Idiot Politicians.

[Mr Mystery]

So, just came across this little gem (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19319240)

What a total moron. No medical fact to support his claim either. Now believe what you want on the overall subject of abortion, but seriously....this guy is running for the Senate???

Can't we have some sort of basic IQ test to keep utter idiots out of political office for ever and ever? Something about being able to seperate fact from opinion, and explain the different to room of random people?

What other political derps have you guys come across? I have a nomination for most ridiculous political claim ever....The Natural Law Party, back around 1997, claimed that a reduction in crime in a city (I think it was Birmingham, UK) was due to Natural Law Party members yogic flying in the upper atmosphere. Yeah, they lost their deposit...

[Mr Mystery]

And another, hot off the presses. I would like to apologise to the world for George Galloway (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19323783)

[ElectricPaladin]

Some people are just immune to facts...

[Kyban]

Some people are just immune to facts...

And they somehow still get elected, probably by others who are also immune to facts. :mad:

[DrLove42]

Everyo.e knows Galloway is a prick. Everyone would be better off without him.

It worries me that people with so little common sense or general knowledge can be in power.

You can understand why most ppeople look down on the Republican party. Youre welcome to your religion but it should be as far away from politics as possible

[Mr Mystery]

Everyo.e knows Galloway is a prick. Everyone would be better off without him.

It worries me that people with so little common sense or general knowledge can be in power.

You can understand why most ppeople look down on the Republican party. Youre welcome to your religion but it should be as far away from politics as possible

The religion/tallywhacker dichotomy yes?

But seriously, come on peeps. More Political herping and derping links!!

[DarkLink]

You can understand why most ppeople look down on the Republican party. Youre welcome to your religion but it should be as far away from politics as possible

That's ironic, because this is a pretty politically ignorant statement right here. Have you heard some of the stuff that Joe Biden has said over the last couple of weeks? He literally claimed that Romney would put blacks "back in chains". Idiocy is far from partisan.

[Mr Mystery]

Link to it dude!

Ideally, I'd like this thread to remain as apolitical as it can possibly be!

[Kyban]

That's ironic, because this is a pretty politically ignorant statement right here. Have you heard some of the stuff that Joe Biden has said over the last couple of weeks? He literally claimed that Romney would put blacks "back in chains". Idiocy is far from partisan.

I'm pretty sure we just keep him around for the lols. :p

[DarkLink]

No political goal, just pointing out that it's silly to say that a) "most people" look down on a political party that gets 40+% of votes every election, b) Republicans base all of their decisions on their religious beliefs, and c) that a single stupid politician obviously means that that party, and only that party, is stupid as a whole, or d) that the opposing party exerts significant influence over American media, making it standard practice for Republicans to be painted as stupid, racist, or extremist in everything from news to movies. Those are the problems with Dr Love's comment.



As for Joe Biden;

He claimed Romney would enslave blacks (despite the fact that it was the Republicans that, as recently as 50 years ago, took great strides to ensure minority rights, and draw their political lineage directly from Abraham Lincoln): "Aside from that, Biden told a largely black audience that if the Republicans win in November they would "put the chains back on ya’ll." "

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/08/letters_joe_biden.html



He claimed you can't "go to a 7-11 without a slight Indian accent".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIT3jUrNTX0



He told a crowd "we can win North Carolina". He was in Virginia at the time.

He made a comment that many deaf individuals found offensive when joking about a sign language translator: “That poor lady, she’s going to have tendonitis by the time she finishes this.”

"There was the classic incident in which [Biden] asked Senator Chuck Graham to stand up so people could see him as the man sat in a wheelchair physically unable to get up from his wheelchair."

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/08/16/joe-bidens-asinine-comments-arent-cute-anymore/





These comments have been sprinkled across his political career, but lately he had a sudden surge in idiocy that has drawn national attention to all of these mistakes. Now, people are questioning if they really want Biden to be one heartbeat away from being President.

[Mr Mystery]

The latter two strike me as not-particularly-well-crafted-funnies. A bit like old Prince Phillip. He's not actually a mental racist old git, he just has a very drole sense of humour!

