Presidential Powers

Cagey

<div class="IPBDescription">A quote by P.J. O'Rourke</div> <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The President has, as head of the executive branch of the federal government and commander in chief of the armed forces, enormous power to make decisions for the rest of us.  And he makes those decisions by carefully minding public opinion so that what he decides we will do is whatever we’ve decided he should decide.  Thus the President is a national toddler, with the same kind of enormous power to make decisions that a two-year-old has: "Do we want to lower the capital-gains tax? No-no-no. Put that down.  Naughty old tax breaks.  What a good president we are!  Do we want to send troops to the Middle East? Ooooooo! Let’s send those troopie-whoopies riiiiight over to the Middle East.  What a big President!"

Like any toddler, the president often gets it wrong and eats out of the ashtray or sticks our dress shoes in the toilet.  In which case we give him a good one right on the opinion poll.

-- P.J. O’Rourke,  <i>Parliament of ****</i> (copyright 1991, when Bush Sr. was president)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

**** == on the board's censored word list, you can look up the title

Discuss.

AllUrHiveRblong2us

wrong forum

Nemesis_Zero

Not anymore.

Cagey

Sorry -- went straight to off topic without reading the description here <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->

Big_Game_Hunter

From what I understand, PJ O'Rourke is trying to tell us that all Presidential decisions are based off public opinion alone. This is too ludicrous to even discuss. True, public opinion is a factor in everything, but to say it is always the deciding factor reeks of oversimplification and thus, fallacy.

moultano

<!--QuoteBegin--Big Game Hunter+Feb 24 2003, 01:44 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Big Game Hunter @ Feb 24 2003, 01:44 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> From what I understand, PJ O'Rourke is trying to tell us that all Presidential decisions are based off public opinion alone. This is too ludicrous to even discuss. True, public opinion is a factor in everything, but to say it is always the deciding factor reeks of oversimplification and thus, fallacy. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think rather they are based on how much the president thinks he can sway public opinion.

Vimstl

I think that a second term president cares significantly less about public opinion than a first term president. Furthermore, since public opinion changes weekly, even a first term president need only heed public opinion in the run up to an election. Bush the jr had one of the highest approval ratings in history in the aftermath of 9-11, and it won't matter an iota in the spring and summer of next year.

Bush the sr was enormously popular during and after the Gulf War, and yet was relegated to the political equivelent of the Hollywood Squares in the subsequent election.

Cagey

<!--QuoteBegin--Big Game Hunter+Feb 24 2003, 10:44 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Big Game Hunter @ Feb 24 2003, 10:44 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> This is too ludicrous to even discuss. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I should clarify that O'Rourke is a contrarian political humorist (somewhat along the lines of Dave Barry) who spent a long time writing for <i>Rolling Stone</i>... The comments are tongue-in-cheek and certainly not meant to be taken as fact, but do provide an exaggerated opinion for discussion.

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.  - O'Rourke<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Euoplocephalus

If purposly exagerated then the author does have a point; our politicians do seem to be greatly motivated by public opinion. But thats the way it is <i>supposed</i> to be. We are a republic, and as a republic we elect people to represent us in the goverment. As an aside, in a true democracy every citizen votes on every issue, a republic is just a most praticle version of it for large populations. Anyways, as our politicians are suppposed to represent us the obviously they wouldn't be doing their job if they ignored the public's opinion.

There are problems with the system today, the main one in my opinion is the amount of time spen ton fundraising and the subsequent allegance to campagin contributers and not to the people that the politician is supposed to be representing. If anything politicians should be listening to the public more than they are not less.

FeydToBlack

If you ask me, Douglas Adams got it right.

A breif synopsis of the political structure found in the Hitchhiker's Guide:

Zaphod Bleeblebrox, the president of the galaxy, had only one responsibility. That was to divert attention from those that really ran the show. The person that actually ran it was an old man with a memory problem living in a shack on a remote planet. To keep this man from knowing that he was running the galaxy, he could never remember what his position was, but advisors would occationaly come and ask his opinon on things. In this way, they kept special interests out of politics.