Thread: Barack in Berlin

Originally Posted by JohnP

The part that bothers me most, is that for many of the topics I care about, the candidates are exactly the same only with a different political party attached to their titles.

Which issues are those??

I am SO ibtl.


anyhow, I've never listened to any political speech and I never will. I just look at a candidate's voting record... that tells me all I need to know. even without hearing the speech, I know ahead of time that it's full of deception and half-truths... because a politician gave it, not an honest human being.

there's an old joke that goes, "how can you tell when a politician is lying? his lips are moving"

voting record is only way to know what a candidate is really like.

When in Rome, say what the Romans want to hear

Originally Posted by ScottS

Which issues are those??

There are a lot of issues I watch, but typically things I look at are how globalist is a candidate-I want a President who gets along with other nations, but ultimately, it is Americans I expect him to look after the most, not other nations' citizens. When I hear candidates declaring themselves "citizens of the World" alarm flags raise in my mind. Another big issue for me is gun control. Any time a candidate thinks the government should decide a "reasonable" restrictions on rights guaranteed to me, I doubt his sincerity, patriotism, and indeed, true intentions. I also watch environmental/"Hollywood friendly" issues. If I perceive a candidate cares more what the Hollywood crowd (who work very hard *pretending* to do what the rest of us do in real life, only making millions doing so)thinks than the average joe, every day citizen, it tells me he bows more to fame and publicity than to actually looking out for the people he hopes will elect him.
I guess I could go on.
WRT Obama vs McCain, I've seen Obama both for and against the same thing at the same time, and McCain seems to be "wishy-washy" sort of supporting something but not really....
Then of course there's the war. Obama has declared all over the spectrum. Something I heard recently that disturbed me a bit, he recently scheduled a visit to Walter Reed to visit injured veterans; when he discovered that the hospital has a policy of not allowing the visits to be a campaign stunt (the camera crews would not be welcome) he then claimed it would be "innappropriate" for him to visit. Which is completely untrue. He IS a US Senator. He simply wouldn't be able to take his camera crews with him. He went to work out, instead. As a veteran myself, it's nice to see where the man puts us. Not that I think McCain is exactly looking after veterans, but this is a new low. Even the President visits there regularly apparently, but he "sneaks" there, and there are no cameras. Lot of troops have met the President, however. Unfortunately Senator Obama is a much more difficult person to meet, apparently.
I'm rambling.
Ockham,
Hopefully my posts aren't the ones which make you come to your conclusions, and if they are I apologize. Here in the USA there is a movement that somehow the USA should be "more like Europe", which is faulty in my opinion, for a number of reasons I won't bother listing. Furthermore I've heard more than once accusations leveled at Americans by Europeans that were simply false-but then, the US networks originated the lie in the first place as often as not. The networks generally share the same "news" and in certain areas where there is not much first hand reporting, negative stories air over and over again and ultimately it HAS to sink in. Look how long everyone (US AND in Europe) thought those Marines had murdered innocent families in Haditha, only to find in the trials the truth was much different. Some of us of course knew that typically the Marines do not accept people of the moral lack of character to become murderers, but there are so many that love a juicy story that they believed it right away. The worst of which, a former Marine senator, who made sure he was on camera calling these kids (that's all most of them are) "murderers"...then segueing into a tirade about his disagreement with the President's war or some such. It's all about politics, too often, and less about the truth.
Ultimately I don't think Europeans are stupid/less savvy/can't tell discern a lie/etc any more than Americans. You guys in many ways are just like we are. Unfortunately there are plenty of Americans who have this odd idea that Europeans are somehow smarter/know better/more savvy than Americans, and this is an idea which isn't based in reality. We're all human here, we all make mistakes and get some things right. We're all capable of being fooled as well as being the fool-er.
I think as long as we stop putting each other on false pedestals and realize that ultimately people are quite similar in their nature, regardless of their native tongue, things will start making a lot more sense.
Of course, I could be just babbling. I'm bad to do that some times.
John P.