President can’t change much
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Bob Lehmann
Published: October 27, 2008
We hear from both candidates that they are for change, that each is going to make changes to the system — lower taxes, change health plans, and on and on. It’s not true.
For many of you who are older, how many candidates have you heard say they were going to change the system?
All the candidates that I have heard since Eisenhower have said the same thing. But it doesn’t happen.
Why? Because the president can ask for changes and can veto changes he doesn’t like (unless Congress overrides the president’s veto), but that’s all he can do. He has a little more leeway as commander in chief, but real change comes from the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Remember in high school civics (for those who had to take it), the checks and balances were really on the side of Congress and not the president. Nothing really gets done without the approval of Congress.
The president can cajole, ask, work the people he knows, threaten vetos, etc., but he can’t change taxes, health insurance or anything else without approval by Congress. So much for the two candidates who are going back and forth about the changes they are going to make.
The other problem (that no one wants to bring up) is the huge deficit which may reach a trillion dollars this next fiscal year.
Because of this huge deficit, it is going to be very difficult for the next president (whoever it is) to fulfill many of the campaign promises that are being made on both sides.
Bob Lehmann
Culpeper
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( El Debibble ) on October 30, 2008 at 2:34 pm
No rogerrrrr, it wasn’t fun. You’re claiming that after making a fool of yourself. You really thought somebody cared enough about you and your giant intellect to consider you anything other than a simple annoyance? You were entertainment while I was swapping reasons and opinions with geri.
Come’on loser, even my spin on your name was better than yours. How do you like that chicken?
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Posted by ( rogersk ) on October 30, 2008 at 2:27 pm
eldebubble….Yes, I know and it was such fun…THANKS!!!!!
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on October 30, 2008 at 2:23 pm
So rogertard, in addition to name calling you also lie. What did I fall for? You telling a lie and me getting in agood zinger describing how stupid you were? I think I defended the trash attacks against Obama. Have I tried to change your mind? Am I sure you’re not lying now? OK, you got me.
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Posted by ( rogersk ) on October 30, 2008 at 1:43 pm
eld…You are not only rude, you are crude….I am so very glad to hear you’re voting for McCain so that I can kill your vote. I never was undecided but I knew you’d fall for that and that is exactly what you did. Reeling you in was so easy and you came back with your usual attitude. Just as FDR came to the rescue of this country, Obama will do the same but he will not only rescue his supporters he will rescue people like you. I am a lifelong Democrat who has supported the ticket in EVERY election,who believes in the party line and until I am proven wrong by people who really know what’s what (not know nothings and spouters like you) I will continue in the same way. However, no one, least of all you, has been able to do that yet…So happy voting to you and yours. Enjoy life in the next four years. I surely will and I’m really glad it’s nearly too late for your politicking. What in the world will you do?????
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on October 30, 2008 at 12:25 pm
geri, I am voting FOR McCain not against Obama. I don’t care about all this who did what when . I think it is overblown by the far right, the same far right who can ignore the same types of questions about McCain. Wanna talk about his fidelity to his spouse, or his staff full of lobbyists? I don’t. I think he will be left of W and right of Obama, so I am voting FOR him.
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on October 30, 2008 at 12:16 pm
rogertard, each one of your unique “variations” of my screen name is name calling. So yes you have, multiple times even if you are too dense to realize it. Undecided….aaaahahahahahahaha
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 30, 2008 at 8:46 am
One more thing, eldeb…
Do you honestly believe that the media would not be crucifying McCain if they could find comparable associations? That is a pretty ludicrous sentiment, considering the fact that they have done everything in their power to make sure Obama is elected. There just isn’t anything to compare to Obama’s pattern of drawing really nasty people to him. It speaks squarely to who he is.
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Posted by ( rogersk ) on October 30, 2008 at 8:28 am
OH come on eld. YOu make about as much sense with your remarks as a pig in a chicken house. Your analogies have no more substance than anything else you say. so come off it. I haven’t called you anything you don’t deserve. In fact, I haven’t called you anything at all. I just said you have a “potty mouth” and you do!!! so stick to the subject and CHILL!!! Nothing you say makes any difference anyway.
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 30, 2008 at 7:52 am
Well, eldeb, you and I disagree on nearly everything. Which makes it even more interesting, if you are actually voting for McCain.
