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Post by mike on Feb 5, 2007 7:21:37 GMT -5
Isn't it time that we start forcing the unwilling but best qualified people to be our elected officials? I want a person who is sick and tired of all this BS to take charge; the reluctant President!
I hate people who want to be President... I want that person who is dragged kicking and screaming into office; give me a real winner!
Yeah, I want a miracle! Yeah, I'm a desperate man, firing my guns in the dark... yeah, yeah, yeah!
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Post by joew on Feb 5, 2007 11:30:43 GMT -5
"Mallard Fillmore" is trying to start a "Draft Walter Williams" movement.  This is the first presidential draft I can think of off hand since Eisenhower was persuaded to become a candidate. In that case, however, it was leaders of the moderate wing of the party, not a cartoonist, who started the draft movement. |
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Post by booklady on Feb 5, 2007 17:48:01 GMT -5
"Dave."
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Post by joew on Feb 5, 2007 21:53:15 GMT -5
You want to draft Dave Barry? He's a very funny writer, but I'm not sure he fits Mike's second criterion of "best qualified."
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Post by rogesgallery on Feb 6, 2007 1:39:09 GMT -5
Of the well known names I've heard speak, I believe that John Mellencamp and Bono would be a pair that might once again endear us to ourselves and the world. I think Mellencamp would more than meet the kicking and screaming qualification. He might even run and hide. Now that would make for an exciting election. Eh
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Post by rogesgallery on Feb 6, 2007 1:45:33 GMT -5
The New American Conscripted Congress?!__________ Mike! You may have just saved the world with the snap of a single synapsis.
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Post by joew on Feb 6, 2007 1:50:09 GMT -5
Oh! If kicking and screaming is the most important part, how about Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell — the dream team of kicking and screaming.
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Post by rogesgallery on Feb 6, 2007 2:02:39 GMT -5
ICK Joe Really ICK
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Post by mike on Feb 6, 2007 4:36:33 GMT -5
Well, somewhere out there is the right person for the job of President, and if that person has half a brain, he or she is keeping a low profile. We need to find that person and force them to be President; it's for our own good!
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Post by booklady on Feb 6, 2007 5:58:36 GMT -5
You want to draft Dave Barry? He's a very funny writer, but I'm not sure he fits Mike's second criterion of "best qualified." Are you funnin' me or don't you know that great movie about the President, called "Dave," with Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, and Charles Grodin? All three of them should be working in the White House! They solve the budget crisis, save shelters for homeless children, and don't commit adultery!! |
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Post by Gracie on Feb 6, 2007 8:39:12 GMT -5
You want to draft Dave Barry? He's a very funny writer, but I'm not sure he fits Mike's second criterion of "best qualified." Are you funnin' me or don't you know that great movie about the President, called "Dave," with Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, and Charles Grodin? All three of them should be working in the White House! They solve the budget crisis, save shelters for homeless children, and don't commit adultery!! I. LOVE. THAT. MOVIE! And I DON'T see why it can't work that way. Why can't they seriously roll up their sleeves and figure out a way to balance the budget? BTW there's hardly a day that goes by when one of us (that would be Grizzy or me) isn't singing 'Hail to the Chief, he's the one we all say hail to...we all say Hail 'cause he keeps himself so cleannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...he's got the power, that's why he's in the shower.....' I really think there should be more to that song!  |
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Post by gailkate on Feb 6, 2007 10:25:28 GMT -5
Gracie, I absolutely agree, "Why can't they seriously roll up their sleeves and figure out a way to balance the budget?"
I'm weary of people judging qualifications as if there were a degree in leadership and democracy. Any intelligent, informed, hardworking person is qualified. It's government by the citizens, not the lawyers or the career fundraisers. (And I don't mean to denigrate lawyers; it's just that waving a law degree seems to get you to the head of the line.)
Right now it's all about how Obama isn't experienced enough. He's older than JFK was when elected and he's got a full resume. He just hasn't been in national office for a long time - in my view, that's getting to be a plus. The founders outlined minimum standards for office; beyond those, character and judgment should be all we really require.
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Post by joew on Feb 6, 2007 11:43:50 GMT -5
You want to draft Dave Barry? He's a very funny writer, but I'm not sure he fits Mike's second criterion of "best qualified." Are you funnin' me or don't you know that great movie about the President, called "Dave," with Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, and Charles Grodin? All three of them should be working in the White House! They solve the budget crisis, save shelters for homeless children, and don't commit adultery!! Funnin' ya, bl. I actually saw the movie (in an airplane, I think). It's pretty good, as we chatterers say. |
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Post by juliastar on Feb 7, 2007 7:57:13 GMT -5
I wish Biden didn't say what he said about Obama, that made me wince, but I think he was right on about Hillary. Maureen cuts him some slack:
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February 7, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
This One’s for You, Joe
By MAUREEN DOWD
NY TIMES SELECT -- WASHINGTON
It’s not double jeopardy exactly, but still, I’d prefer not to kill the same man twice.
And I wanted to follow William Safire’s advice on writing about gaffes and graft: Only kick people when they’re up, not when they’re down.
