American Politics Has a Fame Problem

R.L. Schaefer of CA:

There are a variety of perceptions on what makes a good president, so it is best to research ALL sides of a topic, to "check out proven", ethical websites, and read sites of journalists of integrity, before coming up with all manner of startling remarks. Most importantly, if someone makes a remark, such as did R.L Schaefer of CA:

"No one proves your point so well as our glib, tap dancing, sound bite spewing, bobbing and weaving, bumper sticker slogan spouting, buck passing, Huckster in Chief - The Amazing Empty "O" Man."

...we may have to ask ourselves what kind of meaningful research is R.L of C.A. doing, and why he supposes that name-calling solves ANY of America's problems? This may be R. L,'s actual opinion of President Obama, and he has the right to his opinion, but I never thought the United States of America could be so ridden with those who have not even tried to learn the truth. Do you notice that truth-tellers in the media do not use name-calling as a form of communication?

If an American citizen is cheated out of his or her right to learn the truth about American government and their politicians, how do we know just which politicians are saying and doing the right thing and which politicians are not? The success of Democracy is dependent on all citizens telling and learning the truth when it comes to our Constitutional Right to vote for the BEST candidates. You may form any opinion you choose, but is Democracy important enough for all American citizens to demand truth from those who "profess" to tell us the official news about politics, politicians, and government policies and activities in and on our media: newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, in-person informational text, including political speeches; recordings, written text, online blogs, and any forms of media I may have forgotten to prints.

The Website, "Sienna Research Institute" is made up of historians who research the primary documents of current and former Presidents of the U.S. These historians have excellent research credentials to prove what each President has accomplished (and not accomplished) on behalf of American Citizens).

Interesting Articles about Truth-tellers:

http://www.thenation.com/article/journalists-truth-tellers

http://www.iwatchnews.org/Sienna Research Institute:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/how-historians-rank-the-presidents-20110219

Obama's Promises:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-kept/

http://planetpov.com/2011/02/13/a-short-list-of-pres-obamas-accomplishments/

ann keenan of MI 9:08PM October 21, 2011

Many people are buzzing about an article at truthout.org by one Mike Lofgren, a longtime Republican staff aide on Capitol Hill who just couldn’t take the crazy anymore, left his job, and produced this buzzy (and quite well-written) lamentation about his party’s tactics and goals. If you haven’t read it, you must

The Lofgren piece is full of harsh observations and accusations, but here’s just a little sampling:

• The debt-ceiling debate was an act of “political terrorism,” in which the GOP concocted a crisis and used it to ensure that the party's unprecedented demands were met. He writes: “Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care.”

• The August FAA reauthorization fight was another instance such of hostage-taking: “Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers, and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel—how prudent is that?—in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.”

• The GOP plan to discredit government in the people’s eyes is very conscious: “A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.”

• As for belief as opposed to tactics, the party basically really cares only about the rich. Actually, Lofgren doesn’t say “basically.” He says “solely and exclusively.” And he explains how they’ve camouflaged this with talk of protecting small businesses and so on.

There is much, much more. He’s not very happy either about his party’s militarism, its cynical use of religion, its total opposition to doing anything about the environment, and other matters, but most

programs so they will be there in the future."

Eggman of CO 6:39PM September 06, 2011

We no longer require achievements in this society... why would we expect ourselves to elect leaders on that basis? If you can achieve broad name recognition you have achieved the only necessary goal to become a politician... you can work on redefining yourself later when the time is right.

Dave of FL 9:01PM August 30, 2011

It seems we might just have to choose the next president based on intelligence and experience, not acting ability. I think we lose too many potentially great leaders because they are not able to perform and ooze phoney charisma. We have become a nation of people impressed by appearances. The true values of courage, strength, integrity don't seem to mean much anymore.

patti of NY 2:54PM August 30, 2011