Sorry, but lmao.

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With respect whan warranted, and with disdain when warranted. There are not many politicians on either side who have warranted my respect in a long, long time.

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My biggest objection (and the point of this thread) is not about what Obama did or didn't do.

My biggest objection is that we think what the President (Obama, Bush, whoever) says/does at these moments should be important just because he's the President of the United States.

I think its great that someone gives a great eulogy at someone's funeral. I think it's great when someone is willing to give a eulogy for someone who has died. But should it matter to me who it is that gives the eulogy?

I don't think so.

I don't think we as Americans should be expecting our president to come out and do the eulogy thing. I don't think we should be expecting our president to say something of significance whenever there is a shooting like this.

This is very different from asking what the president should or should not do on a national holiday of rememberence (the Arlington debate, IIRC, was all about what was done on Memorial Day, was it not?). AND its different from asking what we should do or say about what the president does/doesnt do on such a holiday.

In my opinion we should evaluate how Barack behaves at a tragedy like the one in Arizona with how your average citizen behaves. No higher standard, and no lower ones. No different standards.

If he behaves like a boor or a barbarian (see Phelps), we should chastise him the way we'd chastise any other boor or barbarian. If he behaves like a ordinary neighbor supporting those who are mourning, as what little I've read about this suggests he was doing, then we should not.

But the fact that Barack happens to be the president shouldn't enter into it.

In any way, shape, or form.

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i'm glad you started a new thread & now i see your point more clearly, i think.

and now here's a question for you...have you ever held a high level of respect for a president or other political leader? and if so...who & why?
just curious.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and DDE. :)

Since I started to vote (1976): Probably the one I think most respect-worthy among Presidents was the elder Bush. Which is odd, given his CIA/Ivy League background and my general disdain for both, but he's always struck me as a man of very high personal integrity. Perhaps Gerald Ford.

Re: non-presidents -- when I was in college I thought highly of Eugene McCarthy. I thought Tom Eagleton got railroaded out because he admitted to being treated for depression. I still admire Ross Feingold for his original stance on the Patriot Act (though not for much else). John McCain. Bob Dole. Chuck Grassley.

An aside: I find it personally interesting that I share little ideology with any of the post-1976 politicos. For different reasons I voted for McCarthy (I was young and impressionable by liberalism), Bush-the-elder and McCain (lesser of evils), but what I find worthy of respect in each of them has relatively little to do with their political actions/ideas. Its more about recognizing their personal integrity and virtues, chiefly courage.

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Respecting politicians, that's a good one. My first memories as a child and politics was Nixon resigning in shame. So the only thing I respect is the office of presidency itself, not the very imperfect men that take the oath. This country has gotten way out of wack in respecting or idolizing public figures and celebrities. We have to live in this world, we don't have to be of it. What Obama does or says has very little effect on my day to day life.

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Let's start with the media being receptive and respectful of Sarah Palin. 😛

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That will NEVER happen Veg.
First, she's a WOMAN, and she's pretty. And she's a conservative. Those 3 combined will get her attacked by the media.

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She's about a sincerely conservative as Rush Limbaugh: in other words, they're shock jocks who have positioned themselves as the conservatives liberals love to hate. It's a show, an act, but a profitable one.

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I guess then there exact opposites must be Jesse Jackson, AL Sharpton and AL Gore.
They must not really believe in what they say either, as all of them are nut jobs.
Must just be for profit.

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