Presidential Debate 2012 Tuesday’s debate was punchy between President Obama and Mitt Romney. The debate opened with testy exchanges on energy in which the president accused Romney of ignoring renewable power. But Romney, too, attacked Obama for allowing over rising gasoline prices and faking support for fossil fuels. What was out of the ordinary was that, in the last Presidential Debate, Romney had been the aggressor while Obama was calm and not as irritated. In my personal opinion, I think Obama showed that he can lead the U.S. even in crucial times and that he will fight for us and still manage to keep a positive attitude.
For decades, scholars have insisted that what most of us know instinctively to be true -- is false. Mocking the belief that individuals such as Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler or Winston Churchill make history, experts focus on social forces. They explain the past with statistical studies and abstract theories, dismissing stories about individual initiative or heroism. While powerful economic, social and ideological movements dwarfing any individual do shape history, be it the high-tech boom, feminism or the rise of conservatism, we cannot underestimate the way a leader's action and inaction can change the world. Especially when assessing the American presidency and modern America, individual character -- and contingency -- count.
Every American citizen knows about their constitution and they are proud of it. The British may be proud of the queen and other aspects of our history, but we have no constitution to identify with. The third argument is the most important. This is the dangerous shift of power towards the prime minister and the government. It is happening because the powers of the prime minister are not well defined and mostly contained in unwritten conventions which are a mystery to most people.
I believe the author was trying to show that even though there are still segregation problems, the United States is coming a long way in that issue. What really stuck out to me in the end of the interview was how baffled Standweiss was because our president only checks one box when it comes to his race, even though he is a mixed individual. I’m not depicted that any race is better than others, but it seems like President Obama believes he can make a bigger difference being classified as African American, rather than Caucasian, like Clarence King. Works Cited: "Festival of Books." Interview by Murry Fromson.
According to Machiavelli, being praised mustn’t concern a prince who wishes to continue ruling. In the book The Prince, Machiavelli noted that “A man who wishes to make a vocation of being good at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good”(40). A successful prince has two kinds of traits- praiseworthy and despicable, the latter of the two must not cause him hatred. The prince must present himself as an honest man, while using his vices. A good example of a modern day Machiavellian prince is America’s 43rd president, George W Bush, from the moment that Bush decided to run for President, his staff has fabricated an image of George W as a successful CEO, an avid Christian, effective governor, and all-around nice guy.
Warren G. Harding once declared, "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment…” A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea. "1 Their very murkiness was effective, since Harding's view on the League of Nations remained unclear. As it turned out he was against the League of Nations, but this was not found out until after he became the twenty-ninth president. As a result of rarely taking a stand on an issue, he had few enemies to make any. Who would have suspected that the man to succeed Woodrow Wilson, America's most visionary President, would be a man who some considered one of the worst?
Wood also analyzes Obama’s use of references in his election night speech. He discusses how “Behind his speech were the ghosts of Lincoln’s First Inaugural” (610) as well as “the explicit reference to King’s famous phrase about how ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice’” (611). Both discussions of Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. are included to show how Obama believed his election to be a turning point in history as Lincoln and King’s speeches were a turning point in their time period as well. It was imperative for Safire and Wood to discuss the allusions to others’ speeches in both of their analysis as without the references to others’ speeches both Lincoln and Obama’s speeches would not have had the impact and power that they did. Through the course
We have not seen him in action four years ago we just heard what he had to say about why he should be elected as president we heard his words of persuasion about change. However actions speak louder than words and his actions did not show favor to Israel. My current opinion on Obama was formed through the process of social learning; my view of him was acquired through observing his actions. My reasons for not wanting Obama reelected is an example of reactance, I feel that Obama being reelected is a danger to Israel’s personal freedom. “President Barack Obama’s longtime pastor at Trinity United Church, Rev.
David Greenburg argues that, "presidents are never able to meet" the expectations of transformative change (Canon 221). These expectations are created during campaigns in order for a candidate to win over voters, however many always disappoint. Greenburg believes the expectations and promises made by presidents in our time are far too complicated to reach and to summarize it: no president, from now on, will ever have the chance to be transformational. On the contrary, Richard Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru view Obama as transformational, but in a negative way. They say, "Obama is the first president to explicitly reject the notion of American exceptionalism--the idea that the United States is historically unique and has always differed from other democracies (Canon 222)."
Barack Obama became a visionary at branding himself to the American public as the viable presidential candidate and alternative to the Bush administration's policies during the 2008 electoral campaign. However, once elected to office, Obama has been unable to provide a record of successful results that he had once shown strong promise of achieving. President Obama's public relation strategy of portraying himself as the 'catalyst for change' worked wonders at unifying and convincing disparate voter groups that he was their best and only option to achieve a wide array of public policy changes in government that were often self-defined by the various disenchanted individual voters seeking an alternative.... a sort of "anyone but Bush and his policies" voter coalition. As a candidate for president, Obama often had revolutionary goals for office: To provide a solution to the economic crisis, to end the war on Iraq, to provide affordable healthcare, and to investigate new sources of energy to protect the environment. Obama’s innovative political visions were a great match for the political “Obama for America” campaign, which successfully pioneered new media outlets to ultimately become a key component and tool in his victory march to the White House.