Posted on 05/25/2013 8:11:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Scandal is the worst thing that can befall a president. Yet as debilitating as scandals always are, the ones Obama now faces are particularly so. They intimately and simultaneously strike at his public persona, which has been his strongest asset, while seemingly verifying his critics' worst accusations.
Scandals leave a president weaker for four reasons. First, they are decidedly negative issues. No president, or politician for that matter, seeks out negative issues. All go after the overwhelmingly popular, which is why politicians so quickly and frequently embrace symbolic ones.
When pressed, a president takes on "tough" substantive issues, which are "tough" precisely because they alienate large numbers of voters. Balancing the budget is not hard in itself - it is hard because doing so requires cutting spending or raising taxes. However, even with tough substantive issues, roughly half the electorate often supports a president.
Not so with scandals. Scandals alienate all but your most fervent supporters, and in some cases, even them. They are political no-win situations.
Second, presidential scandals are concentrated. Because Congress is diffused over many, its scandals can bring down an individual, but leave the institution just momentarily tarnished. The institution and the individual are separate. Ultimately, “the presidency” is one person....
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Reminds me of my favorite misanthrope, Florence King, paraphrasing,
"No one can underestimate the stupidity of the ignorant, uninformed masses --- AKA the American Public."
No he isn’t
Media won’t touch him
If it was rogue agents...why are they still employed?
If it was all up and down the agency...why are they still employed.
Pervasive corruption, entrenched in the govt, with no consequences for breaking the law...This is not democracy: it’s tyranny.
Scandals? Naw! Move along folks, nothing to see here.........(sarc)
Al Gore was correct when he said, “There is no controlling legal authority.” Our nation depends on the populace electing honorable leaders. Our populace has elected as president an ambitious, deceitful, lying muslim, who knows there is no controlling legal authority.
Give that man a cigar, because he nailed it!
Our Government was designed to be run by Judeo-Christian ethics. Give this authority to any other and it WILL be misused, as is now well documented...
Per Worf: "They have NO honor!"
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