2012 US election thread - keep it civil

[Mkilbride]

He never blamed anyone, even though he should have.

He inherited a raw deal, a sinking ship, full of holes, and is doing his best so we all stay afloat. Of course we're not going to suddenly drop to 2% unemployement, job wages aren't going to double out of thin air, and everyones debts wont be wiped clean.

Alot of people seem to think he has to do that to be some kind of amazing president. He's only human, he can only do so much, and so far what he has done is as good as anyone possibly could have. Bill Clinton backs him, and says he's following the right path, and Bill Clinton set us up a surplus, made peace with the middle east, started many bills to help with the rising cost of energy...he was a great man, and if he tells me that Obama is on the right course of action, then I believe it.

Of course I'm not all that educated on such matters, but that is how I see it, and that is how I feel.

 

[Eon]

Time to move from israel. On the way they should ban tobacco

There's some nice tax money in tobacco, I don't think it's going away like, ever. Pot rules though. Glad Obama won, even though he's a completely awful president he was the better alternative. Hopefully this time around he won't bolster the Patriot Act (again). Also hoping to see Gitmo get closed (lol), and maybe he'll remove the authorization for the CIA to assassinate American citizens.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

Well, I sincerely hope I'm wrong, and I sincerely hope he does right by the country he serves. He now has the distinction of being the first president reelected at 8% unemployment and racking up the most debt by any US President. Now that its his economy and his own mess he inherited, I wonder who he's going to blame.

has he actually racked up that much debt? or is it just that the debt has increased since he was elected?

i don't know any of the actual figures, so i'll explain my question a bit and hopefully someone will answer.

let's say the USA was at $200bn debt (again, not accurate figures) when he was elected, and now four years later the USA is at $230bn debt... well he's only accumulated $30bn debt of his own, or 15% of the debt. the rest was already there. so the question i'm asking, is whether the debt is the highest it's ever been for any president, and he is responsible for a percentage of that debt... or whether the percentage of debt he's responsible for, is bigger than any previous president has caused.

 

[Prozac]

Let the figures speak for themselves.

Just noticed it's just to 2010.

So we'll hop over to this site.
http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm

It shows an increase during Obama's term. However that's also when the economic recess started.
It still rose more under the previous presidents rule but I guess that has to do with the several wars that are/were being fought.

I'd post the actual data in the thread, however forums are a ***** to work with when it comes to tables.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

so it looks like the debt rate has been growing since 1915 (entry into WW1?), dipped hard, grew again in the 1930's, and severely in 39/41 (entry into WW2?), started to fall drastically after 1945 (exit from WW2). by the end of clinton's administration your debt was falling rapidly (5% surplus) per capita, and bush managed to **** that up in his first year in office, by putting you back on 3% debt increase per capita... by the end of his second term you're on just under 15% debt increase per capita year on year.

in obamas administration he's not managed to put you into surplus, but he's reduced the rate your debt is growing CONSISTENTLY year on year to 7% per capita... and he's dropped the interest expense from 15.9% at the end of bush, to 4.8%.

the problem lies in the fact that the job market has stagnated, people are earning less money, which means that because you're not in a surplus debt growth (ie. actually paying back your debt) the side effect is that your countries debt is now greater than its income...

that's what i read from the figures, and i honestly can't see how Romney would have done a better job. try to bear in mind here that Romney is a hardcore business owner who is used to dealing with a bottom line outsourcing mindset. he preached in his speeches about how he wanted to create jobs for hardworking americans, yet his industrial practice shows the exact opposite...

 

[saiyanslayer]

Personally, I would have liked to see Ralph Nader as president.

 

[Brosiris]

It's times like this I wish I never moved out of Colorado.

 

[Deman]

It's times like this I wish I never moved out of Colorado.

Ha! Personally I'm more excited about the ability to grow 3 mature plants. There's some really pretty strains out there. I'm also hoping this means we'll do more longitudinal research on the affects of marijuana and brain function, just because.

Let's not forget the states that voted to legalize gay marriage. Personally I see that as a greater step in civil liberties than letting us smoke the reefer. Go Maine and Maryland and Washington!

 

[Deathshot]

Florida finally decided on it's vote. Obama

 

[Shadi]

 

[Delusional]

So we allow one more freedom just to take one away and kill over 100,Million Jobs.

You wanted a reason, I didn't say I agreed with it.