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Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Are we sure a president needs to have experience as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company? A president with CEO experience does not necessarily perform well with the country’s economy.
The only two presidents in the modern era with CEO experience were Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush, and they turned in the two worst economic performances in the modern era.
The best economic performances were under presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who had no experience whatsoever in running a business.
Watch out, Mike, your local Democratic club is going to kick you out for saying Reagan did a good job with the economy.
All joking aside, I'll agree that there appears to be little correlation between a President's economic performance and past experience in business. But one thing that can be said for both President Reagan and President Clinton is that they knew how to not only pick good advisers, but how to listen to them.
With that being said, if one believes that the Bush administration is the cause for our current economic woes, then what does it say for President Obama to keep on or elevate some of the very same people from then in his own administration? What does it say when Obama relies upon the advice from a person who heads up a corporation that is the poster child for avoiding taxes and outsourcing jobs (GE) to help develop policies to bring jobs back?
Say what you will about Romney while he was at Bain, but his handling of the Salt Lake City Olympics is worthy of consideration.
Schwarzenegger and Corzine good CEO business types.
So the liberal answer is a community organizer who can not read a general ledger.
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As a Senator ruling the 2007-2008 Congress with Reid and Pelosi; and running for President in 2008 - Obama castrated the Republican 2005-2006 Congress's FY-2007 debt and deficit ($160 billion) situation.
On July 3, 2008, Obama called President Bush "Irresponsible and Unpatriotic. And Obama called conservatives "Bitter" Americans cling to their religion.
Obama said he would cut the budget in half.
So now Obama's FY-2013 Budget is out. Here what we know.
- The annual deficit will go up from $1.0 trillion this year to $1.33 trillion in 2013.
- Obama has Income tax rates increased, capital formation tax rates increasing, and business taxes going up. The Tax increase total is scored at $1.5 trillion.
- Military cost are cut, war cost are half, and Obama's man on Mars program is cut out.
- Obama makes none of Democrats promised entitlement reforms.
Yet Obama is increasing the annual deficit by $330 billion over this year.
Say again we have the Obamacare faux savings, the war is declared over, we increased taxes on the rich, the economy has recovered - yet Obama is increasing the 2013 deficit $330 billion. Really? No lie!
Well the real lie is Obama claims his budget reduces the federal debt by $3 trillion in the next ten years. Really? That is a lie!!!!
Dennis,
I did not say that. What I said was that I agree in principle with Mike with regard to Reagan and Clinton and further stated that both Clinton and Reagan enjoyed reasonable success because they surrounded themselves with good people and listened to them.
On a side note, my take-home pay increased noticeably due to the Reagan tax policies. I was making about mid-five figures at the time. Not only that, but the company I worked for at the time (a company that supplied after-market products and test equipment for laser printers) saw a substantial increase in business.
By far, more presidents have degrees in law, including the current. They haven't fared well either.
Reagan had a degree in economics AND was a governor prior to his presidency.
Harry S. Truman never went to college and his haberdashery store went belly up. Harry paid back all his creditors personally without asking for a gov't bailout or declaring bankruptcy.
I'll take the business man/governor anytime over the lawyers.
Carmine A. DiFazio
Dennis,
I won't argue that having a President that was starting to suffer from Alzheimer's is scary. (IBM produced a "Presidential model" of its typewriter, it had no colon or memory.) My point was that Reagan, and Clinton, had the good sense to have good advisers and do what they suggested.
Perhaps it's a lack of memory or simply "progressive" obfuscation on Kern's part but he neglected to mention the peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter, undoubtedly the worst president in my lifetime! Double digit inflation, unemployment and interest rates were his legacy to the American people when he was unceremoniously run out of Washinton D.C. on a rail. I know it's hard to believe, but those were not his low points. His mishandling of the Iranian hostage situation was a stain on the credibility and honor of the United States that lasts until today. Our present megalomanic neophyte in the White House fits that profile to a tee and has made America the "Paper Tiger" many foreign governments believed it to be. No one can trust the megalomanic neophyte when it comes to foreign affairs because he is weak and spineless! To save our children's and grandchildren's futures, we must rid ourselves of the megalomanic neophyte and his fellow travelers.
"The only two presidents in the modern era with CEO experience were Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush..."
Kerns -- Herbert Hoover was never a CEO, his pre-politics background was as a mining engineer and humanitarian. The U.S. economy tanked during his term largely because of the famed Wall Street Crash of 1929. Anyone can check that out @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoo...
Otherwise I disagree with your premise -- it's career politicians and bureaucrats that got us into this mess and fight tooth and nail to preserve the status quo. For all practical purposes they're unaccountable. Try suing anyone in government to prove that.
CEOs by the nature of their jobs tend to be the reverse -- turning a profit is a prime consideration, and they can be fired.
Personally I'd like to see a small business person get the job. But they don't have the money to buy the office -- they're usually too busy just trying to survive the government parasites like the rest of us.
"...Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them." -- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in a TV interview for Thames TV "This Week" on Feb. 5, 1976
In the letter, Bill Clinton, a policy wonk guru, is a good example to use in making the case. Reagan, however, was a washed up B-movie actor with a ton of charisma who usually napped during important meetings.
How long will the Sun moderator continue to allow personal attacks and constant trolling by a certain poster at his site? It's pathetic and juvenile.
Selling hamburgers and and Ipads doesn't mean you can run a country.
Santorum thinks having sex outside of marriage and for non-procreative purposes is not appropriate in our society. But blowing up Iran is just fine. Just another kook wanting to live in the White House.
"you liberals are in for a bumpy ride between now and November"
Let me guess, you're picking crazy Sharron Angle again by 10%, right?
