Posted By:
WillI don't think it would be difficult at all to cause at least, let's see ... one, two, three, hell, four people on this board to expire today by way of coronary if we so decided. But, too much work today though it might be fun to try.
One good way to summarize presidential politics and influence is to look at the differnces between Clinton and Bush and then try to figure where Obama fits in. Following is my PSA political scale:
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Communist left and 10 being Nazi Fascist right, Bill Clinton was about a 5.5. Bush was about an 8.5/9. This democracy appears to work better when you have someone in the middle at the controls who's willing to do some compromising. Clinton did and the US had unprecendeted wealth and world influence. Bush did not and, well, look around.
Obama is likely a little left of Clinton but, face it, politics at that level are completely controlled by major corporations and the collosal budget of the military. They'd never allow a president to shift much farther left (on my scale) then to, say, a 4 so we're likely to do a lot better with Obama then we did with Bush (despite that being a pathetically low bar).