81% of Americans say government should pay attention to polls.

sounds straight out of an Onion banner

Kilo Says:
Have you never wondered why the angry, critical posts here about Iraq don’t go all the way back to March 2003 ?
Mine do.
How about yours ?

I don’t get your point for posting kilo. You just seem to want to show everyone how right you are. Your post at 89 seems to be simply that the American people are stupid and anyone can fool them so why should they have any input. That about it? You throw the “you liberals” thing around and wonder why you draw incoming……

By the way:
posting here is not a certification for people who opposed the war when it started. Many of us opposed this war from the beginning but didn’t post here…..another point of yours that has lost me completely.

Putting all your money on a losing horse. Now that’s ridiculous.

You were the one who contended Cheney knows more about Iraq than the public. Well, as it turned out, he was wrong on everything about Iraq. Catastrophically so. There is no spinning this fact.

If that is his claim to competence on the job, he deserves all the scorn, ridicule, and criticism for leading the country into a needless war, and an even more needless occupation of a country that was never a threat.

By the way, Cheney chose to ignore the reports from the inspectors in Iraq who could not find any stockpiles of WMD. That is public knowledge now and was at the time as well. So much for “knowing more” about Iraq.

DreamCrusher Says:
Next you’ll tell me that my hairdresser knows more about my job than I do – because she read a magazine about my line of work. Ridiculous.

I think your hairdresser knows more about most things than you do. You are a bush apologist who will rationalize anything they do by saying it might be incompetence, a mistake, bad luck, etc.

If that is true then this admin has had the most incompetent, and unlucky people making decisions in the history of the world…..and you still support them no matter what they do or say.

Your posts are little more than a long string of strawman arguments. Of course, the “you liberals” allows you to throw broad generalisations, without bothering with offering specifics.

Who in this thread has pretended public opinion is a “statement of fact”? Certainly not me. I take it for what it is: The opinion of the governed whose consent is needed in a democracy. You are aware that such consent is central to any functioning democracy, yes?

As for Cheney, your contention that he knows “a hell of a lot more than the public on the cited subject” is laughable. VP Cheney? The one who was proven wrong about Iraq’s WMD, and the Iraq-AlQaeda “links”? The Iraq-war-has-been-a-successful-endeavor Cheney? That Cheney?

Puh-leeze.

You guys are the only fools still supporting them. No one is talking about changing the way things are done. Bush is still making the decisons…..more and more people think he is making more and more mistakes.

It is a vote of no confidence if you will. I for one have heard the following too many times from this admin.

We know things you don’t know…..trust us.

We did and found out they lied…..if you can’t see how obvious that is then it is because you are voluntarily wearing blinders.

I’m sorry if you have a problem with TP and others who call a liar a liar. We are talking about life and death decisions for our country.

You are supporting a failed administration. This will be known as the dark era of bush II. In 2 years you will deny that you ever supported this administration in any way. You will become the vichi Americans.

I’ll be the first one to say “So?…. what is your point?”

The death penalty is still in place and same-sex marriage is not legal yet. Plus, decisions on the issues you list are made at the state level, not at the federal government.

And I would venture that most of the people who are against, say, same-sex marriage would also like the government to listen to them. Because that is at the very heart of, you know, a democracy: Consent of the governed.

So what’s your point? That we should all bow to the will and expertise of the leaders? Yeah, that’s what we should do, given that this administration is doing such a great job with Iraq, the economy, and improving the image of the US abroad. Right.

DreamCrusher Says:
Haha. Yeah, the leaders should pay attention to what the public thinks.

Why even have generals on the battlefield? Why even have CIA agents trained to do their work? We should just let the public decide! A waitress from New York, a truck driver from Arizona, a software developer from California. Obviously their opinion matters as to how to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon!

Do you really understand how much this makes you look like somone who supports a dictatorship? Does the phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” mean nothing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_KEWUU33Lg&feature=related

I think it’s somewhat naive to think that one party is perfect and the other totally incompetent.

If democrats take the white house in ‘09, better still keep an eye out.

Economic mailaise even if I were to admit it was because of Carters policies is still not what we are talking about here.

Hillary….although I know she is more right leaning than I prefer, I still have no reason to believe that she would be more warmongering in nature than Bill……they don’t compare to this group of republicans….no matter how you try to spin it.

Actually I do believe that the democrats have the upper hand on good judgement….that’s why I am a democrat. I also understand that bad judgment by republicans have cost us dearly in the past and the same is occurring right now. There is a reason the republicans were in the minority for 40 years….today America is being reminded.

I think there is a place in America for republicans…..that would be as the minority opposition party…..that is the role they are best suited for because as you say….if democrats have all of they power they will misbehave too.

No party has a monopoly on good policy or good judgement. But, if even if you feel that’s the case, it’s fortunate that we get to periodically pick new leaders.

missmolly Says:
I fully expect our leaders to act in the best interest of America (that’s the best interests of AMERICA — not the best interests of oil companies or lobbyists)

This is our problem missmolly, we keep expecting republicans to do what is right for Americans. The problem is that Americans to a repulican are corporations, not people. That is the defining difference between us.

Exactly. And if Obama or Clinton was president and conducted himself/herself anywhere near the way the current administration has, I’d be mad as hell at him/her, too.

I have no problem with the current system. And I fully expect our leaders to act in the best interest of America (that’s the best interests of AMERICA — not the best interests of oil companies or lobbyists), operating more from the information they have available than poll results.

However, when our leaders bungle things as badly as Bush/Cheney have, and there’s a groundswell of outrage from the people, I expect more of a response than “So?”

It’s one thing to do what’s best for the country even if it’s not popular. It’s another thing to show utter contempt for the populace, as Cheney has done.

backup Says:
If Obama or Clinton where running things, you might feel more comfortable with letting them lead, while you go on with your own life.

That would be evident. We would not have the fear that those leaders would lead us into an unjustified and illegal war that will kill upwards of a million people including many Americans.

This administration has made a business out of war. It is wrong and immoral and they have done it on the sneak. They are blackhearted and have proven that they cannot be trusted with power. I personally believe that they are so crooked that they manipulated both elections to thier favor…..