Does it really matter WHO is President
 

Obviously Congress runs the show and I might add, NOT very well!....I agree with VK that incumbents need to GO!....But will that really happen?....Frustrating!

I think that term limits can happen but it will take a long time to get it in place.
Just like the progressive movement took decades to get where they are today with people in all areas of top level government, it will take decades to get limited term thinking people in congress.

As for does it matter who is president, Yes! Kennedy vs. Nixon or Reagan vs. Carter Clinton vs. Bush 41 and now Anybody else vs. Obama.

PS. Yes, I know Reagan ran against Mondale. Carter was for comparison only.

This is a serious question? You don't think the President has a profound effect on our country and our lives?

I'm thinking it matters a lot.

Yeah, Without A Doubt
 

The POTUS is the "face" of the United States throughout the rest of the world. More importantly, his appointees play significant roles in the operation of the government and the direction it takes. Functions such as Treasury, State and Defense are particularly important. Those departments are run by presidential appointees.

Domestically, the POTUS can serve in an important leadership role (something I've been very disappointed in from President Obama). You can't expect, and will never get, "leadership" from the Congress, they are a law-making body. While both the POTUS and members of the House and Senate are elected from political parties, members of Congress stay very close to their political roots in what the say and do. The POTUS on the other hand should be expected to speak out to the country and for the country, both to the electorate as well as the Congress itself. He has an agenda and priority setting role that is very important. And the way the POTUS explains and sells his agenda to the people can be very important in coalescing the country and directing the Congress towards proper governance.

There's no need getting into examples of presidents who were effective at providing such leadership and direction other than naming a few names, it's so obvious. Compare Reagan, Kennedy, Clinton to a few others: Carter, Bush 41, and Obama. The effect that the POTUS can have on the country is pretty apparent.

so true BUT
 

is it an effective President or a cooperative congress or both? Either way we have a congress that governs itself....

Does it really matter who is President?

That this question was even posed caused me whiplash but not for the reason you would think.

Is it possible that given the last President with any credibility and respectability was Ronald Reagan that many voters have been left with the belief that we might well be better off without one? Is this another sign of the decline of America? God I certainly don't want to be close to the truth on this one.

of course it matters who is POTUS. A true leader, who is willing to take on personal risk for making decisions and setting direction and expectations always, ALWAYS makes a difference in the outcome. Plus all the other comments made prior to my post.

Obama is not a leader. He is a pure bred politician, hence no risks, no leadership.

He could not get anything done when the democrats held both houses of congress....no different than what has been accomplished since the 11/2010 elections. Obama like many other faux leaders will take credit for what happens on his watch....the old theory that a rising water raises all boats, even the ones that did not help to bring on the more water. Like getting Bin Laden...a very lengthy process started long before his watch and accomplished during his watch. And to date I have not read or heard there was anything overt Obama did to initiate anything new or different to effect the eventual outcome...in fact Panetta gets more credit for making the last set of tactics happen.

Long winded, again....of course a REAL leader would make things happen.

btk

btk: Gosh cut Obama some slack. I mean he inherited problems from W that still linger. And that top 1% continue to doge the tax bullet. Congress won't play fair....I mean what's a president to do?

Quit!

Hillary would like that idea:laugh:

Am I correct in observing that neither side of the aisle, as represented on this forum, wants another 4 more Obama years?!?

That is not correct.

And seeing as how, according to RCP, Obama beats every R candidate, neither are millions of other voters.

You are.

Illegal immgrants do not count

Agreed.

Obama still beats every R candidate.

You are correct!

You are far from correct. Vote Obama in '12.:laugh:

Don't vote for him to be President, require that we make him KING for live, just like Edi Da Da.

I wouldn't go that far...there is no one currently in the race for whom I would vote. Maybe Romney, which would make him the first republican I have ever voted for for president. I am glad Cain had the smarts to cut and run...Newtie should be next. He always implodes.

I once again read a Coulter column this weekend. That makes two. I did not know any of that stuff about his connection with the Toffler's. Or maybe I did know and have forgotten. :laugh:

President Obama's administration saved this country from a great depression, saved the auto industry, created affordable health care, and repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" of the military. All very positve things.

He will be re-elected in 2012 without a doubt.

Wait a second - Junior said he was "the decider".

Congress doesn't run the show - "the decider" does.

Both Speaker Gingrich and Gov Romney pledge to repeal The Affordable Care Act, and both support the Paul Ryan plan to end medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system. Without The Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can once again discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Good luck to the 80 year old with pre-existing conditions shopping for health insurance on the open market with their voucher. I don't know how anyone on or near medicare could support either one of these candidates.

