Comments on Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star

melvin_polatnick@yahoo.com commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-21T19:28:48Z

Freedom of speech is a guarantee that every person has the opportunity to be heard. Silence gives a racist or rapist the opportunity to operate unmolested. But we must also have a well funded Justice Department that is always on the alert for violators of a person civil rights. It must be staffed by tens of thousands of our most liberal minded investigators. They should be given the freedom and time to dig deep and wide. Those depriving others of the right to: “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” must be dealt with quickly and harshly. Major civil right violators must be hung by the Justice Department in front of shopping malls. Enough Is Enough!!

guitarherohero commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-13T22:42:57Z

Great job, you just proved everything I said right for me!

I used your own words to prove my point, and you then dismissed my argument as "gobble-de-gook". What does that say about your words? LOL

Your only argument is that I am wrong because what I said sounds like something a Democrat might say. Unfortunately in the real world, that does not make me wrong...especially when you consider that what I said was BASED ON WHAT YOU SAID.

So please, keep replying to these comments with more futile insults instead of a solution. I love being proven right.

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-06T23:30:23Z

" Please stop using the logical fallacy of argumentum ad hominem and maybe I will take your comments seriously."

Please don't go out of your way to do that because I no longer consider what you write to be anything more than gobble-de-gook, which logically means we're wasting each others time. Next!

guitarherohero commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-06T19:55:47Z

Did you even read anything I said? I was commenting with what I thought about this article. Even though what it's trying to do is genuine, I disagreed with the overall tone of the article and some of the images within it.

You told me that "If you seek any credibility what-so-ever," which implies that I have none at the moment, because I made up a Bush quote based on events that actually happened during his presidency, even though it was obviously not serious. I then replied by pointing out how exaggerated and asinine the claims in this article were, and how credibility is obviously a non-issue since the work we're discussing is not credible....but then instead of actually trying to prove me wrong, you just blatantly make things up about who said what. Luckily, I can read. Just because you missed it the first time because you can't follow context clues, let me explain it again: the AUTHOR said that Obama was elected because Bush's anti-terror policies made us complacent, not you and not me. If you read this article, that would be fairly obvious.

Here, let me make it even clearer for you: "The fact that no other terrorist attacks occurred on our soil only lead Americans to a mindset of complacency once again; a false sense of security and a yearning for "change"." is a quote directly out of this article that would support what I said.

If you can prove what I said to be wrong, do that. Just saying "that sounds like a Democrat talking point" doesn't make what I said wrong. There are Democratic talking points that are just as correct as Republican talking points, and vice-versa. Please stop using the logical fallacy of argumentum ad hominem and maybe I will take your comments seriously.

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-06T05:18:58Z

Fortunately, and thankfully, YOU don't get to write the history of the Bush presidency. You can constantly repeat your favorite "failed presidency" line all you want. In this corner your opinion is no better than mine on that score and I don't agree with you. Your DNC talking points stick out like a sore thumb, no matter what you declare yourself to be. It's left-wing rhetoric, pure and simple.

You said: "On top of that, I find it hard to believe that you said that I was lacking credibility after reading this article which claims that Obama was elected because Bush's anti-"terror" policies kept us safe and made us complacent."

Perhaps you should read that graph again. YOU said those words, I didn't. But, now that you mention it, that's pretty much what happened, isn't it.

guitarherohero commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T23:46:48Z

Obviously that wasn't a direct quote, I'm not sure why you treated it as one instead of focusing on the point of the post overall. Anybody who understands sarcasm would realize that Bush didn't say that, I was mocking the fact that Bush claiming Iraq was a victory even though we're still fighting points to the fact that he is not a humble leader.

On top of that, I find it hard to believe that you said that I was lacking credibility after reading this article which claims that Obama was elected because Bush's anti-"terror" policies kept us safe and made us complacent. This is an absolutely ridiculous claim because even if it was provable that Bush did keep us safe (keep in mind that correlation does not imply causation), Obama didn't run against Bush. He ran against McCain, a person that was perceived as being out of touch and supporting the last "failed presidency". What Bush did in office did not directly get Obama elected, but it didn't hurt his chances.

I'm not sure why you just dismiss my entire post because something sounds like a Democrat said it (I'm a registered Independant for what that's worth). I'm not here on behalf of Democrats, I am just a person who feels like this baseless criticism of Obama is just as bad as the GOP-bashing liberals during the Bush years. Nothing I said was wrong apart from that obviously sarcastic quote, or even a stretch of the imagination. This article is claiming that a persuasive god-like image of Obama, and nothing else, got him elected. That is obviously false and the author should be called out on it.

I'm not asking you to buy anything because I'm not selling anything. I simply stated that Obama's humility in the Daschle scandal suggests that he isn't the same kind of president that we have seen in decades past, and there is no reason to judge him so harshly so very prematurely. Let's let him screw up before we bash him like this, at least.

And to respond to your last sentence, I personally feel like there is a point where every president needs to be completely held accountable for his actions, but within the first two weeks is not it.

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T23:26:28Z

I recognize DNC talking points instantly...They're not hard to miss. Repeating them here is an exercise in futility because I, for one, ain't buying anything you're selling. I would also suggest you be extremely cautious of your quotes. If you seek any credibility what-so-ever, don't make up or misquote anyone about anything.