But the others. Yeah. Hate that sort of stuff in Politics. To be honest, although not a Yank, I was impressed by the relatively clean campaigns both Obama and his rival (I do know his name, just can't think of it!) ran in the last American election. Neither made much of the race issue (hurrah!) and McCain (yeah, remembered it now!) even went so far as to praise his opponent as a politician, but reminding folks he could do things better.

You know, I feel very sorry for Party Leaders and stuff. Due to internal politics, they can't turn round to certain peoples and just do a Bill S Preston 'SHUT UP TED!' But that to me is a problem with party politics overall.

[Wildeybeast]

Can we put Galloway in the Ecuadorian embassy along with Assange as he seems to love him so much?

[DarkLink]

But the others. Yeah. Hate that sort of stuff in Politics. To be honest, although not a Yank, I was impressed by the relatively clean campaigns both Obama and his rival (I do know his name, just can't think of it!) ran in the last American election. Neither made much of the race issue (hurrah!) and McCain (yeah, remembered it now!) even went so far as to praise his opponent as a politician, but reminding folks he could do things better.

Right. McCain was too honest of a guy to do a smear campaign, and Obama was focusing on his "hope" strategy*.

Now, though, Obama's full on mud-slinging, because he probably knows he can't go back to the hope campaign because after the last three and a half years very few people will buy that crap anymore. Romney has actually run a very clean campaign, only stooping to slinging mud when Obama does so first. Romney has a very clean personal record, as does Paul Ryan, so they're not giving a whole lot of ammo on that front for Obama, but Obama can still rely on people's inability to understand that medicare and social security will collapse as it currently exists and must be reformed.

I could actually spend quite a bit of time going into some detail on various aspects of the campaign.

*Obama's previous campaigns, before running for president, were full of plenty of dirty politics, however.



In case you can't tell, I don't have a very good opinion of Obama's politics. He's proven incapable of dealing with pretty much any of the important issues America is facing, he can't wrangle Congress into getting anything done**, he has made numerous moves to expand his personal power at the expense of the Constitution, and he can't even effectively tackle the issues that his own party and platform are based on. I might not agree with a lot of Romney's positions, but at least he and Paul Ryan are actually competent enough to address some of these issues.



** Congress is incredibly unpopular right now. Their approval is about 10%, the lowest recorded number in history. Many of Obama's problems are actually caused by Congress, but part of the President's job is to get congress to actually do stuff. Obama has failed in that regard.

[Denzark]

And another, hot off the presses. I would like to apologise to the world for George Galloway (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19323783)

Why, are you personally responsible for him (in which case take yourself away and self immolate, saying sorry on boLS isn't enough...)

[Mr Mystery]

Just post imperial guilt! I mean, it's like Bono. I kind of respect him for sticking to his stance, but hate him more for being such a colossal bellend.

Which is different to my habit of keeping a bucket of petrol on hand in case I see Noel Fielding on fire. I mean, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I missed that chance!

[Uncle Nutsy]

It's america. I haven't seen anything smart come out of there in years.

[Psychosplodge]

Can we put Galloway in the Ecuadorian embassy along with Assange as he seems to love him so much?

or just anywhere else?


Just post imperial guilt! I mean, it's like Bono. I kind of respect him for sticking to his stance, but hate him more for being such a colossal bellend.

Which is different to my habit of keeping a bucket of petrol on hand in case I see Noel Fielding on fire. I mean, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I missed that chance!

Bono is a massive tax dodging hypocrite, quite happy to throw other peoples money at the bottomless money pit that is africa, but does everything he can to hang on to his.

Burning to death is too quick for Noel Fielding.

What about the clueless anti everything, Keith "I must jump on this bandwagon" Vaz? can we get rid of him too?



So, just came across this little gem (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19319240)

What a total moron. No medical fact to support his claim either. Now believe what you want on the overall subject of abortion, but seriously....this guy is running for the Senate???



http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m92qo7lsTm1qaql6do1_500.jpg

[DrLove42]

Its fairly obvious we have different opinions on politics DL :P

You have to remember, Biden may make stupid comments (again, these are things that never get reported over here) but the opposing party are the ones who put Bush in power for 8 years. I believe he may have said some particularly stupid things once or twice in that time....only difference is he was actually RUNNING the country.