As long as the press makes the decision who we are going to be able to vote for nothing good is going to happen. They (the press) accomplish the choice of candidates thru the polls and opinions they control and conduct. If the outcome of a poll isn't to their liking, we never hear about it. So far, our current POTUS doesn't seem to have any, according to the press, opposition that has a chance of defeating him. IMHO the current POTUS has not accomplished what he promised to do. He took the job to get things done, not to make excuses why it hasn't been completed. I, for one, am sick and tired of politics. When is someone going to stand up and be a leader and fix the problems instead of making excuses or worse yet compromises. .

No, he created a facade of those.....a facade for which we and our kids are paying trillions of dollars in INTEREST on DEBT instead of having the confiscated tax dollars to use ourselves to keep our household economies solvent, put our kids thru college, and pay off our mortgages.

It is frightening how people fall for such WINDOW DRESSING!

Buggy: He most certainly did NOT create affordable health care. For one, his plan hasn't even hit yet. Secondly, it's welfare for private insurers who will continue to milk as much money as they can for their stockholders as is possible. I mean, we couldn't even pass a clause in the bill that would require Big Pharma to offer drugs to Medicare/Medicaid at no higher price than they sell to other national health services.

In his wildest dreams MAYBE he could BRING affordable health care to this country but it has ALREADY been created in every other industrialized nation in the world.

The statement in bold is SCARE TACTIC as usual from the Statists. Scare tactics are irresponsible in their twisting and omission of facts.

With a little bit of READING, one can learn a lot, as in this analysis of the Congressional Budget Office, particularly the "Key Features of the Proposal" section beginning on Page 7:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc...yan_Letter.pdf

Interesting Marist poll out today shows President Obama beating both Gov Romney and Speaker Gingrich outside the margin of error in South Carolina. South Carolina has not voted for a democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

IjustloveTV should have read deeper into the document he quoted. The Ryan proposal would cost the taxpayer MORE money. Good luck on trying to get the coverage for a pre-existing condition, too.


"To summarize, a typical beneficiary would spend more for health care under the proposalthan under CBO’s long-term scenarios for several reasons. First, private plans would cost more than traditional Medicare because of the net effect of differences in payment rates for providers, administrative costs, and utilization of health care services,as described above. Second, the government’s contribution would grow more slowly than health care costs, leaving more for beneficiaries to pay."

:agree:

And ended the war in Iraq and killed Bin Laden et al.

Prority one, save the nation (Get rid of Obama). We'll work out the details later.

Coverage of pre=existing conditions will not work with the "Sharing the risk" model of insurance. Buy insurance before you get sick. Stop trying to cheat the system.

When republicans have nothing intelligent to say they resort to name calling. If Speaker Gingrich is such a great candidate, why is he being offered one million dollars to drop out by Michael Savage? Pitiful.

" The premium support payments would also vary with the income of the beneficiary. People in the top 2 percent of the annual income distribution of the Medicare-eligible population would receive 30 percent of the premium support amount described above; people in the next 6 percent of the distribution would receive 50 percent of the amount described above; and people in the remaining 92 percent of the distribution would receive the full premium support amount described above.''


Page 8
CBO

the war in Iraq is not ended. The troops coming home by the end of the year is merely a chapter being closed in a very lengthy political quagmire.

Just ask the troops who will remain there if the war is over. Ask the family members of Iraqis still being killed by insurgents.

Don't let the campaign spin on the subject of the war in Iraq fool you.

He killed Bin Laden? The killing of Bin Laden was in the works long before Obama showed up. Truth be known, Panetta is the real perpetrator of making sure it happened. Yes it happened on his watch, hence it is campaign fodder.

Anything Obama is doing now is measured by the deeds potential impact on his campaign for re-election.....and NOTHING more.

The pied piper and master of talk it away is cranking up the telepromters to get you all AGAIN.

I do believe the get me once but not twice will prevail with most Americans looking beyond words.

btk

I thought you were going to say that George W Bush landed the helicopter inside the compound and shot Bin Laden himself. Don't you get dizzy from so much spinning?

Disciples of Obama (who you claim killed Bin Laden) belittle the SEALS and military command of the entire decade when you claim Obama accomplished this.

I think history will show that President Obama was the president who ordered the raid that accomplished the mission.

From 2001 until he left the White House, Junior was scratching his head wondering where bin Laden was hiding. Junior was an embarassment to the country and is still a laughing stock.

The wealthy members of the far right would not agree with you, he gave them their precious tax cuts.