If you're leaning toward voting for Governor Romney...

How do you believe black liberation theology has impacted this presidency? I remember this being a Very Important Issue four years ago for some.

 

I definitely agree. Particularly among older voters, rural voters and southern voters, they want to hear that a politician is "Christian," as though that inoculates him from being a bad politician. Problem for many is that "Mormon" doesn't fit so easily in the "Christian" bucket.

I disagree that being "Christian" is any guarantee at all that they'll be a good politician, or that there's effectively a dime's worth of real difference between a devout Mormon and a devout Baptist when it gets down to likely policy.

 

In related news, 2012 is the first year the majority of Americans would vote for an atheist president.

 

Funny, I remember it being glossed over by the media four years ago. All it took was one speech throwing Rev. Wright under the bus and all was forgiven by the major networks. Then again, reverse racism has always been A-OK by guilty whites and other minorities.

To answer your question, however, I think the tenets of Black Liberation Theology are seen promoted through the policies prosceuted by Hilda Solis, Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius. "Social Justice" is now part and parcel of whether the laws of this country are followed. The ones that don't fit into this framework are ignored. Our President took an oath to faithfully execute the Office of the President, and he consistently blows off laws he doesn't like.

 

I'd encourage you to just start following a few popular but not terribly radical columnists. You might enjoy David Brooks (a very insightful moderate Republican who can be pretty funny), Paul Krugman (a pretty liberal economist who writes in a very approachable style), and maybe Fareed Zakaria (a really good moderate writer who focuses on foreign issues). Maybe add on George Will if you want a conservative who uses lots of big words but is very, very funny with those words if you can make your way through it.

I'm sure there are lots of sites you can find that break down the issues. But the truth is that if you are just learning about the candidates and their parties, you probably want to get a better understanding of not just what the parties think, but why they think the way they do. Writers like these can give you more context.

 

Fair enough. I thought it was an anti-Mormon rant rather than an anti-religious one.

For the record, we disagree about the motivations of each candidate. I think both are well-intentioned, but President Obama is too married to his ideology to consider alternatives that have worked in the past.

 

Do you think Democrats would really behave differently if it weren't for that meddling Reverend Wright?

Have you noticed that presidents who haven't fallen under the spell of Reverend Wright also had a habit of blowing off laws they don't like?

 

Where did you hear that? I sincerely doubt it.

 

As a former Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton twice, this Democratic party is unrecognizable to me. A fish rots from its head, and the Marxist roots of BLT were allowed to germinate because President Obama's beliefs jibed with the far left beliefs of Nancy Pelosi. Harry Reid is just a go-along, get-along pol. The Democrats that weren't true believers and who followed these people were either bullied or were lemmings.

 

Gallup poll









As you can see, atheists are still the least desirable candidates out of blacks, women, Catholics, Hispanics, Jews, Mormons, gays and Muslims.

 

Thanks, I just set up my Google Reader and am following all of them.

My dad is a Libertarian, so that's my core knowledge, but I've never been interested in any of it before.

 

I’ll likely vote for Gov. Romney, so I’ll try to explain why:

--He’s shown an ability to reach across the aisle. The Massachusetts legislature was 85% Democrat, yet he managed to get plenty of legislation passed.

--At his heart, he’s a turnaround artist. His job has been to invest in a company, get rid of the parts that weren’t profitable or weren’t working, find more efficient solutions, instill better management, create a clear strategy and control costs. That kind of work is well-compensated, but it’s drudgery. It takes an incredible attention to detail and tremendous discipline. It’s green-eyeshade kind of work. I think we need a green-eyeshade President.

--He believes in American exceptionalism. Inherent in that belief is that we have something specific in our character, a focus on the individual and our ability to innovate.

--He believes in exploiting our domestic sources of energy, most of which are fossil fuel based. Cheaper energy ripples through the economy, helping almost everyone.

--He doesn’t believe in crony capitalism. A venture capitalist can’t afford to do so. They invest in the best mousetrap or the best management team. In government, he’ll meddle less in the private sector and reduce regulation.

--He emphasizes states rights over Federal ones.

--His foreign policy is much less idealistic and much more skeptical. He sides with Israel and will take a stronger stance against Iran, Russia and China.

--He’s more likely to reduce the influence of government in our day-to-day lives. He shows more faith in the American people and our ability to make decisions that maximize our own utility, not what maximizes the utility of people who think they know what’s best for you.

--It’s time to acknowledge that no matter how good the intentions, these policies haven’t worked. We’re worse off in almost every category. There’s a blueprint, albeit a painful one, of how to pull out of this tailspin and that’s the policy prescription of 1981-82.

--His focus would be on competency, not history. He’s results-oriented, not a navel gazer. It would be a welcome change.

 

Those images haven't really been my impression.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincar...y-6-million-see-why-hes-down-since-last-year/

Not really a shocking amount of profiteering, from what I can see.
As far as vacations, from last summer: http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-20093801.html

 

Is it "glitzy" to take your kids to the state you grew up in? If you want to accuse him of wasting far too much time on the beach, shouldn't you find a pic where he doesn't have a dorky farmer's tan?

Anyway, this is waaaay off track. It'd be nice to keep this thread in line with the OP's wishes and not a whine fest about the opponent.

 

Well, I'll be damned. (But apparently not by the majority of Americans.)

 

Does anyone else have a positive case to make for Gov. Romney in this thread? It's pretty sad that this appears to be an election where each side will vote against a candidate than for one.