So I decided to do something completely radical and not pile on.
Having played a role in derailing Joe Biden’s ’88 presidential bid with stories on his overreliance on the speeches of Neil Kinnock and Bobby Kennedy, I feel compelled, now that the guy has slipped on another presidential banana peel 20 years later, to lend him a hand.
I wanted to give him a chance to wipe the slate clean and articulate his positions — without dredging up any painful memories of the words “clean” and “articulate.”
The senator called me between New York fund-raisers last night. After his rough week, he sounded a bit chastened, not at all in the mood for a columnist’s probing questions. He needn’t have feared.
“So,” I asked him sweetly, “why has everyone been so mean to you?”
“Well,” he demurred, “they haven’t been mean. The truth is, a lot of people in the African-American community were hurt by what I said. I really feel lousy about it. I got involved in politics because of civil rights.” (He said a lot more, but hey, it’s a 750-word column.) I had another penetrating question ready: “Is Delaware big enough to launch a president?” “I think it is,” he replied.
I had a tough follow-up: “Will your first act as president be to get rid of those tollbooths on I-95?” He laughed. “I get asked that a lot by people. I can’t help ’em — they’re on their own.”
That’s the straight talk I like to see. No pandering, like Hillary’s telling Iowans she likes ethanol, and John McCain’s telling Christian conservatives he likes Christian conservatives.
“People don’t seem to appreciate your verbal generosity,” I said. “Are you studying Bogie and Steve McQueen movies to become less wordy, or do you just hope people will come to see it as part of your charm?” “We’re in a political culture where everything is reduced to bumper stickers and sound bites, and it’s a lot more complicated than that,” he said. “I’m fairly candid, and sometimes I’ll cause controversy and sometimes I won’t. It’s who I am. I’m not going to change who I am.”
That’s my man. He stares controversy in the eye and chats with it.
“In one sentence, with no more than two dependent clauses,” I instruct, “tell me why you would make a great president.”
“I really believe the American people get the fact that with the next president, there’s no margin for error. He’s going to inherit a world and a nation where this guy is going to leave him in a real deep hole. The next president has to get us out of Iraq without ruining the Middle East, so Americans should be looking for the person with the most experience.”
O.K., that’s three sentences, but who’s counting?
“You’ve been a truth-teller on Iraq for years, so tell the truth,” I said. “Are we cooked?” Citing the soft-partition plan he co-wrote, he noted: “Any country that comes into being as a consequence of the pen of a diplomat has never been able to be stable except by (a) an imperial power dominating it, (b) a dictator or strongman, or (c) a federal system.”
Aren’t Americans going to be angry at a Senate that’s bending itself into a procedural pretzel, rather than seriously tackling the future of Iraq?
“They are going to be angry,” he agreed. “Republicans are trying to avoid embarrassing the president. If you took a secret ballot, I’d be dumfounded if 20 senators thought sending 21,500 troops made any sense.” He said John McCain wouldn’t think it made sense either “because he has called for sending many more.”
Do you agree that Dick Cheney is barking mad?
“Cheney is a very smart guy who’s kicking the can down the road here,” he replied. “He’s concluded that this administration’s policy can’t succeed in Iraq and he’s handing it off to the next guy.”
Things were getting way too serious. “What’s your ideal day?”
“It would be corny,” he said. “Just taking off to the beach with Jill.”
Trying to boost his dented confidence, I said I was sure he looked better in the Delaware waves than Barack Obama in the Hawaiian surf. The 64-year-old laughed, saying, “Like the Paul McCartney song, ‘When I’m 64.’ I don’t look as good as I once did, but Jill does.”
“Who would make the best president?” I coaxed.
“Me,” he crowed.
I think his confidence is coming back. Excellent.
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Post by mike on Feb 7, 2007 8:09:30 GMT -5
Cut, paste... run! Stop the presses! We need more glue! Not to mention the !!!!!! that are spilling all over the place!
Now on DVD, the Directors Cut & Paste special edition.
For God's (or god's) sake, Jay, just F'ing tell us in your own words... you can do it better than those ten cent newspaper people. Really.
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Post by gailkate on Feb 7, 2007 10:39:45 GMT -5
Oh, Mike, can't you let the rest of us read the articles you find boring? I'm really interested in this. I can't keep up with everything there is to read - not with a tiny smidgen of it - so I appreciate when people post good stuff they're found.
Is it just that you wanted your thread to stay humorous? Ok, I'll start another and copy the Dowd piece there.
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Post by Tillie on Feb 7, 2007 12:01:23 GMT -5
Of the well known names I've heard speak, I believe that John Mellencamp and Bono would be a pair that might once again endear us to ourselves and the world. I think Mellencamp would more than meet the kicking and screaming qualification. He might even run and hide. Now that would make for an exciting election. Eh Rog, remember the qualifications here, please! Bono would be disqualified. I'm sure he's sincere in all the good works he does and attempts to do in world affairs etceteras. So, in all probability, he might not go kicking and screaming but would be willing to take on the presidency of the USA. Although, 'tis a mute point because he wasn't actually born on USA soil. |
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