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US President Obama kicks off campaign with Ohio rally

President Obama: "This is not just another election, this is a make or break moment for the middle-class"

US President Barack Obama has kicked off his campaign for re-election in November with a rally in Ohio.

To cheers, Mr Obama told supporters that the US had been fighting back from recession and pledged to continue efforts to move the economy forward if given a second term.

He hit out at his rival Mitt Romney, saying the Republican challenger would "turn back the clock".

But he also acknowledged that the 6 November vote would be tight.

He said he understood that many in the country are dissatisfied with the slow pace of the change he promised when he came to power.

On Friday, Mr Obama fended off criticism from Mr Romney over disappointing job figures. The jobless rate in the US has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.

Obmam?

Fuck! Fixed!! (Thank fuck BSG wasn't on! )

Go Obama Go!!!

I couldn't agree more with that sentiment....

And you're going to be able to hold down your lunch voting for Romney?

And you're going to be able to hold down your lunch voting for Romney?

I'm planning on purchasing a large bottle of Dramamine, just for the occasion....

I have made no bones about my lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Romney, (in fact aside from paid staff reps, some surrogate speakers and immediate family members, I don't believe I have met, seen, or read anyone expressing a great level of enthusiasm for him) and I have tried to be fair and give credit to Mr. Obama when I thought it was due....

But overall, I believe Romney will be at least a marginally better President for the country....

Obama came in with an historic opportunity to change the poisonous political discourse that had taken root in this country over the previous 16 years, and within days of taking office he blew it....Since then, most of his Presidency, with a few exceptions, (like the killing of Bin Ladin) has been notable mostly for ineffective leadership and well meaning wrongheadedness...

I don't expect great things from Mitt Romney, but I do expect that he would be able to turn in at least a marginally better performance than we've experienced for the past three and a half years....

And that's really the only bar he has to meet, as far as I'm concerned....

Obama's responsible for not changing the poisonous political discourse? You're delusional, LJ!

Even after the Giffords assassination attempt, the right wing nutters wouldn't shut up - Palin called herself the victim!

A marginally better President who is hostage to the sickness that has come to define the Republican party is a disgusting option - and given the fiscal policies he's avowing, I don't see how you figure he'll be marginally better.

Obama 2012, Clinton 2016/2020

Give your party some time to purge the sickness that has overtaken it since '94. I sincerely wish them luck with that; Republican used to be a label not to be ashamed by.

Obama's responsible for not changing the poisonous political discourse? You're delusional, LJ!

BSG, please go and read what I wrote here:

search.php?keywords=pelosi&terms=all&au ... mit=Search

And here:

search.php?keywords=pelosi&terms=all&au ... mit=Search


If you have something that substantively disputes the sequence of events I laid out, please post it, and I'll look at it.

Otherwise I stand 100% by my characterization.

No thanks, LJ. I'm sure I skimmed it at the time and disagreed. I vehemently disagree with what you've posted here and going back to re-read your convoluted justifications for it won't change my mind and will only waste part of my precious day of rest.

We will have to agree to disagree and I'll continue to sympathize with you for belonging to a political party that has in recent decades eviscerated everything once pride worthy about it. Hold your nose and vote for the uber rich guy who doesn't give two hoots about you & your family, and hope that nothing ever befalls you that leaves your kids at the mercy of a Republican safety net.

Well, there's at least one thing we can agree on BSG...

The answer to this:

If you have something that substantively disputes the sequence of events I laid out

is, you don't.

Don't put words in my mouth, LJ. Just because I find your political rants tiresome and don't choose to spend the few hours I have free from serving my community and country pointing out all the substantive flaws in your arguments doesn't mean it can't be done or that your analysis is correct.

That's a sophomoric debate tactic - I would have thought better of you than that you'd engage in such tactics.

Look...

You began this by calling me "delusional"....

And then I very politely directed you to where I posted what I base my conclusions on, and your response has been that you don't have time to look at my arguments....(along with more insults about "political rantings" and "convoluted reasoning")....

You have the time to accuse me of being "delusional" of "ranting" and engaging in "convoluted reasoning", (conclusions you apparently reached without ever doing anything more than "skimming" what I wrote) but not the time to respond in any substantive way....

And you accuse me of dishonest debate tactics?

I submit that you are the one here engaging in behavior that you ought to be better than....

If by your own admission you don't have the "time" to examine the arguments I've made and the evidence I've presented, I'll thank you not to characterize them (or me) in insulting and dismissive ways.

Characterizing Obama's inability to turn around the poisoning of political discourse set in motion by your party in the early 90s as though it should have been easy 'historic opportunity' and that 'within days he blew it' is simplistic, immature and yes, delusional.

Yes, I think your screeds on politics here are often rantish, in that you often come off as holier than thou and make assertions as though they are the only possible reality. This is not surprising, given the party to which you ascribe.

This is the same characteristic that I can't help thinking about when you say nasty things about rubato, because honestly, I don't see such a big difference in the arrogance exhibited in your posts and his - the only difference is party affiliation.

