The New American Politics thread

[Senator Clay Davis]

Harding was atrocious as well and is a bottom 5 fixture.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Andrew Jackson, George W Bush and Ronald Reagan are all contenders for the top 5 with Nixon. It's probably pick your poison from there.

I'm curious about why you would choose Reagan. Bush and Jackson, fair enough. Teddy Roosevelt wasn't so great either.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Harding was atrocious as well and is a bottom 5 fixture.

Yeah, it really depends on your assessment criteria. Buchanan, pierce coolidge are all up near that echelon too but I just happen to think they didn't serve long enough to really make the bottom of the list.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by peter12

I'm curious about why you would choose Reagan. Bush and Jackson, fair enough. Teddy Roosevelt wasn't so great either.

Teddy R is a likely top 5 president.

[sun]

You guys thinking what I'm thinking? "USA All-Time President" daily polls! Where's that scorpion kid when you need him?

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by peter12

I'm curious about why you would choose Reagan.

Why wouldn't you? Reagan was a terrible president (although he was a fantastic politician... The Great Communicator indeed). Stagflation while tripling the national debt? Propping up Banana Republic Autocrats? Lopsided stacking of the tax burden onto the working class?

I find it hard to think of a measure that would point to Reagan not being well below average.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Why wouldn't you? Reagan was a terrible president (although he was a fantastic politician... The Great Communicator indeed). Stagflation while tripling the national debt? Propping up Banana Republic Autocrats? Lopsided stacking of the tax burden onto the working class?

I find it hard to think of a measure that would point to Reagan not being well below average.

Don't forget crushing organized labour which has been absolutely disastrous for the working class.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Reagan as a "great President" is a textbook case of romanticizing the past too much. It's funny how much Repubs deify Reagan, but in a lot of ways Obama is in line or to the right of him. And of course Obama is the worst President ever to them. So yeah...

[PsYcNeT]

Well yeah Reagan wasn't black or a secret muslim.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Reagan as a "great President" is a textbook case of romanticizing the past too much. It's funny how much Repubs deify Reagan, but in a lot of ways Obama is in line or to the right of him. And of course Obama is the worst President ever to them. So yeah...

Obama's presidency looks like what Regan might have done if it weren't for Alzheimers.

[peter12]

I am also of the opinion that Reagan is an extraordinarily overrated President. I was just curious as to why he made the bottom 5. Leading the US through the Cold War, instilling a sense of cohesiveness and pride among the middle class etc... working from a narrative-level.

AIDS, and all that other stuff was pretty bad. I personally think both he and Thatcher are responsible more than anyone else for discrediting conservatism as a viable political movement at the national level - their combined destruction of the labour movement being a key aspect to this, but also their insistence on technocratic management styles being used throughout the bureaucracy.

[Yasa]

Could be something to do with the near-treason he helped facilitate through the Iran-Contra situation. That one was pretty substantial.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Trump has moved on to attack Hillary's lack of talking about her religion/beliefs.

"We don't know anything about Hillary in terms of religion," he said, speaking to a group of Christian leaders in New York. "Now, she's been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there's no -- there's nothing out there. There's like nothing out there. It's going to be an extension of Obama but it's going to be worse, because with Obama you had your guard up. With Hillary you don't, and it's going to be worse."

He also urged the group Tuesday to pray for his election.

"What you really have to do is pray to get everybody out to vote, for one specific person," Trump said. "And we can't be -- again -- politically correct and say we pray for all of our leaders because all of your leaders are selling Christianity down the tube, selling Evangelicals down the tubes."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/politi...ion/index.html

[Fuzz]

Ow wow. He's getting desperate.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Oh this campaign....

[KootenayFlamesFan]

My own opinion is that I think the endless extremes on everything Hillary are getting boring for a lot of voters. She's going to be bad for your religious beliefs, she wants to get rid of all your guns, she's going to let terrorists and immigrants flood into the country, etc.

I think a lot of independents are going to be fed up with his over the top comments on every single issue. It's boring already and it's only June. He doesn't say anything constructive, he just says how horrible she is at everything.

[GGG]

I glad he warned us that Hilary is a secret Muslim that we won't see coming. He also reminds me of springs1 the train wreck was awesome now that he's against a real opponent it just seems sad.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Donald Trump has directed nearly one-fifth of his campaign cash to companies that are part of his vast business empire, new federal records show.

Trump, hurting for cash after he suddenly stopped self-funding his campaign last month, has mixed his public campaign and his private ventures for nearly the entire 2016 race. He has promoted Trump products at campaign events, publicly litigated a federal civil suit he's facing over Trump University on talk shows, and, this week, will bring the political press to Scotland for a tour of a Trump golf course.

And it shows in his latest campaign finance report, filed Monday: Trump-linked businesses account for 17% of all campaign expenses to date. He's paid almost $11 million to Trump organizations since launching his campaign a year ago.

He's paid $420,000 to Mar-a-Lago, the private Florida club where Trump has led many an Election Night celebration, and $4.6 million to TAG Air, so he can use his private jets. Even about $5,000 to Eric Trump Winery Manufacturing LLC, the Virginia producer owned by his son.

Other expenses include $577,000 for payroll and rent at Trump Tower, which doubles as campaign headquarters, and $4.7 million to Ace Specialties, which supplies Trump's online store and whose owner is Christl Mahfouz, who sits on the board of directors of Eric Trump's foundation.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/politi...inkId=25786344

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Obama's presidency looks like what Regan might have done if it weren't for Alzheimers.

Come on, he's been trying to set up a more tax equitable system since he got in office. The opposite of the trickle down theory.

[driveway]

Hillary Clinton is a Methodist who taught Sunday school.

I didn't even have to google anything to know that.