2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumI agree with my neighbor's theory about why Obama will win a second term.
The American people don't want to vote him out of office. They don't want to see him and his family driven out of the White House. They like him and they don't want to see him go.
I was so gratified to hear this. I had been thinking the same thing but since I am female I thought it was just my warm feelings about him, Michelle and the girls. The idea that he and his family would be driven out of house and home was just repugnant. But he was also thinking "This is just wrong and most Americans think so too."
Granted, my neighbor is a retired academic from Yale. But he is a good analytic thinker. Are we both being just deluded liberals?
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)I can think of 50 reasons he should be re-elected, but I have to admit, his family's housing was not one of them.
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)This First Family packing up and leaving. It seems so odd. So "before their time to go."
I know. It's just me. My neighbor too. I know we're liberal and have these strange thoughts, but hey, who knows, maybe we're both right!
Cha
(302,810 posts)had similiar thoughts but, in passing. Especially when ol mitt and his wife talk like they've already won and the Obamas will be leaving.
The Planet needs them.
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/09/07/from-charlotte-to-portsmouth-to-the-university-of-iowa/
And, them..
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/09/08/rise-and-shine-292/
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)thanks for the lovely pix. Just a beautiful image of Democratic values!
Eat THAT, repukes!
ailsagirl
(23,388 posts)And they're as beautiful on the inside as they are on the out.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I really love Michelle as our First Lady and Ann Romney is the absolute opposite of everything Michelle is.
Ugh!
TheCowsCameHome
(40,199 posts)It would be too much like the common folk in her way of thinking.
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)I really don't know why she would even LIKE to be the First Lady (apart from the title). you have to go around and shake hands with people who disgust you, and you have to speak to people who can't understand you and you have to smile when you are really, really angry with "the help." It can't possibly be a nice existence!
Booster
(10,021 posts)CTyankee
(64,531 posts)before. Not even close.
No. We won't have Imperial Mitt, nor his Queen Ann. Not gonna happen here!
TheCowsCameHome
(40,199 posts)Ann Romney living in a environment where she doesn't have complete control over everything that happens in her residence. This would go totally against her grain.
When Mitt was governor of Massachusetts, the family literally spent more time in Wolfeboro than Boston. This whole White House-life scenario is something they couldn't possibly deal with.
Blue Belle
(5,912 posts)This is the one that I've been thinking about lately. As First Lady, she would have to take up her own agenda (at least the ones in the recent past have). For Michelle Obama it is healthy eating habits (organic gardening), fighting childhood obesity (Let's Move!) and making things better for the families of the military (Joining Forces). Laura Bush was a promoter of her husbands education plan and the women of Afghanistan. The position of First Lady isn't just arm candy at state dinners; it's a position of influence. To circle this observation back to the OP, I think one of the reasons why people do not want to see the Obamas leave office is because it is a family and it is the marriage that diffuses and props up the President away from the public eye. They want to see someone who is worried about the future for their own kids and empathetic to the struggles American families face. People want to see a President working for the better life for his family - for everyone's family. When you look at the Obamas, you see a family that has had to work hard and overcome a lot to get where they are. When you see the Romneys the first thing you think about is the life of privilege.
jmb6g
(1 post)Sort of like Barbara Bush focused on literacy because, in the words of George Carlin, "she did such a good job with Georgie."
tomm2thumbs
(13,297 posts)something they'd paint on the nose of their plane for good luck
<ugh>
Wondering when she'll encourage her own brood to join...
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I'm sure the White House would be too old, drafty, and "full of cooties from those black people" to suit her taste.
If he wins, the first thing she does is rip out the carpets, repaint, and fumigate. Just watch.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)What we can all hope is that the cooties thing will make her totally reconsider her wish to be first lady.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)on her face, refusing to answer questions, I just had a moment where it's like I saw into her SOUL. I totally "get" that woman. She's evil and likely very racist.
pnwmom
(109,388 posts)and she didn't care for Obama several years ago. But she's really warmed to him. She thinks he's a good family man and that he really cares about people. She says that's how all her friends feel.
If this is true, this is a very good sign.
cr8tvlde
(1,185 posts)and in photos and other articles and reports ...they exude family values...easily hugging and smiling and laughing and genuinely enjoying each other. And shouting out his to girls on global television ... "you still have to go to school tomorrow"...priceless. You can't fake that.
bowens43
(16,064 posts)DO want to see him and his family thrown out
regnaD kciN
(26,449 posts)There are lots of conservatives and red-staters who hate Obama with the passion of a billion white-hot suns. They would not only "want to see him and his family driven out of the White House," but would prefer it if they were all carried out feet-first.
