Hillary Clinton: I Used to Love Her

[Ben]

Jeb Bush v. Hillary Clinton: the Perfectly Illustrative Election:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...tive-election/

[Yuengling]

Hillary Clinton stinks! She better not be the next president!

[trish]

Better than another Bush.

[Yuengling]

Not thrilled about another Bush either. But Hillary is the worst. What do they call those….Fucking Repulsive Liberal Bitch or wahtever.

How about Rand Paul!

[trish]

They call them women who are smarter than you.

[fred41]

Better than another Bush.

I have to disagree with you on this one. So far...I'd much rather see Jeb than Hillary...even though I don't think he'd get the nomination anyway so...

Maybe neither one will get it...the landscape is changing for the Democrats also.

[fred41]

Interestingly enough - from what I read quite recently - Jeb Bush's stance on education, and more important - immigration, would probably kill his chances at the nomination from the hardcore right wing.

[Ben]

Not thrilled about another Bush either. But Hillary is the worst. What do they call those….Fucking Repulsive Liberal Bitch or wahtever.

How about Rand Paul!

The president has too much power. That's the problem. All concentrated power leads to abuse of that power.
So, Rand Paul or Clinton or Bush. The problem isn't necessarily the person. It's the office; it's the extreme power of that office, of that position.

[trish]

The president has too much power. That's the problem. All concentrated power leads to abuse of that power.
So, Rand Paul or Clinton or Bush. The problem isn't necessarily the person. It's the office; it's the extreme power of that office, of that position.

Yes and No, Ben.

How much power does a president have when after six years in office he still can't get half of his appointments approved? How long have we been without a Surgeon General? It was only after the Ebola scare (that the Republicans trumped up for the midterm elections) that Dr. Murthy was finally approved (despite the vociferous protests of the powerful gun lobby). Speaking of the gun lobby, how come Obama has taken away our guns yet...or at least signed legislation curtailing the civilian use and ownership of assault weapons, high capacity magazines etc.?

On the other hand, Congress has abdicated it power to declare war on a regular basis since the Korean War. Apparently it's better, for the purpose of getting re-elected, to appear to be a war monger than to actually be responsible for a declaration of war ('cause all wars become a shit-slide sooner or later). In every administration the executive accumulates more power because of the unwillingness of the legislative branch to live up to its Constitutional responsibilities.

[trish]

The president has too much power. That's the problem. All concentrated power leads to abuse of that power.
So, Rand Paul or Clinton or Bush. The problem isn't necessarily the person. It's the office; it's the extreme power of that office, of that position.

Moreover, I take some exception to the assumption that “all concentrated power leads to abuse of that power.” This is true over time. As the power is transferred from person to person it becomes more and more likely that it will eventually be held by one of corruptible character. This is why we need checks and balances.

In spite of all the trumped up charges, I really see no evidence that Hillary, nor Paul, nor Jeb are particularly corruptible or prone to the abuse of power (say as compared to Chris Christie). George W Bush wasn’t particularly corrupted either by the power he wielded. He was just not particularly smart and he put his trust in the wrong advisors. On the other hand Cheney, who had W’s trust, was bent from the get go. Thanks to the Supreme Court the amount money now flowing into campaigns from private and from anonymous sources will only enhance the influence of the candidates ‘friends and advisors.’

I don’t see myself voting for Jeb, but not because of any character issues, rather it would be because he and his friends are too conservative for my taste regarding most issues. Hell, for my tastes, Obama has been too centrist and too willing to compromise with the conservatives on most issues, especially Health Care (which should’ve been single payer, Medicaid for All).