Anti-Americanism...

[Buddy]

TheComedian said:

Tell that to the southern U.S. They use it as a derrogative term for northerners.

That was started during the Civil War - the North were called "Yanks", the South were called "Rebs" or "Rebels".

Guest-Stal said:

Oh, I forgot to mention, the platform is the best thing to vote on, as Kiddo said. I take a look at what these people stand for that I stand for. The same values I hold dear that they do, too. Kerry doesn't seem to hold any on of my values. Doesn't run on a platform (speaking of which...what is his platform other than Vietnam?) that I can agree with...or not that I can see anyway. He may agree with me today, but he may change that by tomorrow.

I wish more people would vote based on issues and platforms instead of "This guy is just 'cooler'" or "This guy appears to be smarter because he's more eloquent with speaking."

...yeah.

Heh. A little off topic. Oh well.

That's not entirely true. I would think one would vote for President based on who they think would do a better job. If I think one person will do a better job as President, I would vote for them. To say "Well, I think so-and-so is an idiot, but I happen to agree with them, so..." isn't nessecarily the best way to do things.

Really, all things need to be considered. But you can't take just the platform - there's a lot more that goes into being President than just what they happen to believe.

Bush's intelligence is, and should be, taken under consideration when deciding whether or not to vote for him.

And what I think of his intelligence goes beyond him simply stumbling on some words here and again. It has to do with how he can't give press conferences (that has more to do with being quick-witted enough to answer reporters' questions and not slip up and say something stupid than speaking (although, albeit, good public speaking can help)). It has to do with how he passed by Yale with C's (a college he probably wouldn't have even gotten into had it not been for nepotism). It has to do with his past inability to run sucessful businessess. Screwing up on speeches all the time only goes to further the image - it, by itself, does not create it.

And anyways, who said we can't judge a person by how they talk? We do it all the time! If I'm walking down the street and hear a group of people talking "gangster", wouldn't I think they're less-then intelligent? Wouldn't you? Wouldn't anyone? What about the "n00bs" we see all the time with they're half-witted chatspeak? Do we not think them stupid, simply from the way they talk?

We don't see or know these people - but we think they're stupid all the same. Simply by a mere sentence or paragraph. We judge people all the time based on what we see - and when Bush stumbles on his speeches, we see a person who's stupid.

I do try to give the President the benefit of the doubt at times (go ahead, Stal - laugh). But I can't this time. I've seen to much to lead me to believe - the man is simply dim-witted.

We can't vote for a President simply because of their intelligence. But then, to say we should only judge their platform is no better. All things need to be considered for a good decision to be made.

[Stal]

Superhero said:

Ahem.

"Why wouldn't you vote for Clinton? He's so much better looking than that other guy!"

Actual reason someone gave for their voting choice. Because Clinton was better looking.

I know. And I know people who didn't want to vote for Dole because "He was too old.". *sigh*

[Stal]

Buddy, until you're in college and know what you're talking about, I don't want to even hear you talk about how someone gets through there with nothing but C's. This isn't High School. Grading is different and tougher.

[Buddy]

Guest-Stal said:

Buddy, until you're in college and know what you're talking about, I don't want to even hear you talk about how someone gets through there with nothing but C's. This isn't High School. Grading is different and tougher.

I don't care how much "easier" or "tougher" college is, my point remains the same - Bush got into one of the most prestigous colleges in the country because of his dad. Once there, he was only able to slip by. This, to me, goes to show a person who's not as smart as someone else who we can put in the office.

By the way, how did this turn into a Bush thread? I certainly didn't intend for it to...

[Kiddo]

Buddy said:

I don't care how much "easier" or "tougher" college is, my point remains the same - Bush got into one of the most prestigous colleges in the country because of his dad. Once there, he was only able to slip by. This, to me, goes to show a person who's not as smart as someone else who we can put in the office.

By the way, how did this turn into a Bush thread? I certainly didn't intend for it to...

If he got into the most prestigous college in the country just because of his dad, how did he manage to pass?

I went from a solid 4.0 to a 3.3 upon hitting college. And I'm going to podunk BGSU. If Bush can get C's at Yale, then he's smarter than me.

[sollunaestrella]

I would rather have a straightforward, honest president that sometimes comes off as "a little dim" than a president who speaks smooth as butter to you, telling you what you want to hear, and then "changes his mind."

Really, I'm bad with speaking. I mangle words - I makes ones up - often it takes a bit of time for me to come up with the right words to say - really, I'm not that much better than Bush is - it's come to the point where I joke about not being fluent with spoken English. I can't get through even a simple school presentation without stuttering or "umm"ing or "ah..."ing or saying something incredibly stupid-sounding. When it comes to writing, I'm fine - but speaking is really difficult for me. But I know I'm not stupid.

As for the Yale thing - I'm not going to get into that. Really, a lot of things like that said against all politicians are rumors and nobody knows the truth of them.

[Buddy]

Superhero said:

If he got into the most prestigous college in the country just because of his dad, how did he manage to pass?

A C is a passing grade, is it not?

