Oddly, the news accounts I’ve seen leave out the “only.” Yet to me, the fact that no more than half would feel such mortification is the startling, and alarming, news in this report.
Meanwhile, a quarter say they’d be “proud.” To quote from the wisdom of Dave Barry, I am not making this up…
Related Posts
So it’d be a decrease from the current president.
Did anyone else watch George Stephanopoulos’s interview with Trump on Sunday? This is the interview reporters dread because he got his ass handed to him.
Thanks for the link, I missed the show. Folks need to keep in mind that Stephanopoulos is a partisan and a Clintonite. He should have to wear or a nametag indicating such.
That said, Trump’s stated ignorance of reports regarding Putin’s murderous ways is disturbing: he turns legalistic, arguing that because no court of law has convicted Putin, Putin is innocent. Perhaps as innocent as Stalin, but I’m a pretty judgmental guy.
What sort of nametag would communicate that more clearly than simply the name, “Stephanopoulos?” It’s not like there are a lot of people named that, and he’s the only famous one.
I’ve still got a bone to pick with the guy because I was at the paper late one Saturday night — like, past midnight — with a camera crew shooting B roll of me for a segment on his show, and my segment got cut…
Yeah, Stalin is pretty well known for cutting people out of pictures, so it doesn’t surprise me he cut your B-roll. You should consider yourself lucky you weren’t sent to Siberia, comrade.
Oh, wait! You meant Stephanopolous.
Rex Murphy, writing in Canuckistan’s National Post writes this:
There’s more, read the whole thing from a guy who’s country has just installed a premier more narcissistic and, shall we say, even less capable than the guy we pay to golf to his heart’s content, even while six servicemen are killed in Afghanistan.
This raises the question that has come up when nations have gone badly off the rails in the past – how could civilized people fall into this? As an anthropologist, I am inclined to wonder if reports of our having evolved are overstated.
Yup, I feel the same way about Obana’s two terms; he sure fooled a lot of people.
Mike, people say things like that too easily.
Neither Barack Obama nor George W. Bush nor anyone who has been president in my lifetime — including Richard Nixon — can fairly be put into the same category as Donald Trump.
I was pretty upset when Reagan was elected, and felt like the country’s standards had been lowered considerably (I was a huge Jimmy Carter fan), but Reagan was like Marcus Aurelius compared to Trump…
Mike, lets stick with facts not ad hominem attacks:
Unemployment rate 1/1/09 – 7.8% Unemployment rate now 5%. The U6 rate is down as well.
The price of gasoline today lowest after adjusting for inflation in 3 decades
Percentage of Americans uninsured is down from 16% to under 12% since Obama took office
There has been no 9/11 scale event under Obama
Annual budget deficit is down from 1.8 trillion to around 400 billion.
Inflation and interest rates remain low.
The homicide rate continues to fall from 5.4 per 100k to 4.5 now.
There is now hope for meaningful engagement with both Cuba and Iran.
ISIS is on the run without putting large numbers of troops on the ground.
Both Osama Bin Laden and Mohmar Ghadafi are gone.
The world is a messy place and things don’t always go smoothly. But it’s clear that Barack Obama has performed a remarkable turnaround from the complete and utter failure of his predecessor, the worst president by a wide margin since WW II. I doubt anyone could have done better.
I am not totally frightened by the very unlikely occurrence of a Trump presidency. Just like all the Presidents before him that I recall (and especially Obama), President Trump would be a different person than Candidate Trump. He can bluster and pontificate about anything but the reality is that nothing can be done in Washington unless a majority of the bought-and-paid-for Congress wants it. Trump may want a wall but what he might end up with is stronger border security. He might want to ban all Muslims from entering the country but end up with an enhanced screening process that makes it difficult for CERTAIN Muslims to enter.
Remember, Obama was going to be a transformative President who ended all wars, gave free healthcare to everyone, close Guantanamo, fixed the female wage gap, restored income equality, ended global warming. How’d that work out for him? He got a crappy Obamacare bill through, continues to battle terrorism, saw an economy improve BECAUSE Congress couldn’t do anything… Trump would be the same.
Doug, first — thanks for lunch today!
Second, you’re ignoring the considerable leeway the commander-in-chief has to act internationally. A president can get the country into a whole lot of trouble fast on the global scene, without Congress either helping or hindering him.
And I’m not talking about such overt things as deploying troops, which he has considerable power to do. The fact is, that every word a POTUS says can have an effect for good or ill globally. The things Trump says already cause negative ripples internationally. If he were in the White House, we’d have a very bad situation.
Being a foreign-policy guy (at least, that’s what I am when we’re talking about the presidency), that’s the first thing I think about, and the first thing I worry about
A president can get the country into a whole lot of trouble fast on the global scene, without Congress either helping or hindering him.
-Brad
Yup, we found that out in 2003. I guess Congress did authorize the Iraq invasion. But it was based on a pack of lies. Anyway, probably best not to go down that path again but it is certainly true that a president can make a huge difference. Let’s not suggest otherwise.
Is President Obama the same guy you voted for in 2008?
I don’t know about Bud, but he’s the same guy we endorsed in the primary in that year…
His hair has turned grey. The job is tough.
Can I sorta disagree with the premise of the entire question? An elected official doesn’t really factor in to my self-worth. The only person who directly reflects on me is myself. Sure, my close family and close associates also indirectly reflect on me, but that’s about it.
An elected magistrate at any level does not reflect on me.
The degradation of the United States of America is a thing that matters to me. I may not care how the Gamecocks are doing (beyond the fact that I want my neighbors to be happy, and the local economy to be healthy, which, absurdly, that affects) or about a lot of other things that other folks allow to affect their moods, but the state of the nation matters to me.
But “the degradation of the United States of America” and the “state of the nation” as you put it are an entirely different question from: “Is Brad Warthen embarrassed?”
To be specific: Trump says all sorts of dumb things. I’m not embarrassed by dumb things he says. I didn’t say [insert dumb thing], Trump said it. I wasn’t embarrassed when Gov. Sanford had his whole Appalachian Trail episode. That was him, not me.
But sure, to your point about Trump degrading the United States of America, he certainly would. A Trump Administration would be a bad thing for the country, and since I am a part of the USA (albeit a very small part), it would be bad for me.
I guess it’s like with M&M Enterprises, everyone has a share.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, America is the less.
And Trump is just the clod to make that happen…
But America would gain if that clod washed away, or at least out of the political scene.
There’s one reason why Trump will eventually drop out or lose on purpose: his wealth. If elected, he would have to put his company under the control of a blind trust, I believe. There’s no way he would give up control for four years.