Convention

[dillon]

MICHELLE OBAMA IS OUTSTANDING!!! What an inspiring speaker!! Why is she not our presidential candidate?

[Pdxfashionpioneer]

Because Michelle Obama doesn't particularly care for politics. The irony is that apparently she is SUPERB. She was known as The Closer during the President's campaigns because she convinced the unconvincable.

It'll be interesting to hear what, if anything, Trump has to say about her speech. If he says anything he'll regret it. People LOVE her! While I was shopping at Dress Barn on Sunday I overheard a couple of other shoppers giving her credit for making sleeveless dresses so popular because she "has so much class."

The commentators are pretty much unanimous, Michelle's speech is the best anyone's heard at a political convention. I regret missing the first part of it.

[Stevie D]

Because Michelle Obama doesn't particularly care for politics. The irony is that apparently she is SUPERB. She was known as The Closer during the President's campaigns because she convinced the unconvincable.

It'll be interesting to hear what, if anything, Trump has to say about her speech. If he says anything he'll regret it. People LOVE her! While I was shopping at Dress Barn on Sunday I overheard a couple of other shoppers giving her credit for making sleeveless dresses so popular because she "has so much class."

The commentators are pretty much unanimous, Michelle's speech is the best anyone's heard at a political convention. I regret missing the first part of it.

Yes - she gave a great speech. Catch up here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZNWYqDU948

[Jim]

MICHELLE OBAMA IS OUTSTANDING!!! What an inspiring speaker!! Why is she not our presidential candidate?

If Clinton wins, I expect Michelle Obama may consider following her example.

[crfriend]

There won't be a country left after another eight years of Dubya, and it'll be worse if Trump gets in. There truly is no good -- or even remotely acceptable -- option this time 'round. Canada and Oz look better by the day.

[oldsalt1]

It would have been a great speech if she actually believed a word she said. In truth the Obama's hate Hillary and are only backing her so that she can continue to hide what has been done to this country over the last eight years.

[crfriend]

That's not eight years, it's sixteen. We're in the waning months of Dubya's fourth term. When the Anointed One (Hillary) ascends the throne, he'll have another two. It won't matter though, it'll be "game over" for all but the economic elites in the coming four years.

Trump, at least, might give us all a ringside seat at nuclear holocaust if Vladimir Putin jilts him.

I'm still not sure who to vote against, because there's certainly nobody worth voting for.

[oldsalt1]

Sorry for being un informed please explain Dubyas 16 years

[crfriend]

Right off the top, I am NOT writing this as a moderator, but rather as an individual contributor. Do not construe otherwise. You have been cautioned.

Sorry for being un informed please explain Dubyas 16 years

After the last renegade president the US will ever see who sat between 1992 and 2000, the power-brokers figured that they'd had enough and the US got "Dubya" (George W. Bush) in 2000. For eight years, this was essentially was a regency (for which there is no provision in the Constitution of the United States), and when the mandatory two-term limit (brought in following the experience with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and with the country not wanting an extended Truman presidency) expired had to stand down. I remain surprised that the stand-down actually occurred instead of a National Emergency being declared to keep the then-current players in power.

In 2008, a young charismatic chap from Illinois shattered all predictions and defied the odds by getting elected. This man ran on a platform of hope and change for the country which was reeling from an horrific terrorist attack, heinous assaults on civil liberties, two simultaneous and unwinnable wars, and a middle class in economic free-fall. Now, in politics, it's all about action not words. None of the "hope and change" ever materialised and national policy didn't waver one iota from the path that it was set on in the opening years of the 2000s. So, with no perceptible change in policy or attitude, one is compelled to call a spade a spade and realise that it's been one long 16-year run, albeit with a different figurehead in the spotlight. We've still got Gitmo, we still have the PATRIOT Act, what's left of the middle class is still in economic free-fall (with much of it now relegated to underclass status), and we're still mired in Afghanistan.