Republicans may seem better in the US, but outside the US, given what we have reported to us, particularly in the UK, they generally come across as backwards and silly, making gaffes like this and letting religion influence their decisions, something we don't really see over here. The difference in culture (as has been discussed on many threads before) just excerbates the views i'm sure.

[Wildeybeast]

Right. McCain was too honest of a guy to do a smear campaign, and Obama was focusing on his "hope" strategy*.

Now, though, Obama's full on mud-slinging, because he probably knows he can't go back to the hope campaign because after the last three and a half years very few people will buy that crap anymore. Romney has actually run a very clean campaign, only stooping to slinging mud when Obama does so first. Romney has a very clean personal record, as does Paul Ryan, so they're not giving a whole lot of ammo on that front for Obama, but Obama can still rely on people's inability to understand that medicare and social security will collapse as it currently exists and must be reformed.

I could actually spend quite a bit of time going into some detail on various aspects of the campaign.

*Obama's previous campaigns, before running for president, were full of plenty of dirty politics, however.



In case you can't tell, I don't have a very good opinion of Obama's politics. He's proven incapable of dealing with pretty much any of the important issues America is facing, he can't wrangle Congress into getting anything done**, he has made numerous moves to expand his personal power at the expense of the Constitution, and he can't even effectively tackle the issues that his own party and platform are based on. I might not agree with a lot of Romney's positions, but at least he and Paul Ryan are actually competent enough to address some of these issues.



** Congress is incredibly unpopular right now. Their approval is about 10%, the lowest recorded number in history. Many of Obama's problems are actually caused by Congress, but part of the President's job is to get congress to actually do stuff. Obama has failed in that regard.

Say what you like about Obama, at least he's not George Dubya! :D

[Psychosplodge]

and the latest turn of the opening saga... WTF (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us/politics/rape-assertions-are-dismissed-by-health-experts.html?_r=3) (SFW, not so much sanity...)


But if you actually go back and look at the remarks closely, you’ll see that what I was actually trying to convey in my statement was that

(1) I am a big ****ing idiot,

(2) I am a nauseating slug of a human being who doesn’t deserve to live, and

(3) I am essentially everything that’s wrong with this country and with humanity in general.

Honestly, that’s all I was trying to get across there. It was a simple misunderstanding, really.
”
— I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is ‘I Am Dumb As Dog **** And I Am A Terrible Human Being’

[DarkLink]

You have to remember, Biden may make stupid comments (again, these are things that never get reported over here) but the opposing party are the ones who put Bush in power for 8 years. I believe he may have said some particularly stupid things once or twice in that time....only difference is he was actually RUNNING the country.

As I mentioned, my point was stupidity is not a unique trait of one party. In fact, everyone says stupid stuff at some point. What matters is how good their media relations team is, and how much their opponents want to conduct a smear campaign. It was just Biden's bad luck to say several stupid things in rapid succession in the middle of what is likely going to be one of the closest presidential campaigns in recent memory.



Republicans may seem better in the US, but outside the US, given what we have reported to us, particularly in the UK, they generally come across as backwards and silly, making gaffes like this and letting religion influence their decisions, something we don't really see over here. The difference in culture (as has been discussed on many threads before) just excerbates the views i'm sure.

As I also mentioned, it's standard Democratic practice to try and label Republicans as stupid. Half of all Republican presidents were, in the public's eye, a little on the slow side. Republicans are pretty much automatically cannon fodder for political cartoonists. People thought Ronald Regan was just some dumb actor. You very rarely see the same opinion of stupidity focused on Democrats. Biden is the only guy I can think of. Maybe Jimmy Carter. You should try and form your opinion of public figures based on something other than second hand public perception based on mass media broadcasts that are hand picked and often taken out of context.

[Mr Mystery]

Come on now gents. Keep it bipartisan.

I'm sure we're all quite capable of seperating the person from the party!

[DarkLink]

But I like political and philosophical flame wars...

[Mr Mystery]

Then start your own thread, bunghole!

[DarkLink]

Maybe I will.

[DarkLink]

Here's an interesting article on the OP: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/24/opinion/obeidallah-political-gaffes/index.html?hpt=hp_abar