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)We have to. Otherwise, we'll be overtaken by some kind of "tide of Mongols" or another apparition of fictional scary characters...
CrispyQ
(37,616 posts)I am voting against bigotry & in favor of sanity.
If the bigots win this election they will feel their view has been validated & IT IS NOT.
abumbyanyothername
(2,711 posts)On the ground in OH and FL.
In fact, if I were running the campaign I would send paid staffers into OH to make sure that every single college student, every single person from poor neighborhoods in Cleveland and Akron and Toledo and Columbus and even Cincinatti . . . had id, was registered and knew where to go to vote. And I would send them back when early voting starts to get the voting done early.
In Florida, I would go door to door conducting massive voter registrations in Dem. neighborhoods. I would tell people that they had been purged from the voting rolls and who had purged them and why they purged them. I would get them registered and I would get phone numbers, emails and other contact info and I would go back and GOTV.
In short, I would mobilize the most massive ground game ever seen in politics and I would make sure that every single person I spoke with knew that someone was trying to keep them and people like them from voting.
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)full speed right now! We need it so much because the SuperPacs are going to outspend us in TV ads....
freshwest
(53,661 posts)qwlauren35
(6,193 posts)Don't count out Virginia. You have no idea how hard we're working to swing Virginia!
tabbycat31
(6,336 posts)I see it on Jobs that are left all the time.
tjdee
(18,048 posts)She said she really hates his policies (she watches FOX sometimes, I'm sure she knows none of his policies) but she even said he was a good man and seems to really want to help people.
I was thinking about that when I saw the girls Thurs night, I really would hate to uproot them in the middle of their school and stuff :/
CTyankee
(64,531 posts)this lovely family being turned out of their home even tho they will certainly not be in any danger of poverty. To me it is just visceral. I feel it in my innermost self. This cannot BE. They cannot be banished from my country's capital, Washington!
They have come to symbolize everything we have wanted in a First Family. Kindness, decency, honesty, goodness. To have that ripped away from us would be a violation of our hearts and souls!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)A sacrifice to move to D.C. and be under the microscope. Whenever they leave, they will have good lives. But if this nation is to be handed over to people as markedly cruel and spiteful as the Romneys and Ryans, it will break the heart of America and the world. And we will go into a new Dark Age. I am sure of that one thing, the Ayn Rand followers will destroy everything and laugh.
kathman-duzi
(82 posts)we don't go backward. Barack Obama deserves another term and has earned it.
I almost didn't survive the bush era and the daily smothering and darkness of cheney evil.
I too, believe he wants to help the people. Rmoney wants to help his resume.
Karmasue
(95 posts)Dustin DeWinde
(193 posts)But not just because we like him as most of us do, but because he is clearly the best man for the job
ailsagirl
(23,388 posts)David__77
(23,863 posts)The first non-white president voted out by the shrinking white majority? Now when I say "they," I'm more referring to the elites than anything else...
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)People are used to him being there and he's very "presidential."
They are a nice family to have there and people who aren't political would probably think in terms of wanting them to stay - nothing about Mittens and Queen Anne is as cozy and family-like as the Obamas are. They are such a happy family - the Rmoneys, however, are forced to go on an annual vacation with sports contests where the patriarch trips people in order to win.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)....but there is a large part of America that wants the family out of the White House, hates the Obamas, and speaks in obscene and derogatory terms about all of them. Hateful, bitter, disgusting language.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)A strong plurality perhaps but no longer the majority.
I'm not worried about them. I'm just impatiently waiting for the inevitable collapse of that political coalition.
Let the haters hate.
2012 ends the jibber jabber.
They're gonna have to get used to it or go to the hospital with ulcers.
John Lucas
Karmasue
(95 posts)the unregulated power behind the Koch and Rove money; the targeted nation-wide voter registration move to disenfranchise poor and minority voters; the resurgence of the birther movement and the recent Koch and Rove-backed accusation that Obama is actually a closeted gay; and all of the other unmitigated lies being hammered out by the Romney campaign, make me worry about this election.
I sincerely hope that no one in America is comfortable enough in their confidence that Obama will win this election, that they stay home on election day.
I seriously doubt that anyone here would ever stay home...but I see the polls that show the president's growing numbers, and hear the soaring confidence in the liberal media. And there are some who might take this as a sign that their personal vote is not necessary.
It is.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)Yeah we like to think it's issues & facts that determine elections.
But those things probably don't rank into the Top 10 much less the Top 5 of what drives voters' motives.
Intangibles like these probably influence voters' attitudes more than anything.
