10-08-2008, 11:39 AM | #1 |
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Last Night's Presidential Debate
I had rather a sleepless night last night, and in desperation I finally turned my bedroom TV on about 3am and saw the final portion of the live broadcast of the debate between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.
Although I realise that different countries do things in different ways, I was very surprised to see the approach taken by both gentlemen: whenever they were asked by a member of the audience something like "can you tell me how X is going to affect me", rather than explaining their own policy (ie answering the question that had been asked) they'd typically say something like "that's a very good question, and let me tell you why the other candidate's approach to X is going to be bad for you). Politicians in the UK don't do that - they spend the very limited TV time they have in, generally speaking at least, laying out their own policies and tell people why they should vote for them, rather than denigrating the "opposition". After watching the debate I was left wondering what either gentleman's policies actually were. All that I seemed to have learned is why each was going to do bad things. It doesn't seem a terribly constructive way of doing things to me but, there again, I was watching as an outside observer. |
10-08-2008, 11:46 AM | #2 |
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10-08-2008, 11:47 AM | #3 |
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Oh, and by the way, folks, if we're going to have this discussion at all, do keep it civil, and gentle, otherwise the thread will just get closed.
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10-08-2008, 11:49 AM | #4 |
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I'd far rather they focus on what they themselves plan to do myself. There are a number of ways I think that the British system is better than ours, but on the whole I prefer our system ... it's just the folks running it (all of them) I'd like to dispense with.
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10-08-2008, 11:49 AM | #5 |
Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah!
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Unfortunately at this stage of the process, we have devolved to the "My opponent is Satan on a cracker" stage of electioneering. The votes open for persuasion are very narrow in scope and it is felt that the best way to sway those votes is to scare the bejeezuz out of them. It makes for very tedious weeks of attack ads for the next month. I'd love to have a parliamentary form of government at times like this.
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10-08-2008, 11:52 AM | #6 |
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I wasn't criticising the American system - I have no cause to, since our own system has plenty of flaws of its own. It just struck me as being radically different to the way that we do things. Here, members of parliament at least pretend to be gentlemen, and insulting the opposition just "isn't cricket" . It's actually refreshing, in a way, to see that American politicians actually have the honesty to do their back-stabbing in public.
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10-08-2008, 11:55 AM | #7 |
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Ah, for candidates who at least pretend to be gentlemen. Heck right now I'd settle for candidates who pretend to be leaders.
I didn't take your comments as criticism, HarryT, and I didn't mean to seem defensive, sorry for that. |
10-08-2008, 11:57 AM | #8 | |
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We do have negative advertising, but only on "bill-boards". |
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10-08-2008, 12:01 PM | #9 |
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Now you're making me jealous.
Your campaigns are probably not so influenced by "soft money" and fundraising prowess either, I expect. |
10-08-2008, 12:07 PM | #10 | |
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As a result of that, the funding of political parties has really been clamped down upon, and all donation above £5000 (about $9000) have to be publically declared. There are moves afoot too to limit the amount of money each party can spend in "campaigning" to a fixed amount. It's certainly not perfect, but I think we are getting to be a lot more open and accountable than we were in the "bad old days" of secret donations, etc. |
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10-08-2008, 12:49 PM | #11 |
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10-08-2008, 12:52 PM | #12 |
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Yeah, but I'm not at all jealous of Canada's government -- it's close enough we can see it fairly well from here, warts and all.
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10-08-2008, 12:59 PM | #13 | |
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In the UK, the phrase 'a politician's answer' is now commonly used to mean blatant obfuscation with dishonest intent. |
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10-08-2008, 01:00 PM | #14 | |
Holy S**T!!!
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So, I ignore the debates. I tend to decide on certain key points that really matter to me (such as Palin's view that freedom of choice should not be allowed even in cases of rape or incest (or incestuous rape). That's the gigantic speed bump over which the Republican Party lost my vote this year. |
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10-08-2008, 01:13 PM | #15 | ||
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Quote:
Quote:
I watched the debates, got fed up over the candidates' refusal to even abide by their own debating rules (not they were really debating anything), and turned it off. |
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