I think that most people are far too, well, normal in the US. They're unable to comprehend the big picture, don't support anything but the established, same as the old policies. That's why nothing changes. Period. In many fields, the public is resistant to change, and therefore neither Obama or Romney will do a thing to change ANYTHING. We honestly need something new and not even necessarily good to change the playing field. /endrant

Obamacare.

i would agree, in general, for Chris Christie in 2016. Of course there are 4 years for the Democrats to pull up a comperable canidate, but given that Biden is the likely one to run...

To sum up, my response to this is frothing rage.


Would it change your mind to learn he's one of the ones that the far right and the Tea Partiers support because of his general 'screw politics' attitude?


Whose fault is it that they rely on traditional media instead of alternate sources? Whose fault is it that they don't dig deeper on points? If I can get access to information, anyone can (excepting, y'know, classified stuff - but that very rarely impacts politics). I stress the public's responsibility as much as I do because I never see someone saying "Well, shoot, we voted for a real stinker - and have for the last eighty years - so what do you expect?", but instead blaming the politicians for doing what's simply in their natures as greedy, lying, soulless scum.

Is he, though? He's getting up in age (I know, not the oldest), and Hilary is leaving as SecState... perhaps taking a 4 year break to get ready?

No, as long as he learns from this experience that you get far more by actually doing and working than by asking for long form birth certificates. And stays away from the 'crazy' Republicans, of which there are many.

The vast majority of people have neither your life experience nor your resources. Your life experience has taught you to be suspicious, critical, self-reliant, and yet also engaged, to the degree that you are a soldier of apparently high competence.

When people have children, too many jobs, not enough jobs, family in need of hospice, etc. they lack the time to "dig deeper on points", to seek out alternate media that they can trust, or to compile data from multiple sources. When people lack a suspicious and critical nature, they tend to accept things more at their face value. When they aren't self-reliant, they require others to assist them in their information discovery. When people lack engagement, they simply don't care.

You'll note that I did not say that people don't bear some responsibility. They may even bear a majority of responsibility. But it isn't as simple as that. There are other factors at play, including a corporatist agenda that is difficult to decipher in its inhumanity, its reach, and its influence.

Personally, I see your willingness to lump all the coal onto the populace to be not dissimilar from that populace's apathy towards making a change. IMO, the change that needs to be enacted is, in large part, change to our corporatist society, and directing the causality to the populace is willful misdirection at worst and naivete at best.

My response to that is to suggest a rabies shot, which you can get through your government-sponsored healthcare.

Learns what, exactly? The guy seems to already have learned the lesson Blanco figured out the hard way during Katrina: Don't wait until after the fact to declare an emergency just for political points. If you look at his track record, 'doing and working' has been his main thing from the get-go.

You must have missed the discussion about calling other people crazy because they disagree with you.

I can't call people crazy anymore? Even when they are?