It's OBVIOUS that Barack Obama is a Family Man (he listened to Guile after allStreet Fighter joke).
Even his haters can't drive a wedge into that.
He doesn't have the weakness of Bill Clinton & John Edwards with extra-marital affairs (probably because Michelle would whoop his ass if he did).
There's a reason why they go after Obama's associations instead of Obama.
Why they manufacture fake controversy about Obama himself like this Birther bull.
It's because he's clean as a whistle!
When Malia, Sasha, & Michelle all get onstage & you see that real family togetherness.
When you see how healthy & intelligent Malia & Sasha are.
People see him as they see their family.
The men identify with the President as themselves.
They're trying hard everyday to make ends meet & sometimes the challenges are overwhelming, sometimes they make mistakes but they are doing the very best they can to provide for their families.
The men identify with Obama as a father working hard for his family which includes the nation.
The women identify with the President with how he genuinely loves his wife & cherishes his girls.
They support him as a loving husband & father who never let the daily grind of putting food on the table get in the way of spending quality time together.
So with all the foreclosures going on in the housing market, they don't want to see Obama's family foreclosed out of The White House.
They believe Obama to be a man doing all he can to hold things together & want to give him more time to succeed for the sake of his family & for the sake of the American family.
That's why I get so angry at Obama sometimes for not pushing in a more Progressive direction.
Most of the country will get behind him. All he has to do is convince them it's the right thing to do for the household.
I know it is within him so I'm giving him a second chance to prove me right.
He has the power. The people overall trust him.
He Is The One.
John Lucas
Cosmocat
(14,850 posts)First, people make a legitimate point that about 45% of the electorate are republicans who have a irrational, raging hatred for the President.
And, of course, our 45% will stick with him, love him or democratic feel unfilled like.
The middle 10 percent, I think WILL break to BO, whether it is 5.1 to 4.9 percent or more, because as less invested voters they won't see a big difference functionally in the two, but will like BO a good bit more, and see no reason to fire him.
It may be that 45% call themselves conservative or even Republican, but let's not forget that Romney has pissed off some Republican women (probably more than we realize) and a portion of his base. The other day, I read that one in four evangelicals would not vote for Romney because he is a Morman. And the Paulistas are furious because Romney cheated them during the primaries and at the convention.
On the other hand, even in Bush's darkest days, 30% still supported him and even believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, so we can rely on the stupid, willfully ignorant, and just plain evil 30% in this country to vote for Romney.
I agree that Romney absolutely has issues with holding that coalition together.
At the same time, their ingrained hatred of democrats will get most of them to the polls and have them pull the lever for Romney.
1 in 4 evangelicals may not WANT to vote for Romney because he is a Mormon, but faced with the specter of the god/America hating socialist, communist, scumbag spawn of the anti-Christ they allow themselves to be ginned up to believe that Obama is, they will vote AGAINST him.
It will be at least 45% of the country ...
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)How can anyone vote for someone that thinks God lives on a planet named Kolob? Can someone show me where this planet is?
Karmasue
(95 posts)God lives on Kolob, Mount Olympus or doesn't exist at all, is not why he is unsuitable to be President of the United States, in my opinion.
It is because he is an admitted bully, a proven liar, a suspected tax cheat, an ideological fraud, and a foreign policy moron..to name a few of the many reasons.
Isabel
(2 posts)Hey
I'm writing from Paris (France), its funny because in Europe people are backing President Obama even more today than they did in 2008. I feel like this time all europeans really feel passionate about their endorsement of Obama, they really don't want to see him go.
Just to give you an idea, in my country 86% of the people would vote for Obama (https://poutsch.com/question/16)
and more than 50 % think she did a terrific job as a first lady https://poutsch.com/question/1000867
I really do hope they'll stay!
LeftishBrit
(41,295 posts)The Obamas were hugely popular in the UK during their recent visit - complete contrast to Romney!
And merci beaucoup to the French for getting rid of Sarkozy. Now if we could get rid of Cameron...
DFW
(55,942 posts)Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 08:15 AM - Edit history (1)
Not only "Mitt The Twit," but the Telegraph's commment that Romney came on a charm offensive, devoid of charm and mildly offensive.
As for Sarko, I found Hollande to be a man of little substance and fewer ideas during the campaign, and I think now that I was understating things. I'm in France several times a month for work, and it's back to the Mitterand days of sending small brigades of finance authorities into every little shop to find "irregularities," existent or otherwise, and levy fines for non-compliance. This is government extortion, and a brutal way of admitting they can't deal with their budget deficit any better that Sarkozy did.