't understand a Republican's way of thinking.

It seems to be, "Is it smaller than me? then I must crush it! Is it bigger than me? Then I must worship it!"

Hope that helped.

 

[Sethius]

clip=awesome.

 

[Andrei]

Ideally Ron Paul but we all know that's not going to happen. The election is going to be decided by the lobyist so people have no say. It seems to me that Obama in pijama is going to be a default win.

 

[stinky1138]

I just can't understand a Republican's way of thinking. Such a different mindset!

You obviously just don't have enough money !!


As an american living in australia, i don't understand why anyone here cares. Who wins doesn't affect anyone else really. The things they can change take a very long time and are very specific to living in the US.
I wouldn't count Obama being in at all. Not everyone can/does vote. Without getting the congress majority, it's all pretty pointless. whatever they say, the president is mostly just a figure head.

 

[nskz]

Obama has the biggest wallet -> he'll get back in imo. I think Romney is too polarizing for some republicans which may in the end effect his result. Not sure if anyone here watches the Daily Show/Colbert Report...I mean the state of politics in this country is pretty bad but some of the shit that goes on in the US is hilarious, congress is a crack up.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

As an american living in australia, i don't understand why anyone here cares. Who wins doesn't affect anyone else really. The things they can change take a very long time and are very specific to living in the US.

Australian troops have been involved (and killed) in two wars in the past decade. Both of these wars were started by Republican administrations. Whilst it may be argued that Afghanistan was unavoidable, Iraq was a Bush debacle through and through.

 

[Matt H]

Ideally Ron Paul but we all know that's not going to happen. The election is going to be decided by the lobyist so people have no say. It seems to me that Obama in pijama is going to be a default win.

Ron Paul really is a fascinating one. I personally love his views on personal liberty and that he understands that terrorism is mostly a result of terrible foreign policy over the last few decades. However, once he starts harping on about Austrian "Economics", the gold standard, taxation is theft, etc... I lose a lot of respect. His anti-war views are great, but total lack of interventionism from a super power like the US seems a bit too isolationist. He's too damn old as well, he seems to be getting more and more incoherent in recent interviews.
His supporters are pretty die hard though, and he's definitely started, or contributed to, a growing right-wing libertarian movement.

Romney isn't going to stand a chance against Obama in the general election, but the GOP are probably going to start getting their shit together after that.

 

[Spike-X]

You obviously just don't have enough money !!


As an american living in australia, i don't understand why anyone here cares. Who wins doesn't affect anyone else really.

I strongly disagree. There's quite the trickle-down effect to other countries. For instance, we ended up getting dragged into your pointless, bullshit war based on lies (Iraq, that is), which I'm quite confident would not have happened had a Democrat been in the White House at the time. For a number of reasons.

 

[Spike-X]

Obama has the biggest wallet -> he'll get back in imo.

Obama tends to get a lot more smaller donations. While Romney will have billionaires throwing seven-figure checks at him, all so they can avoid having to pay a couple more per cent tax on money they wouldn't be able to spend in ten lifetimes.

 

[Spike-X]

Ron Paul really is a fascinating one. I personally love his views on personal liberty and that he understands that terrorism is mostly a result of terrible foreign policy over the last few decades. However, once he starts harping on about Austrian "Economics", the gold standard, taxation is theft, etc... I lose a lot of respect. His anti-war views are great, but total lack of interventionism from a super power like the US seems a bit too isolationist. He's too damn old as well, he seems to be getting more and more incoherent in recent interviews.
His supporters are pretty die hard though, and he's definitely started, or contributed to, a growing right-wing libertarian movement.

If he wasn't pro-decriminalisation, 99% of his supporters wouldn't want to have anything to do with him. He's an anti-choice, racist, homophobic douche.

 

[dcrofty]

He's an anti-choice, racist, homophobic douche.

Word.

I'm not sure Obama is going to do it that easily. Lots of Americans are doing it pretty tough at the moment and despite the fact that you could make a good argument that Obama inherited a lot of those problems some of it will stick. He really needs the economy to pick up a bit more before the election to get a comfortable buffer. The fact that the GOP managed to parade a bunch of horrendous candidates around for what seems like the last year will help though.

 

[dcrofty]

Oh and since we are throwing some wild predictions out there I'd like to say that I think we haven't heard the last of Sarah Palin. Whether she can still sneak a nomination for the GOP (dunno how their system works and whether they are locked into Mitt) or as a third party candidate (tea party perhaps) I reckon she might still pop up. Gut feelin, Dubbya style.

 

[Matt H]

He's an anti-choice, racist, homophobic douche

Fair cop on the decriminalisation part (I've seen so many youtube comments along the lines of "420 ALL DAY RON PAUL 2012"), but what do you mean by the anti-choice and racist parts? His views on that kind of thing are more ideological in respect to States' rights and the fact the federal government shouldn't legislate on them. For an old white dude from Texas, I don't think he's that bad haha.