You wrote: ..Bush 43's "there were no WMDs after all. Oh well. Mission accomplished!" is your exact quoted text.

Kindly direct me to just one reliable source of that quote. I know you can't do that, no matter how many times you google it.

Personally, I'm more than willing to give President Obama exactly the same "break" given to President Bush...and I fully intend to do so.

guitarherohero commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T22:09:11Z

Actually I'm pretty sure Obama gives off the exact opposite image compared to the one you give him in this article. So far to me, Obama's biggest ally is his ability to actually be humble. We see Nixon saying "it's not illegal when the President does it" and Bush43's "there were no WMDs after all. Oh well. Mission accomplished!" without any form of regret or apology. After the complete and utter failure of the last Republican president, it's easy to see why so many people would flock to Obama.

JFK was a god-like figure. Obama is more of a prophet of the American pulse at the moment.

When Obama apologized to the American people over the Daschle scandal, I saw a President who actually understood that he was elected BY the people, FOR the people. Obama's popularity isn't from a rock star-like rise to fame. It was a well-placed, well-spoken rise into the hearts and brains of America. This article is right in the sense that Obama wouldn't have become as popular as he is unless President Bush's terms were not a complete embarrassment to American history. However, he wouldn't have STAYED popular unless there was actually some substance behind him.

People like to say that we've had 7 terrorist-free years under Bush, and then they ignore the fact that Bush ignored vital intelligence that could have prevented 9/11 from happening in the first place. Saying that Bush kept us safe just because there wasn't anything major after 9/11 is like saying that Hoover kept the Great Depression at bay because nothing worse than Black Tuesday happened after it. This article ignores the basic idea of "cause and effect". Just because something happened after something else, does not mean that it was caused by that something else.

The guy has been in office for 2 weeks, he inherited the worst economic crisis in the last 70 years, he inherited two unpopular wars, and he has 8 years of human rights violations to undo. I'm willing to give the guy a break....at least for a month or so lol

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T05:33:24Z

GWD, civilized discussion is most welcome and, while I agree to some degree with your comments, I disagree with others. Certainly, JFK's tenure was cut short (I actually interviewed LBJ twice, one month to the day before he became president), but what actually went on in the trenches was basically overlooked until just recently.

I don't agree at all with the statement suggesting that bumping off government officials was run-of-the-mill for all presidents of that era....enlighten us, if you will?

I also totally disagree with the suggestion that George W. Bush had even remotely the number of "blind followers" that President Obama has. My Lord, man!

As for mistakes being "par for the course in politics at that level", when was the last time you can recall nominees for cabinet level positions going down like dominoes AFTER they had supposedly been vetted? This process is a little more than over the top when it comes to questions concerning ethics and tax "issues".

I've kept a personal ear to the ground on politics since late in the Truman administration and can't remember anything even close to the circus we're witnessing right now. And the opposition party has had NOTHING to do with it. Each and every one has stepped into his own snare.

We look forward to hearing more from you, GWG. Even old dogs can learn new tricks and I don't claim to know it all. Thanks for your input.

GWG commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T02:03:34Z

JFK did not serve long enough to warrant much analysis on his presidency one way or the other. With all due respect, the points you bring up against him aren't quite fair. The Bay of Pigs was planned by the Eisenhower Administration and their CIA, whose leaders remained in the early days of the Kennedy Administration. The assassinations were consistent policy under every president of that era. And it has been reported that JFK planned to get out of 'Nam, but we will never know, so that's irrelevant. But, the reason the man is admired (or the reason he should be, anyway) is that, like his friend Barry Goldwater, he had more integrity than most politicians. President Obama is more of a "rock star" than JFK was, owing to the modern media environment, and those who blindly praise him are delusional. But this is no more true for him than it was for George W. Bush or any of his predecessors, all of whom had their share of blind faithful. The mistakes he's made are par for the course in politics at that level; at least he's shown a bit more honesty in being willing to own up to them.

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-05T00:37:17Z

To underscore the 2009 edition, television's Entertainment Tonight is suggesting that the president is the biggest "rock star" in the world today. Every single ET show since the inauguration has been chuck-a-blocked with Obama and family in a shameless display of "show business politics"....all this while one mistake after another takes place inside the beltway.

Dell Hill commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-04T19:00:33Z

He's off to a mighty rocky start and things aren't going to get any easier, no matter how the MSM glosses it over. Trying to rule from the center has really touched a bunch of nerves on the far left; the porkulus spending bill has been exposed as little more than a Democrat's wish-list of spending proposals; his nominees have been a disgrace, to say the very least, and his arrogance has already reared its ugly head. "..because I won" and "I won't tolerate that" are huge chips off the sugar-coated deity who was inaugurated just two weeks ago. I'm really not surprised. That's what we get with an OJT president.

Harrison commented on 'Doomed to Repeat History? President as Rock Star'

2009-02-04T18:10:48Z

Everything that happens is a reaction to what has happened before even if the people reacting are too young to remember it. Obama was the pick of the press and he does have that 'rock star' image. Let us hope he can rise above his label and doesn't do severe damage to the country. The only thing that could be worse than being a 'rock star' is being assassinated like JFK was.