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The Pre-Election Paradox

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by carpro, Jan 3, 2008.

  1. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=110011073
    The Pre-Election Paradox

    While 70% say U.S. is a mess, 84% say they're happy. Is progress possible?

    BY DANIEL HENNINGER
    Thursday, January 3, 2008 12:01 a.m. EST

    On New Year's Eve, Gallup's poll delivered unto us the good news that 84% of Americans say they are satisfied with how things are going for them personally. What Woody Allen might say about that phenomenal datum of good cheer one can only guess. One then has to account for the darker data Gallup released two weeks earlier: Some 70% of those responding believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.
     
  2. NiteShift

    NiteShift New Member

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    Cognitive dissonance. Their heads will explode.
     
  3. Ed Edwards

    Ed Edwards <img src=/Ed.gif>

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    //We're going to take things away from you
    on behalf of the common good." Hillary Clinton//

    She talks; Bush does.
    G.W. Bush takes away my wife's money for Medicare
    and spends it on people who didn't pay into the system.

    Hillary is at least honest about it.

    BTW, my biggest pay rases came when
    Bill Clinton was POTUS

    // While 70% say U.S. is a mess, 84% say they're happy. Is progress possible?//

    I'm one who says both. I'm happy (I retired),
    the US is a mess. But I earned my entitlement, it
    didn't fall off a democratic tree right into my hands.

    I would have been better off if I had of worked for
    private industry instead of the POTUS.
     
  4. NiteShift

    NiteShift New Member

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    Discretionary spending under Bush, as a percentage of GDP, has been about 20%. Under Clinton it was 19.6%. And since LBJ took office in 1963 the average spending as a share of GDP has been 20.4%.

    Yes, the economy under Clinton was in fine shape, and he could afford to give you bigger pay raises. He never faced any major external threats, and he reaped the benefits of the big drawdown after the cold war.

    It's hardly Bush's fault that you decided to work for the Federal govt. is it? And after all, private industry is no bed of roses. A good steady government career with guaranteed pension and health benefits is a pretty good deal, even if the pay is less. Lots of people would envy your current situation :)
     
  5. Chessic

    Chessic New Member

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    Not to mention riding the tech bubble on the way up after Al Gore invented the Internet.
     
  6. NiteShift

    NiteShift New Member

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    lol...that's right
     
  7. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Perhaps. Maybe it depends on who they ask.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022202012.html

    Smile if (and Only if) You're Conservative

    By George F. Will
    Thursday, February 23, 2006; Page A19

    EXCERPT

    To bemused conservatives, it looks like yet another example of analytic overkill by the intelligentsia -- a jobs program for the (mostly liberal) academic boys (and girls) in the social sciences, whose quantitative tools have been brought to bear to prove the obvious.

    A survey by the Pew Research Center shows that conservatives are happier than liberals -- in all income groups. While 34 percent of all Americans call themselves "very happy," only 28 percent of liberal Democrats (and 31 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats) do, compared with 47 percent of conservative Republicans. This finding is niftily self-reinforcing: It depresses liberals.
     
  8. EdSutton

    EdSutton New Member

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    A variance over 44 years of 0.4% in one 8 year period, and a total range in percentage over the entire 44 years of an 0.8% range, is not a great variance, IMO.

    Thanks for the perspective.

    Ed
     
  9. Ivon Denosovich

    Ivon Denosovich New Member

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    How is this a defense of Bush? :confused: Even allotting for monies allocated for "fighting terrorism" one would have to assume that if Bush hadn't annexed an entire nation to the welfare dole we'd be in better shape and he'd be a better conservative.
     
    #9 Ivon Denosovich, Jan 5, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 5, 2008
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