Let's drop this, LJ - I don't want to talk politics with you because it's never really a conversation - that's why I generally avoid the threads. I regret already engaging with you in this one.

You can have the last word. Ta!

You can have the last word. Ta!

Good, since because of your latest torrent of abuse, I intend to take it.

My personal opinion is that the reason you're responding with such non-substantive visceral contempt is because you have a problem with political views that challenge your preconceived world view. I think you may be afraid to examine them, and instead dismiss them out of hand because you're very comfortable with those preconceived views, and don't want to confront the possibility that they might not be entirely accurate.

So instead of actually looking at them, you make excuses and hurl abuse. I suppose you have no choice.

ETA:

I regret already engaging with you in this one.

Good. That is as it should be....

One should always regret accusing someone of being "delusional" "ranting" using "convoluted reasoning" (and of course the greatest insult of all...comparing them to rubato) without being willing to back it up.

Don't expect me to engage you with respect on any issue in future when you insult my intelligence that way, LJ.

I'm every bit as well read - moreso, I would argue - as you on politics or probably any other issue, for that matter.

Because I don't want to play your game, you insult me and say it must be because I'm not capable and have no choice?

Pathetic.

I'm not sure why I'd expect more from someone with the principles you've too oft exhibited on this board.


Here's a good idea for you to contemplate: LEAVE IT ALONE.

I offered you the opportunity to agree to disagree several posts ago, and you have to keep coming back with personal attacks on my intelligence & ability to debate.

Characterizing someone's position as delusional is not the same thing as declaring that they lack the capacity to form one. Surely you are intelligent enough to grasp that concept?

Or maybe you should just start talking about how I'm chasing after convicted murderers in prison for love, and such other disgusting insults that you like to hurl at me when you don't like my opinions.

And you wonder why your judgments of rubato hold no water with me. You are every bit the bully, Jim.

Gee, I thought I was getting the last word.....

Don't expect me to engage you with respect on any issue in future when you insult my intelligence that way, LJ.

I've insulted YOUR intelligence?

Go back and re-read every single post you made in this thread, and take a look at what you've said about me...(I assume you're at least willing to read your own posts...)

I'm every bit as well read - moreso, I would argue - as you on politics or probably any other issue, for that matter.

I offered you the opportunity to agree to disagree several posts ago

Yes, after calling me delusional, and calling my detailed, dispassionately presented political analysis, "rantings"...

you have to keep coming back with personal attacks on my intelligence & ability to debate.

Unfriggin' believable....

You BEGAN THIS with a personal attack on my sanity....Again, go back and re-read your own posts....

Here's a good idea for you to contemplate: LEAVE IT ALONE.

Here's a good idea for you to contemplate: don't start in with completely unprovoked insults and accusations that you are either unwilling or unable to back up, follow them up with more insults, and then try to play the victim.

In other words, don't dish it out if you can't take it. People with glass jaws shouldn't be starting fist fights.

How many times have you bullied me and had to apologize on board?

Here's a hint: more than once.

If it wasn't clear in my first post I've clarified more than once now the meaning of my words in my initial post - and yet you keep stretching to try to define my meaning as works best to support your continued attacks on me.

As to your laughing at my comment that I'm as well read as you? Immature, especially as you have zero basis to challenge the assertion.

Apparently your strategy here is to keep calling me stupid until you say it enough times that you convince yourself.

Why don't you go pick a fight with someone else?

eta: Your analyses of politics are not dispassionate or unbiased; it's disingenuous to suggest that they are.

I guess that promised last word just won't be forthcoming....

If it wasn't clear in my first post I've clarified more than once now the meaning of my words in my initial post -

Yes; you added more insults....

How many times have you bullied me and had to apologize on board?

First, I've never bullied you....(however, in this exchange you are definitely attempting to browbeat me...)

Second, I never "had" to apologize...On a couple on occasions, I apologized because I felt I made comments that went beyond what was warranted; not because I "had" to....

In any event, no apology will be forthcoming on this occasion, because you are the one who started this, you insulted me completely without provocation, and did so several more times before I replied with anything that could be remotely interpreted as insulting...

In this case, I am the one who is owed an apology by you....

Why don't you go pick a fight with someone else?

I didn't pick this one.

Now I am leaving to take my kids to the beach, so please don't interpret my not immediately responding to your next round of insults and Orwellian mischaracterizations of what has taken place in this exchange as acquiescence....

You will not be getting the last word on this one unless that last word is the apology you owe me.

I don't owe you an apology and you won't be getting one, LJ.

You've twisted what I wrote here, just as you did repeatedly in one of loCA's threads, claiming I said editec was directing her actions when I clearly said only that he was doubtless encouraging and affirming them.

You decide how you are going to interpret someone else's words, or a situation (such as in the political world), and that is just your reality no matter what other opinions or facts are presented.

Now you are telling me what I meant to say no matter what I've said I meant to say?

If you have nothing better to do when you return from the beach than hurl more insults at me, have at it.

eta: I'll be blocking you, so if your intent is to further toss nastiness at me, it's ill-intentioned.