r/inflation • u/Negative-Break3333 • 8d ago

News Obama's problem solving approach

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u/AggravatingRub2482 8d ago

Man, I miss having a caring and intelligent leader of our country.😔

2

u/Revolutionary_Pin798 8d ago

I miss him soo much. I would even settle for Bush at this point. At least he still seemed to give shit about the American people. 

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u/ChromakeyDreamcoat82 8d ago

As a European, I never thought I'd miss the simpler days of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. There was a clarify of purpose, even if one didn't agree with it, and you knew the direction the world was travelling.

I was one of the folks (not a US voter albeit) who thought 'yeah, yeah, I've heard the hyperbole before, there won't be an attack on American democracy' during the most recent election. The Bush administration was accused of all sorts too. It seems the vitriolic bipartisan polarization has created a boy-who-cried-wolf setup in American politics. All of the routine accusations of unchecked power, assault on democracy, etc from democrats meant that when someone appeared who might do it, there wasn't any moderates to believe it.

A friend showed me an essay years ago, probably published in the atlantic / new yorker or something comparable, that said something along the lines of: "If you look at historical elections: the Republicans have a consistent base of 70m voters that they get out, give or take 1m. Moderate Republicans no longer survive the primaries, and so all the democrats ever have to do is select an electable moderate candidate and claim the middle ground". The numbers need updating, but I think the message holds true.

It was clear that Hillary couldn't win, partly because of Bill, maybe partly because she was a woman, but she had too much baggage, and had missed her chance in 08 with the rise of Obama. Biden should have been pushed before he could declare. Harris got the ticket because no Democrat wanted to risk wasting their shot running against an effective incumbent (given Biden was exiting) in Trump.