In the run-up to the 2016 "election" we saw what looks like the final implosion of the GOP (the "Grand Old Party", aka the Republicans), one firebrand who got all the rhetoric spot on, but who could never be allowed into power because he had the stones to speak truth to power, and we have the Anointed One.

The GOP was likely sacrificed because there really aren't two parties any longer, the place having become, like Russia, an oligarchy, and had outlived its usefulness. The religious right did its part and is now expendable. At least the Russians are honest about their current system, you have to give them that.

This leaves the Anointed One, who will continue on with precisely the same policies and strategies that have been in place for the previous sixteen years. The middle class will, in all probability, cease to exist by 2020, or thereabouts, and what was once a republic will take its full glory as an oligarchy which holds onto its power by sheer brute force, and simple brute force alone.

It's a lovely future.

[oldsalt1]

Now I understand. I agree that both parties are just figure heads for what really runs the world money. It goes back to the old movie rollarball where the world was run by five companies. That being said how could you
not vote for Trump. He already made his money. and does not need the blessing of the wealthy powers to be. He is interested in making history not money. And there is no better way he can do it than by shaking up the status quo. Hopefully the middle class will get a chance to ride along on his wave.

[john62]

Here in Oz, the leadership of both parties is hopeless which is why in the recent general election a very large number of independents got in therefore four more years where the government will get nothing through. The good part is that our country is not as divided as it appears the US is, we are too apathic!

John

[oldsalt1]

I really want to believe that the US is not as divided as is portrayed to the outside world. I am hoping that there is truly a "SILENT MAJORITY" that is waiting for its voice to be heard

[crfriend]

I really want to believe that the US is not as divided as is portrayed to the outside world. I am hoping that there is truly a "SILENT MAJORITY" that is waiting for its voice to be heard

There are "two realities" here.

One is that, once dialogue can be established, the electorate is more than capable of compromise and understanding. We, the people, "get it". One of my best friends can be best described as a dyed-in-the-wool neo-con; I lean towards old-school conservatism with a mindset that thinks in a new-world model. He and I fight like cats and dogs, but when it comes down to actual policy we're actually much closer than an observer would think. I've also got hard-left pals, but when pressed about policy, it turns out that, again, we're pretty close. I believe that much of the "divide" is in rhetoric and not based in reality when it comes to the general public.

The other is the "divide" in Congress, which is an outright sham. Note that bills and proposals the benefit the oligarchs always pass, and pass with enough of a majority, such that "plausible deny-ability" exists. Congress is very much united -- against the electorate. This is not a system that's "broken", this is a system that's functioning perfectly -- for a tiny fraction of the populace.

Why the theatre, then? Here's why: It's to keep the general public "off the scent" of what's really afoot.

[oldsalt1]

cr I think that we are on somewhat of the same track. But you remind me of the comedian Dennis Miller its a pleasure conversing but I need a dictionary to keep up with the conversation

[dillon]

Bill Clinton, despite glossing over the troubles in their marriage, and his personal weaknesses, proved himself tonight to be the best living orator in American politics.

Old salt, I think there is indeed a "silent majority" in America, and they're about to elect Hillary Clinton President of the United States.

As for Dennis Miller, IMO he was never actually funny on SNL (those were the really low years for SNL, about like GM in the 1980s) and he hasn't been funny since. That's why he had to go to work for the GOP machine; like John Stossel, a mediocre-at-best "journalist" (though really never anything more than a cheap sensationalist), name recognition counts for something in the Roger Ailes Reality TV Universe. I'm sure a lot of anger-junkies are still watching Fox News...but would any of them have wanted their daughters to have ever worked there?

It's ironic that Republicans have fallen so far as to become now, in the words of that great (indicted) GOP superstar Spiro Agnew (actually those of Republican speechwriter William Safire) only "nattering nabobs of negativism." If anyone really wants Trump to win, which I frankly doubt, the first thing to do is put him on Ritalin; he clearly has a serious case of untreated attention deficit disorder. And being a blithering ignoramus on issues isn't exactly helping his case either.