I believe the pattern of Obama’s associations is extremely disturbing - it speaks directly to his beliefs about this country. This is not a downright mean country - there is an element of meanness, but that won’t be fixed with handouts from the government. That has to be cured individually, and can’t be government-mandated.
It’s been said that Obama has his radically left associations because he’s able to look past the ideology of the person to get to know the individual, which is admirable if true, but ONLY if someone can point out the extreme right-wing associations he’s had that will prove he actually doesn’t agree with these extreme leftist ideologies, at least in part, and looks for balance in his education through associations. As I’ve stated over and over, if McCain had this type of pattern of associating with an unrepentent, proud of his violent past abortion clinic bomber; attending a church with a white supremicist pastor who preached hatred for black people, and had worked with/for and donated a huge chunk of money to a radically right-winged organization that was being investigated in several states for voter fraud, among many other unsavory characters (the list seems to be growing almost daily now), there would be no contest today - he would be out of there, and Bob Barr would get my vote.
Obama, by his own admission, attended Wright’s church an average of twice a week for 20 years - pretty significant, and pretty hard to miss the man’s message, especially when it was printed on their mission statement that was available when you walked into the church. Quoting from Wikpedia:
“Theologians such as theology scholar Dr. Robert A. Morley take a dim view of black theology. Morley’s paper “The Goals Of Black Liberal Theology” is one widely quoted paper citing specific criticisms of black theology.
He states that black theology turns religion into sociology, and Jesus into a black Marxist rebel. While making statements against whites and Asians, it promotes a poor self-image among blacks, and describes the black man as a helpless victim of forces and people beyond his control. Black theology calls for political liberation instead of spiritual salvation.
Fundamentally, it is not Bible-based, Christ-honoring theology from this critical viewpoint. [16] Anthony Bradley of the Christian Post interprets that the language of “economic parity” and references to “mal-distribution” as nothing more than channeling the views of Karl Marx.
He believes James Cone and Cornel West have worked to incorporate Marxist thought into the black church, forming an ethical framework predicated on a system of oppressor class versus a victim much like Marxism.[17]“
THIS is part of why I am so terrified of an Obama presidency. He was more than just a member of the congregation - he early on named Wright as his spiritual advisor, before the American people learned what the man was about. They were good friends. If he claims to have not known what the man was about, I’m sorry, but he is lying. I do not think he has a problem with lying, and that is just a tad disturbing - almost as disturbing as the fact that the majority of the American people are all too happy to just accept his lies as fact.
If he were running for a lesser office, it would be a different story. But we’re talking about putting a man in the highest, most powerful office in the land who has many very scary people behind him who do not like this country, and want to change it into something our parents and grandparents would not recognize as the US. You bet I’m scared. Everyone should be.
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on October 30, 2008 at 7:06 am
geri, I don’t think the things people are questioning are really issues. Someone who really wants to can put other Dems and Reps with Ayers. McCain does have questionable associations, it’s just that Obama seems to have stayed above it. I think the GOP/RNC hurt Mccain with this sort of stuff. These people think they are helping/defending McCain. I think the are not. W had some issues from his younger years. Clinton did. Even Abe Lincoln did. I just don’t think they rise to the level that people are trying to claim they do. Why are the Dems not bashing McCain on these same issues? It’s not like there isn’t plenty of ammo. They just took a different tact.
We can be a mean country. Look how we have treated people who are different from us and look how we are so quick to try to put people in groups. “I’m a Conservative. You disagreed with me. You gotta be a liberal/Dem/communist.“
We can’t disagree with somone anymore without demonizing them and declaring them our enemy.
I’ve worked in many black churches and in my opinion some of the most racist people of color that you will ever encounter are old black men (old white men are next). In the case of Obama that guy did not preach every Sunday and who has said Obama was there every Sunday?
You keep saying Obama was “buddies”. Is that accurate?
“So few are interested in the truth about Obama” but Palin is being smeared? Are you interested in her abuse of power and ethics questions? They are legitimate questions for a lot of people. I don’t care about the $150K wardrobe but I am interested in whether she used her position to attempt to further punish someone she didn’t like. I also think McCain screwed up by picking her.
Do you really think Obama hates America. I don’t. Do you really think he is a socialist/marxist/communist? I don’t. Am I worried about my guns? No, I expect Webb and Warner to take care of me.
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