[Kiddo]

Buddy said:

A C is a passing grade, is it not?

I rest my case.

[Tahu]

Well, here's my 2 Cents...

I don't like Bush for many reasons. The prime one is that I disagree with nearly every single one of his political views. There must be some obscure political issue that I agree with him on, but I don't know what it is. Now, I also don't particullarly like Kerry. I think that of all the candidates, Nader is the best choice. However, not enough people think that to get him elected. The second reason I don't like Bush is because he's dim. I think all that needs to be said on this subject has, so I'm not going to elaborate. The third reason that I don't like him is because he is a liar. He lied about our reasons for going to war, he lied about the WMD's (as of this moment, the only WMD's Saddam ever had were the ones that we gave him) and many other lies.

These are the tree main reasons that I dislike Bush. Now, I don't exactly have an unbiased standpoint. I will cite my three favorite Books as Stupid White Men, Dude, Wheres my Country? and Lies, and the Lying Liars who tell them. While these books are all very partisan, enough of them is true to make you wish Bush had never even run for office. I will finish off this post with a quote from our President in 1989:

"You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office. "

[Buddy]

Superhero said:

I rest my case.

Then I'll restate my question.

A C is the lowest passing grade, is it not?

[Stal]

Buddy said:

Then I'll restate my question.

A C is the lowest passing grade, is it not?

Buddy...WHAT DOES IT MATTER? He still passed one of the most prestigious schools in the US. I'd love to see you do that.

And Tahu, I despise people who said he lied. If he was wrong, he was wrong and did not know ahead of time. I still honestly believe to this very day they were. The British intelligence said that, too. They've heard it for years. Hell, Kerry says they were there! "I believe Iraq's WMDs are a real threat to America." "If you don't like this, don't vote for me." So just because we can't find them now does not mean it was a lie. It may mean he was wrong, but he did not lie knowingly about this.

The lie thing is nothing more than liberal propaganda and spin trying to be pushed off on us.

Oh, and I'll stand by my stance that Bush is not dim. Making up words, everyone does. Everyone in my family does it, and I gaurantee you do, too. You'd be lying if you said you never did. And he does it, and it gets huge publicity!The "dim" thing is nothing more than what's been presented to us by the media. No Press Conferences? To be honest, I don't care that he doesn't give the conferences himself. Especially considering what the media would be on the lookout for with him.

[Kiddo]

Tahu~Cobrallian said:

He lied about our reasons for going to war, he lied about the WMD's (as of this moment, the only WMD's Saddam ever had were the ones that we gave him) and many other lies.

Actually, I think you're wrong there. If you study history you'll find out that many things we thought were true weren't, and the actuality of the matter didn't come out until years and years later.

Why? Because new information becomes availible due to declassification.

My aunt works on the terrorism task force. Ever since 9-11 she's been overworked and stressed over her job. I don't know why because she's not allowed to talk about it. That's the nature of what we're involved in - if we nance around and parade everything to the public we'll have no security.

Sorry, but there's some things more important than your nightly news.

If you think that all this is some overblown ordeal to justify a war with Iraq, then you're wrong. The people that work to protect our country simply care too much and do too much for that to be the end cause.

We had a terrorist arrest here in Columbus over the summer. And there were some individuals that screamed that they were wrong and blamed it on Bush as a way to justify his policies.

Smacks of conspiracy theory to me, and that's just nonsense.

I'm probably totally taking your comment in the wrong way, but I just needed to sound off.

[Tahu]

For all I know, you are completely correct. Except the part about the nightly news. The only nightly news I've watched in a while is O'reilly, and he hasn't said much bad about Bush. Now, there were other things he has lied about, I only listed the two I could think of off the top of my head. The only other one I can think of without research is about the French...

[The Wanderer]

To quote Buddy:

how did this turn into a Bush thread? I certainly didn't intend for it to...

I've heard everything I care to hear about Bush. The thing is, when you dwell on the faults of an individual, you start to forget the positive things, until you can't look at that person without feeling disgust, or even hate.

Same thing goes for the anti-americans. Dwell on all the things you may hate, fear, or despise about the U.S., and of course this country may seem bad.

[sollunaestrella]

Aak said:

Oh and about the gay thing, I still think it is pathetic to disagree with their lifestyles. It's like saying I hate black people because of their lifestyles

Your race isn't a lifestyle, though. I'm white. So? It's not my lifestyle at all. Races don't have lifestyles - if you think certain races do all live the same, then you're doing a heck of a lot of generalizing and you have some pretty darn stupid (and very wrong) ideas.

Aak said:

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives. - John Stuart Mill

That's exactly the kind of blind immaturity I was talking about. How is bashing conservatives helping the U.S.? I know a few stupid liberals too.

Aak said:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Y'know, he still communicated the idea he was trying to express. The sentence means precisely what it should have. Of course the government never stops thinking about ways to harm the people because they want to prevent our enemies from carrying them out. It's completely obvious what he was saying. So what's there to bash? It's not very eloquent and people can twist the words to make a joke of it; but the basic point of a speech is honest communication and not anything else.