The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Boon Mee

Hmmm...rather doubt it...

Texpat

And a teenager can't witness, describe or remember racial insults, fights, cliques and gangs? Thought you were smarter than that Ray. Back to using personal insults again I see -- coward.

sabang

Danielle Allen is UPS Foundation Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton -


The debate over whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton has enough experience to be president obscures the real question: When is a vote for a young candidate reasonable?
Obama's résumé compares very favorably to those of other 46-year-olds. Clinton's, compared with that of other 60-year-olds, is, with all due respect to her, thin. It is indeed distinctive, and she does have more leadership experience than many, but she probably does not rise to the top of her age cohort. Obama does.
Since younger candidates will always have less experience than older candidates, the responsible question is: How should one evaluate the young?
There have been plenty of eras when Obama would have been considered not young but in the prime of life.
Aristotle identified 50 as life's prime. From 21 to 35, a citizen should be a warrior, he argued, and thereafter, during the peak of his intelligence, from 35 to 55, a political leader.
This same general sense of life's progression surfaced in the United States during the Constitutional Convention. There was little debate over setting the age of eligibility of the presidency at 35. The question was rather whether term limits should be imposed, since they might block service past the age of 50. On July 24, 1787, founder James Wilson (himself then 44) mounted a spirited defense of those who serve into their 80s. But the service of the young didn't need defending.
Increased life expectancies have dramatically extended life's prime. Have these changes altered its starting point? I doubt it. We will continue to have candidates of merit in their 40s and early 50s, and we need to know how to evaluate them effectively.
Although the age of eligibility for the presidency caused so little controversy that the issue is not discussed in the Federalist Papers, the age of eligibility for the House and Senate does arise, as in Federalist Paper 52: "A representative of the United States must be of the age of twenty-five years . . . the door of this part of the federal government is open to merit of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith."
A senator would have to be older, at least 30, for reasons given in Federalist Paper 62: "The propriety of these distinctions is explained by the nature of the senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages."
Age should properly bring broader and deeper knowledge of the world as well as stability of character. We might ask, then, of our candidates - McCain, Clinton and Obama - whether age has indeed brought them those things.
But we can take the evaluation further.
When a young candidate presents him- or herself to us, the candidate effectively claims: "Although I appear to you untested, I know I can do the job."
To prove such a case, a young candidate must do four things:
Offer an evidently accurate diagnosis of present problems, one more penetrating than those offered by other candidates.
Begin to sketch out solutions, recognizing that the actual solutions themselves will emerge in their most solid form only through actual engagement in the work.
Prove a clear capacity to convert the resources of mind, spirit and treasure into effective action in the world.
Make the case for him- or herself with grace, good judgment and integrity.
When a young candidate can do all these things, we should vote for that candidate because we will have successfully elected a person of merit in the prime of life.
Obama has done all of these things.
He has offered a penetrating diagnosis of a very important central crisis in American political life. Ordinary citizens have grown less and less willing to assume what belongs to them: responsibility for their lives, and for their political futures. The workings of politics have been muddied by PACS, lobbyists, political dynasties, and wrangles over grievance and victimhood. Notions of political responsibility (i.e., that citizens are the ones responsible for their own political destiny) have degraded. Citizens are unwilling or unready to pursue solutions through practical, grass-roots action to identify common goods and shared interests. We fail to solve our collective problems and fall, instead, into name-calling.
He has offered a sketch of solutions. On each policy issue, Obama has identified specific policy goals as well as explaining how citizens will be expected to take responsibility; we might, for instance, note his insistence on involving the American people in the practical negotiations over health care.
He has proved his capacity to convert potentialities into actualities. The proof lies in his campaign. He diagnosed the dominance of incumbents as a problem in our political life. He designed a strategy to resolve it: a grass-roots campaign that would deploy the new social-networking technologies to unsettle the complacency of incumbency. Finally, he has done all this with grace, good judgment, and integrity.