 

[Spike-X]

Fair cop on the decriminalisation part (I've seen so many youtube comments along the lines of "420 ALL DAY RON PAUL 2012"), but what do you mean by the anti-choice and racist parts? His views on that kind of thing are more ideological in respect to States' rights and the fact the federal government shouldn't legislate on them. For an old white dude from Texas, I don't think he's that bad haha.

From Wikipedia:

Paul calls himself "strongly pro-life" and "an unshakable foe of abortion". In 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011, Paul introduced the Sanctity of Life Act, which would have life defined as beginning at conception at the Federal level.

Hell, the man doesn't even want federal subsidisation of birth control. Which, for a supposed economic conservative, is a ridiculous position to take. Because if you make it harder for poor women to have contraception, the end result will be more babies being born into poor families, resulting on more people being on welfare.

As for racism, there are many, many examples of horribly racists statements that went out in newsletters under his name, over many years. This article discusses that in more depth.

Those same newsletters frequently contained homophobic content, although to his credit he did vote yes on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and against the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment, which was a proposed constitutional amendment that would have denied the right of marriage to same-sex couples throughout the US.

 

[placebo]

...I just can't understand a Republican's way of thinking. Such a different mindset!...


thoughts?

A while ago I read "Conservatives without conscience" by John Dean, who worked as legal counsel for Richard Nixon at the time of Watergate. It's an interesting view of where, and possibly how, the republican party has ended up today.

 

[stinky1138]

Australian troops have been involved (and killed) in two wars in the past decade. Both of these wars were started by Republican administrations. Whilst it may be argued that Afghanistan was unavoidable, Iraq was a Bush debacle through and through.

I strongly disagree. There's quite the trickle-down effect to other countries. For instance, we ended up getting dragged into your pointless, bullshit war based on lies (Iraq, that is), which I'm quite confident would not have happened had a Democrat been in the White House at the time. For a number of reasons.

I didn't see anyone force australia to get involved ? It's not MY pointless war based on lies, *I* didn't start it, *I* didn't agree with it, *I* had votes not count in the elections of 2000 and 2004, and I went to many protest rallies against it. This is another classic case of assuming that just because i'm american it means every american chose to have things happen the way they did. Hindsight is great to say you would've done things differently, but be there at the time is totally different. I watched live on tv as the second plane hit the trade center building, the feelings then were very different to what they were later.

The big issues are health care, job security, schools, etc. Those things amount to a hill of beans here.

 

[Spike-X]

I didn't see anyone force australia to get involved ?

True, it's not like GWB had to do anything more than look in his lapdog John Howard's general direction and that obsequious little prick was falling all over himself to drag us into the mess.

It's not MY pointless war based on lies, *I* didn't start it, *I* didn't agree with it, *I* had votes not count in the elections of 2000 and 2004, and I went to many protest rallies against it. This is another classic case of assuming that just because i'm american it means every american chose to have things happen the way they did.

Point taken. My apologies.

I watched live on tv as the second plane hit the trade center building, the feelings then were very different to what they were later.

I'm really not sure what the 9/11 attacks had to do with Iraq.

The big issues are health care, job security, schools, etc. Those things amount to a hill of beans here.

What about US foreign policy? What about the Republicans' obsession with starting another war, any war, as long as they've got somebody to drop bombs on somewhere? You don't think that affects anybody else? You don't think they'll be trying to drag us into it if they start waving their dicks at Iran or Syria?

Besides which, why should people in other countries not have an opinion about what happens in the US? It's not like the US has ever been backward in coming forward with their opinions about what other countries do, often to the extent of trying to influence our laws in ways that benefit their business interests (drug laws, copyright laws, just to name two examples). Looking at America as a whole, they honestly seem to think that it's their world, and the rest of us are just living in it.

I have friends in America, none of whom are keen to live under the kind of theocratic dictatorship the current Republican party are dying to impose on the country. You only have to look at the current War On Women for evidence of that. If they manage to take the White House in November, women's rights in the US will be set back decades. The American Taliban are nearly as dangerous to the US as the regular ol' Taliban are to the people of Afghanistan. Hell, there are some on the far right who are wanting to impose the death penalty for homosexuality. If we get to have opinions about these things when they happen in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, we get to have opinions about them when they happen in the US, too.

 

[Bermshot]

True, it's not like GWB had to do anything more than look in his lapdog John Howard's general direction and that obsequious little prick was falling all over himself to drag us into the mess.



Point taken. My apologies.



I'm really not sure what the 9/11 attacks had to do with Iraq.



What about US foreign policy? What about the Republicans' obsession with starting another war, any war, as long as they've got somebody to drop bombs on somewhere? You don't think that affects anybody else? You don't think they'll be trying to drag us into it if they start waving their dicks at Iraq or Syria?

I think you meant Iran and the anti-peace war dogs have had their tossers out for a while now. Let's see if diplomacy breaks down and the guns start firing before the ballets have to go in, therefore needing a strong commander and chief to carry on the next debacle.

Re R Paul. I read recently that 70% of the military (the troops?) donations have gone to him.

 

[Spike-X]

I think you meant Iran

You're right, I did. I'll correct that now.