Political Banter

I'm not fond of our President. I just don't think him and I stand on the same page. Let alone, agree on issues. But, since our country is a total shit storm, I would totally vote for him. You know, because, his marketing team can be smart. Ideally, though, I'd cast my vote on Gary Johnson. He's the running man for the Libertarian party, and is kinda cool.

What's even more cool, is that both Our President and Mr Johnson did a sort Q&A on reddit.com (remember, it's my favorite website in the whole wild world). Our President answered a total of 10 questions during his Q&A while Gary Johnson answered roughly 30. The differences between the Q&As lengths probably have to do with reddit server issues, popularity between the two candidates, and media coverage.

Reddit has a ton of server issues. No joke, they fail a lot. On a scale of one to five, five being high, more people know about Our President as opposed to Gary Johnson. This popularity also means that media sources will highlight on a Q&A with Our President more than with Gary Johnson. However, I'm not the media so I tried to mark similar topics between both of their answers (in their Q&As and additional comment history) and found three. You can read Our President's Q&A here and Gary Johnson's here.

The lucky three similar topics:

Money in Politics Related

Question from Our President's Q&A: What are you going to do to end the corrupting influence of money in politics during your second term?

President's Answer: Money has always been a factor in politics, but we are seeing something new in the no-holds barred flow of seven and eight figure checks, most undisclosed, into super-PACs; they fundamentally threaten to overwhelm the political process over the long run and drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. We need to start with passing the Disclose Act that is already written and been sponsored in Congress - to at least force disclosure of who is giving to who. We should also pass legislation prohibiting the bundling of campaign contributions from lobbyists. Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United (assuming the Supreme Court doesn't revisit it). Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change.

~

Suggestion from a reddit post: Should politicians wear uniforms like NASCAR racers?

Gary Johnson: I've been saying this throughout my campaign for president. We need transparency in the process so voters know who where the donations are coming from. The size of the patch on the uniform ought to be relative to the size of the donations received -- the bigger the patch the bigger the donation received.

Job Related

Question for Our President: I am recent law school graduate. Despite graduating from a top school, I find myself unemployed with a large student loan debt burden. While I'm sure my immediate prospects will improve in time, it's difficult to be optimistic about the future knowing that my ability to live a productive life -- to have a fulfilling career, to buy a house, to someday raise a family -- is hampered by my debt and the bleak economic outlook for young people. I know that I'm not alone in feeling this way. Many of us are demoralized. Your 2008 campaign was successful in large part due to the efforts of younger demographics. We worked for you, we campaigned for you, and we turned out in record numbers to vote for you. What can I say to encourage those in similar situations as I am to show up again in November? What hope can you offer us for your second term?

President's Response: I understand how tough it is out there for recent grads. You're right - your long term prospects are great, but that doesn't help in the short term. Obviously some of the steps we have taken already help young people at the start of their careers. Because of the health care bill, you can stay on your parent's plan until you're twenty six. Because of our student loan bill, we are lowering the debt burdens that young people have to carry. But the key for your future, and all our futures, is an economy that is growing and creating solid middle class jobs - and that's why the choice in this election is so important. The other party has two ideas for growth - more taxs cuts for the wealthy (paid for by raising tax burdens on the middle class and gutting investments like education) and getting rid of regulations we've put in place to control the excesses on wall street and help consumers. These ideas have been tried, they didnt work, and will make the economy worse. I want to keep promoting advanced manufacturing that will bring jobs back to America, promote all-American energy sources (including wind and solar), keep investing in education and make college more affordable, rebuild our infrastructure, invest in science, and reduce our deficit in a balanced way with prudent spending cuts and higher taxes on folks making more than $250,000/year. I don't promise that this will solve all our immediate economic challenges, but my plans will lay the foundation for long term growth for your generation, and for generations to follow. So don't be discouraged - we didn't get into this fix overnight, and we won't get out overnight, but we are making progress and with your help will make more.

~

Question: Here's another one for you Gary: do you support the protestors on Occupy Wall Street? How do you feel about their message? Does it bother you at all that you are, technically, part of the 1%?

Gary Johnson: Last week I went down to the Occupy Wall Street protest to see it first hand.

I found one thing to be clear… these protests are one more symptom of the anger Americans, including me, feel about an outrageous jobless rate, a government that bails out people who don’t deserve to be bailed out, and policies that have us spending billions on wars we shouldn’t be fighting, especially when we have real needs right here at home.

I probably don’t agree with some of the solutions many of the protestors are advocating, but at some level we need to ask ourselves why thousands of people are taking to the streets as a way to express their frustrations. There is a lot of anger in America today, and there should be. I personally think that anger should be directed toward an administration that breeds distrust by picking winners and losers in the economy, while threatening the freedoms of individuals. I am mad about the Obama administration’s inability to deal with the unemployment rate. This administration as with the Bush administration is becoming a problem when it comes to jobs and the economy and not the solution.

While I was Governor of New Mexico I made it a point to listen to every citizen’s concern first hand. I held an open door to the Governor’s office every Thursday afternoon and invited anyone with an issue to bring their problem directly to my office. I, for one, believe everyone deserves to be heard, whether I agree with them or not. In that sense, it is a mistake to dismiss these protests, and I wanted to at least take the time to see what they are about.

Foreign Policy Related

Question: What was the most difficult decision that you had to make during this term?

Our President: The decision to surge our forces in afghanistan. Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you know that not everyone will come home safely, and that necessarily weighs heavily on you. The decision did help us blunt the taliban's momentum, and is allowing us to transition to afghan lead - so we will have recovered that surge at the end of this month, and will end the war at the end of 2014. But knowing of the heroes that have fallen is something you never forget.

~

Question: Israel? You would continue all foreign aid? just some foreign aid(to Israel for one I guess) or stop all foreign aid. My understanding is that Paul would end all foreign aid.

Gary Johnson: I advocate ending all foreign aid, but I draw a distinction with military alliances believing military alliances are the key to having other countries share in the world vigil against terrorism and not just us allowing us to cut military spending by 43%.