It's Obama's maturity for his age that matters | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/06/2008

__________________
East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Bugs

Friend of mine from The States tells me the reds have been making quite a fuss recently over Obama’s priorities as the relate to abortion. At a town hall meeting in PA recently Obama said:

“….information about contraception because, look, I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with and STD at the age of 16….”

Apparently the red team is bent about the “punished with a baby” bit.

I would never make a decision on who to vote for based upon a single issue and abortion rights does not even rank in my top 25 issues. So this little tid-bit is not such a big deal to me. And to tell the truth is probably not such a big deal to most folks who might be considering voting for Obama anyway. But if enough little tib-bits pile up between now and Nov they might have a real affect.

The e-mail my mate sent to me also had a bit of a diatribe about the earlier issue of Obama's reverends comments and the statement made by Obama about teaching his children values. But that is another thread all together.

__________________
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion" - Steven Weinberg

matsalleh

So you see, what sick f$%%^ they are?

Bugs

Who are "they"?

matsalleh

Did you read Bugs mail?

Bugs

Yes...

Bugs

Talk about PC going awry?

'SNL' can do better than Armisen's Obama

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0227watcherfeb27,1,163559.story

Give me a break - yea, let's not focus on talent. The most important thing for an actor on a comedy sketch show to portray Obama is that he must be of American-African heritage?

Aint' folks got more important things to complain about?

And I think they are forgeting that Obama is half white as well - so maybe the whites should be bitchn about the white half being portrayed by an Asian/Hispanic mix?

Farkn' PC makes me want to

Boon Mee

Heh...we're finding out a little more each day 'bout this guy.

PrestoPundit has found a 1965 paper written by Obama’s father, in which he advocates:

*100% taxation

*Communal farms / the elimination of private farming.

*The nationalization of businesses owned by “Europeans” and “Asians”.

*“active” measures to bring about a classless society.

Obama has been hiding his father's socialist & anti-western leanings from his readers.

Sounds like Obama's father would have been at home in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

__________________
ผมเป็นคนบ้านนอก

Bugs

I am not sure how much these papers/ positions by his father really matter - Dis ain't da catholic church and one is not punished for the sins of their father - unless of course your last name is Bush.

Boon Mee

Fair enough Bugs, if we were to overlook Obama's book where his father figured most prominently - big influence on him from what he says...

Bugs

True enough and a valid point. If one points to their father as a major influence in their life then the views of the father do come into play. That being said simply because me dad was a strong influence in my life does not mean I believe all the things that he believed.

If a mans father teaches him compassion does not mean he will end up being a bleeding hart liberal.

If a mans father teaches him responsibility does not mean he will end up being a hard ass conservative.

Hopefully a mans father also teaches him the importance of independent thought as well.

Obama should first be judged on the man that he is, his voting record (present), and the platform that he currently espouses.

Texpat

^By that logic, detractors should "forgive" Hillary for voting to support the liberation of Iraq. It's not her current position. Seems a bit idealistic to me.

A better way to elect a president is a blind vote. Write the platforms on a ballot. Voters vote on a platform. No pictures of the candidates -- no sounbytes, no race, gender, inhaling, ex-wives, etc. Take the media out of it completely.

If Obama wants to appear the all-American boy (he ain't) and extoll the virtues of his pastor (good religious man) and his father (good family man) he must be prepared to die by the sword as well. Having said that, I don't think he'd be any better or worse than the other candidates. ('cept Hillary)

Boon Mee

Check out this video & report that Barack Hussein Obama has been hanging out with known terrorists. Imagine that...

Israel Matzav: Video: The company Obama keeps

Norton

Internet too slow for video but not surprised a hard line Zionist would be critical of Obama as he has the insane idea talking with Iran might be a good idea.

sabang

Guilty as charged.

Bugs

Are you sure Obama is not just there to drive the limo for George?

Boon Mee