[News] Where is President Obama on the political spectrum?

[tegid]

But the original was bald. You know, before the hipsters with their font obsessions got ahold of it.

It's funny how I always interpreted that bold as

bold

   [bohld] Show IPA​

adjective, bold·er, bold·est.

1.​

not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff;courageous and daring: a bold hero.​

2.​

not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; forward; impudent: Heapologized for being so bold as to speak to the emperor.​

3.​

necessitating courage and daring; challenging: a bold adventure.​

4.​

beyond the usual limits of conventional thought or action; imaginative:Einstein was a bold mathematician. a difficult problem needing a boldanswer.​

5.​

striking or conspicuous to the eye; flashy; showy: a bold pattern.​

​

which gives an understandable meaning to the expression without need of a historic explanation. Not that I have anything against the original expression, but this is actually the first time I've heard about it. I don't think it has anything to do with fonts.

On topic, I'd say that putting Obama in the far left is kinda wrong, for starters because I don't think there's evidence to put him so deep into the left, plus it's a bit shortsighted.

The kind of shortsightedness of someone who's in the political right but believe themselves a moderate (so their whole perception of political spectrum is shifted) or of someone who knows that they're conservatives but just can't be bothered to differentiate from the positions that are far from theirs, lumping everything beyond a certain, not so extreme, leftist position, as 'far left'. I mean, if obama is far left, what about actual socialists? Where'd European countries be? What about communists? Are they extrem far far crazy left?
I guess it's just a matter of where you center your spectrum and how much of a width you allow in it.

​

 

[MindDetective]

The worst are italicized-faced lies.

I'm not sure I can believe this.

 

[Covar]

I'm not sure I can believe this.

Try saying that again, this time sans serif.

 

[Bubble181]

The kind of shortsightedness of someone who's in the political right but believe themselves a moderate (so their whole perception of political spectrum is shifted) or of someone who knows that they're conservatives but just can't be bothered to differentiate from the positions that are far from theirs, lumping everything beyond a certain, not so extreme, leftist position, as 'far left'. I mean, if obama is far left, what about actual socialists? Where'd European countries be? What about communists? Are they extrem far far crazy left?
I guess it's just a matter of where you center your spectrum and how much of a width you allow in it.

​

You forget that, especially in America (though the same is true for all countries; just especially so for the ones with a two-party-system), it pays to try and demonize your competitor.
If you've got the choice between a moderate left-wing and a moderate right-wing, as an independent moderate, you'll look at both, consider your options, think....
If you've got the choice between a moderate left-wing and a Neo-Conservative Anti-Poor SuperNazi, you'll obviously choose the leftist.
If you've got the choice between a moderate right-wing and a Communist Hippie Anti-American Stalinist, you'll obviously choose the right-wing guy.

While criticizing your opponent is obviously a good thing to do in politics, occassionally, it's getting worse and worse*. More and more, politicians are choosing to try and smear mud all over their opponent, instead of trying to shine a light on themselves. Who is going to vote for Obama this time around? And who's going to vote against Romney? Who's going to vote for Romney, and who's going to vote against Obama?


*Not specific to the US. We may have some 12 or 15 parties in Belgium, but the last few years have seen all parties gang up on one other, newer party. They've been demonized by literal comparisons to nazis, to being crypto-communists, to wanting to destroy our country, to wanting to destroy Europe, being fascist neocon slaves to Big Bussiness, .... you get the picture.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

Unfortunately for conservatives, sometimes things change.

 

[Tress]

Sorry Bubble, I should have written the question as: "How would you classify President Obama within the current US political spectrum, because we don't give two shits about the European scale when discussing domestic politics."

 

[GasBandit]

You forget that, especially in America (though the same is true for all countries; just especially so for the ones with a two-party-system), it pays to try and demonize your competitor.
If you've got the choice between a moderate left-wing and a moderate right-wing, as an independent moderate, you'll look at both, consider your options, think....
If you've got the choice between a moderate left-wing and a Neo-Conservative Anti-Poor SuperNazi, you'll obviously choose the leftist.
If you've got the choice between a moderate right-wing and a Communist Hippie Anti-American Stalinist, you'll obviously choose the right-wing guy.

While criticizing your opponent is obviously a good thing to do in politics, occassionally, it's getting worse and worse*. More and more, politicians are choosing to try and smear mud all over their opponent, instead of trying to shine a light on themselves. Who is going to vote for Obama this time around? And who's going to vote against Romney? Who's going to vote for Romney, and who's going to vote against Obama?