Boftx
You forgot to mention; look out for the local Republican club for mentioning Bill Clinton did a good job; otherwise thanks for the response. :)
Saying pregnancy is not a "health issue" because it stemmed from a "choice" to have unprotected sex and risk getting pregnant is just as absurd as saying having lung cancer is not a "health issue" because it stemmed from a "choice" to smoke cigarettes and risk getting lung cancer. Pregnancy, just like lung cancer, is a "medical condition" and a "health issue" regardless of how the condition came to be. It's not a liberal issue.
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I don't want my President to behave like a CEO who is leading a business. My country is not a business; it is a country. My country should be run like a country, not like a business.
I also don't want my President to make decisions as if he were the head of a family. My country is not a family, in this sense; it is a country. My country should be run like a country, not like a family.
I want my President to be a President. Have a functional brain. Have a sense of fairness. Have a sense of toughness. Be grounded in reality. Know what you know, and just as importantly, know what you don't know. Believe to your core that the Constitution, and every word in it, is the only thing that must guide you in your actions as President. Leave your Bible in the hotel room drawer.
***
Future, your post is full of blatant lies. For example, you said income tax rates increased under President Obama. No. They have not. Not one iota. To quote some irrelevant Republican congressman, "You lie!"
***
Gogo - for someone who, despite your point of view, seems to be a proud American, you should be ashamed of yourself for referring to the President of the United States as a "mutt". If you don't see the blatant racism in such a slur, you really are hopeless.
Of course you need ceos in charge, unfortunately you just dont have the right one. This decade.
Do the country I founded a favor. Vote none of the above and save America from becoming ancient Rome.
According to the kool-aid crowd, sometimes pregnancy is a disease and the cure to them is abortion.
According to the kool-aid crowd, every year over 1 million women are cured of pregnancy in the USA.
Kool-aid crowd now jumps for joy.
Only a lawyer makes an argument one week that the Bible tells us to give our money to Caesar [Uncle] under the veil of religiosity.
Then, one week later makes the argument, through the mouth of his appointee of head of HHS, that a Catholic organization that does good deeds and works for non-Catholics [our neighbors] does so, not out of religiosity, but for secular reasons. And therefore the org is not covered by First Amendment freedom of religion.
A lawyer makes those contradictory arguments. Not a CEO. Not a governor. Not a business person. And I should add not a not very good lawyer to say the least.
Vote against the lawyer President who makes these false arguments.
Carmine A. DiFazio
Regarding Rick Santorum's not-so-veiled accusations that Mitt Romney may have rigged yesterday's CPAC straw pool, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said, "Rick Santorum has a history of making statements that aren't grounded in the truth."
I wasn't going to waste my time engaging gogowhitesox's "response" to my last post, but I really like that quote, so I'll use it. Gogowhitesox has a history of making statements that aren't grounded in the truth.
Poll, not pool.
Comment removed by moderator. - -
Mike Kerns, yes,
The last thing our country needs is a CEO as
president.
Especially an anti-union republican who thought
it was ok to throw GM and Chrysler under the bus.
PURE GREED, NO HEART.
NO THANKS.
I agree, both Clinton and Reagan were Governors, so both had experience, unlike our current president Kenyan Barack.
Frank, you should read this about Navy Seals, they are not to impressed with your favorite person.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
You seem to be as much help to Obama as was his ex preacher, keep it up! I am sure the people of Mexican descent like you calling Mitt "Mexican Mitt". You do know Mitt and Barack have the same problem, both their fathers were not citizens of the USA, so calling one without calling the other is misleading. I am sure you do not want to mislead anyone or sound racist.
It's amazing how the right wing nuts seem to think they can yell and cuss loud enough the rest of us will believe their made up propaganda about Obama and him raising our taxes, When it's obvious it's the Repugnant Republicans are the ones trying to screw the middle class over on taxes. They've been holding jobs and our economy hostage just to make political hay and make the President look bad. To me that is traitorous behavior and "unAmerican"! Who is Gogowhitesox trying to convince with his "fauxnoise" talking points? The "tea party" crowd? They will believe any far right myth you come up with as long as it knocks Obama! What a bunch of morons!
Pete.....
You're too late to use the experience excuse.
No governor has the experience of being president.
President Obama already has it and has been doing
a great job too.
Your goof-ball republicans don't have a snow-balls
chance in hell of beating our great President
Obama.
We're not going back to those crazy, stupid,
Bush/republican years.
You republican losers will understand that in
November.
halfacre.....
Great comment, you're 100% correct.
These republican fools fool no one here.
Obama has no experience running anything even a kool-aid stand before being president.
He has been horrible.
I think the case is closed on whether it is important for a president to have experience or not.
Great research Mike. Hoover and Bush had two other similar characteristics:
1. Both were very wealthy for their times.
2. Both were very religious.
3. Both believed that the victims of the recession were responsible for correcting the problems and bringing the country back to financial strength.
Hoover did not believe the Government should help people because that was 'socialism'. Instead, he believed in 'self reliance' and waited for individuals, private organizations, charities and churches to help the population recover from the destruction of a reckless few. At the same time, fascism and communism in America began to pick up strength in membership.
In Germany, the recession was particularly deep, and from 1929 to 1932, the Nazi party gained it's electoral strength.
The reason that a responsible leader does not wait for an unorganized, penniless and uneducated public to correct the financial system is that Dictators often step in to do the correction. Hungry people don't wait for a specific method of recovery: a hot dog tastes the same no matter who offers it.
Any large recession should be corrected as fast as possible and only an organized Government, working for the best interests of everyone can do that. FDR, not the Republicans, might have even saved Western Democracy, but that will always remain an argument.
Three other similar characteristics....