JXM sez:
As a community agitator he is a raging success
As the president of the United States of America he is a sad failure
Paul V. Sez:
Get with it Jorj, politics is all about WINNING. Politicians IMO run for, in this order, (1) power, (2) stepping stone to a higher position and money, (3) sex, and finally, (4) for the good of the people. IMO, my bias, this is true of both parties.
Elections are won by polarizing, personalizing and media wise freezing a candidate in his/her position. This is what is taking place in the debates taking place between all the Republican recently. Also, it will be true in the US General Election debates It will get real dirty in the campaigns with all the current and past history of the candidates showing up as it did and has done since the last election. Just listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck on one side and the Ed. and others on the other side. It will continue to get worse!!!
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By your criteria any president who wins the election is successful in what he intended to do. I now understand that you are defining success by Obama's standards. He intended to get elected and he was successful. Like you said, he outsmarted us and got elected. He's quite the trickster. I agree.
And where Paul's Hierarchy of presidential needs has power at the apex of the pyramid and therefore attaining that power will be considered a success by the president. We the people have a different criteria for success. This is true for both parties. We the people...the slobs to the political gods only care about presidential power in the context of doing good for the people...us.
So yes Paul, I understand from an academic point of view, obama has to be considered a success. So far. I could name a bunch of horrible politicians all over the world who were much more successful in attaining power and holding onto it than Obama. Many of them were executed in humiliating ways by the people they held power over. But by your definition they would be successful. You and I live in different worlds.
I remember back to my biology class in college where the teacher talked about successful species, biologically speaking. In biology, I would be considered not very successful because I have only fathered one child. Whereas Osama bin laden fathered 26 children and therefore is a huge biological success. And certainly politically speaking, many muslims consider OBL as a huge success.
Do you see that success depends on perspective? Again, I understand your perspective, I simply do not agree with it. And I believe that judging a president's success by HIS criteria is quite simply foolish and boils down to being mental masturbation. |