*Not specific to the US. We may have some 12 or 15 parties in Belgium, but the last few years have seen all parties gang up on one other, newer party. They've been demonized by literal comparisons to nazis, to being crypto-communists, to wanting to destroy our country, to wanting to destroy Europe, being fascist neocon slaves to Big Bussiness, .... you get the picture.

Clearly (and I'm not being sarcastic here), this election is already about voting against, and not voting for, one or the other. Obama now has a 4 year record he can't use to rally support, and Romney is a new england windsock RINO that makes half his intended base ill. Nobody wanted Romney to win the primary other than the country club GOP party heads. As each candidate is, at best, uninspiring, they turn to negative campaigning. I've long said Romney's only hope is to make the election about Obama, and Obama stands to win if he can keep the scrutiny on Romney.

Heck, this week alone is illustrative: Romney's SuperPAC is running ads talking about the aforementioned welfare changes, and Obama's SuperPAC is saying Romney hasn't paid his taxes and kills your wife.

 

[AshburnerX]

Am I the only one who thinks it's REALLY odd for the Republicans to have not named a VP yet? It's less than 3 months till the election! I'm starting to wonder if the problem is that no one wants to tarnish their image by being seen with Romney...

 

[GasBandit]

Am I the only one who thinks it's REALLY odd for the Republicans to have not named a VP yet? It's less than 3 months till the election! I'm starting to wonder if the problem is that no one wants to tarnish their image by being seen with Romney...

No, VP nominees are typically announced either in July or August, sometimes even late august. Examples:

Palin: Aug 29th
Biden: Aug 23rd
Quayle: Aug 16th

source

 

[AshburnerX]

Maybe it just seems that way because there really hasn't been a lot of positive reporting coming out of the Repubs this year. Then again, they might just be waiting till the last minute in case they pull another Palin.

 

[GasBandit]

I must say Romney's running a pretty weak campaign. His lackey's rebuttal to the "romney killed my wife" ad was deep in the heart of Facepalm territory. "If she'd lived in Massachusetts, she'd have had health insurance." Whuh. Duh. Fuh.

 

[tegid]

Ugh, that's stupid. But, really, that ad's disgusting and these kind of things should simply not exist :/

 

[AshburnerX]

I must say Romney's running a pretty weak campaign. His lackey's rebuttal to the "romney killed my wife" ad was deep in the heart of Facepalm territory. "If she'd lived in Massachusetts, she'd have had health insurance." Whuh. Duh. Fuh.

I think a lot of it is just because of Romney's methodology. He's very risk adverse, always having an escape plan or a back-up if a certain scheme fails. He never does anything that may have lasting consequences and this has been pretty much his MO for years. Hell, it's one of the reasons why he didn't leave Bain Capital officially until long after the SLC Olympic Games: He didn't know if it would work out and he wanted to make sure he had a job after he was done.

Obama's the reverse: He's willing to bet big and risk it all. NO ONE thought he'd get his healthcare bill passed and that raid on Bin Laden was a huge gamble, but have arguably paid off. If ether had failed, he'd have been toast.

 

[Tress]

Maybe it just seems that way because there really hasn't been a lot of positive reporting coming out of the Repubs this year. Then again, they might just be waiting till the last minute in case they pull another Palin.

I think I know the reason it feels as though they are taking too long to name a VP. Romney won the primary months ago, albeit unofficially. There hasn't been a race in the GOP field for a while. So it feels like they should have a VP by now.

 

[AshburnerX]

I think I know the reason it feels as though they are taking too long to name a VP. Romney won the primary months ago, albeit unofficially. There hasn't been a race in the GOP field for a while. So it feels like they should have a VP by now.

That COULD be it.

 

[Tress]

I must say Romney's running a pretty weak campaign. His lackey's rebuttal to the "romney killed my wife" ad was deep in the heart of Facepalm territory. "If she'd lived in Massachusetts, she'd have had health insurance." Whuh. Duh. Fuh.

This kind of thing is why a friend of mine recently decided not to vote for Romney. He's a pretty staunch Republican, but he can't stand how much "Romney whines like a pussy about every little thing." He doesn't like how weak Romney comes off in debates and while campaigning. I have no idea who he will vote for instead.

 

[AshburnerX]

This kind of thing is why a friend of mine recently decided not to vote for Romney. He's a pretty staunch Republican, but he can't stand how much "Romney whines like a pussy about every little thing." He doesn't like how weak Romney comes off in debates and while campaigning. I have no idea who he will vote for instead.

He really is a bad candidate for Republicans. He lacks the traits that Republicans love, like charisma and force of personality. This is why Chris Christie was called for so hard: He may be overweight, but he has a force of personality and that "take no prisoners" attitude that really appeals to the Right Wing.