Obama the most polarizing president in decades

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
I don't know and neither do you. It's beside the point. That has nothing to do with his policies or the job he's doing as president. It's just another issue to cloud the waters. Just like the teleprompter critique, his paternity, his religion, his friends, his sexual preference and all the other petty criticisms people make.

Exactly, but I guess you missed what I followed with...

Why? Because it takes attention from much more important topics. It causes division and adds fuel to the fires, so two groups of people are locked into a seemingly meaningless debate. One side says he not a citizen and the other calls them racists.

Clouding the important issues is exactly the point I was making. Although, I liken it more to sleight of hand.

Originally posted by kinda kurious
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e49475adc43c.jpg[/atsimg]
Admittedly I am struggling to make this point and hoping someone with more statistical knowledge will assess the facts presented in the poll results. Numbers don’t lie and as they say, the facts are stubborn.

Excellent post.

I had statistics in College and to sum up the course I will give a Mark Twain quote:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Here are the Statistical methods per Gallup:

Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking Jan. 20, 2010-Jan. 19, 2011, with a random sample of 178,864 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

For results based on the total sample of 56,106 Democrats, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

For results based on the total sample of 54,593 Republicans, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each daily sample includes a minimum quota of 200 cell phone respondents and 800 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, cell phone-only status, cell phone-mostly status, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2010 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

OK, let's tare this to pieces...

First Bias:
178,864 adults
-There are 308,745,538 U.S. citizens per 210 census; add the DHS estimated 10.5 Million illegal immigrants (2009 from CBS report) and we are up to 319,245,538 plus all you ATS census dodgers which we can't add. If you do the math you come out to .o5% of the U.S. population is used to predict the answer of 100%... so it is faulty from the get go.

Second Bias
The next part saying 95% and +-1% is just damn lies. Take a statistics course and you will see.

Third Bias
It sticks out to me that of the 178,864 they did survey NONE of them are Independents... sorry impossible.

Fourth Bias
200 cell phone respondents and 800 landline respondents. The only landline users I know get senior citizens discounts. This equates to a huge bias! Also the number 178,864 does not break down to 200/800 evenly so you KNOW they are manipulating data.

That are just a few off the top of my head reading through it once.

This one is actually not as bad as the TSA poll they keep reporting as showing that a majority of americans are OK with TSA security... it was based on 500 and some people!!!!

Now you know why Samuel Clemens said what he did!

Originally posted by glome
The constant vilification- at times whole multiples worse than the vilification of Bush- is the reason for the partisan split. Consider the utter lunacy of some of the charges against him:

1) wants to over see the fall of America
2) doesn't believe America is excpetional
3) isn't truly American
4) palls around with terrorits
5) wasn't born in the USA
6) is racist against white people
7) is a secret muslim
8) wants to redistribute the wealth
9) is a marxist socialist
10) wants to destroy the military
11) wants to destroy the dollar

I think in 20-30 years when people look back at this Administration they will see the corolary between racism on the right and the charges against him. Remember similar criticisms were launched against MLK.

It'll be interesting to see all the hateful letters revealed to the public once the Obama Library opens.

edit on 4-2-2011 by glome because: spelling

Well, US politics is a blood sport isn't it? I don't see him as polarizing. I see him as the same as the last several presidents; talk big in their campaigns but in the end they stand for the corporations and not the people. Do we have free health care? NO. Are the for profit wars in the middle east over? NO. Has there been any meaningful change? NO. But he does give the good god fearing people on the right a reason to mistrust the people on the left. And he gives the scholarly people on the left reason to belive they are superior to the right. Oh well maybe some day we will figure out that we need more than two parties.

Originally posted by glome
reply to post by Whereweheaded

 

Maybe go to law school before you say something. Commerce clause gives congress the power to do health care. All of your tea party judges and Attorney Generals and tenthers and lunatics can't change that.

No it doesn't and the restof your partisan spewing remains to be seen: nine stateshave introduced bills with in their legislatures to nullify obamanational care.

www.infowars.com...

Power to Regulate

The Commerce Clause authorizes Congress to regulate commerce in order to ensure that the flow of interstate commerce is free from local restraints imposed by various states. When Congress deems an aspect of interstate commerce to be in need of supervision, it will enact legislation that must have some real and rational relation to the subject of regulation. Congress may constitutionally provide for the point at which subjects of interstate commerce become subjects of state law and, therefore, state regulation.

Although the U.S. Constitution places some limits on state power, the states enjoy guaranteed rights by virtue of their reserved powers pursuant to the Tenth Amendment. A state has the inherent and reserved right to regulate its domestic commerce. However, that right must be exercised in a manner that does not interfere with, or place a burden on, interstate commerce, or else Congress may regulate that area of domestic commerce in order to protect interstate commerce from the unreasonable burden. Although a state may not directly regulate, prohibit, or burden interstate or foreign commerce, it may incidentally and indirectly affect it by a bona fide, legitimate, and reasonable exercise of its police powers. States are powerless to regulate commerce with Indian tribes.

legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com...

Yep awhole lot of "social justice" involved there.Its clearly all about "interstate commerce". Not whether universal healthcare is a humanitarian issue or a"right".Unless you are a"word twisting: "we'll pole vault over it/ dig under it" kind of democratic party legislator.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective



Thank you for the post OP. Man I am slowly beginning to lose hope in my sorry ass nation waking up to ANYTHING much less waking up to what is being perpetrated upon not only us so much anymore, but the entire globe as well! And before any of our fellow ATS'ers that are other than American get on their soapbox and begin ranting and raving as to what this lunatic is doing, I just want to point out that I seem to remember that in the last US presidential election it seemed that this charlatan was MORE of a pop star in countries OUTSIDE THE US than he was (at first anyways that was until the same dumba$$ sheep in America began to notice how well he was being received outside the US then started jumping on the bandwagon).

But my gawd man what is it finally going to take?!? I mean how come say for example I can research and find out about how in 2009 when a small revolt began to start up in Tehran, Iran against the oppression there and see that Obummer took the policy of NOT getting involved in other countries affairs (or as so he had eloquently put it) when it involved the PEOPLE OF IRAN wanting to overthrow the....wait for it....the MUSLIM DICTATOR

YET....

Here now we have Egypt where within 10 minutes he and his entire corrupt administration offered up their BS about the people having it right, and now all of a sudden this guy WHO THE US HAD SUPPORTED FOR 30 YEARS has got to go?!?!

What do the 2 events have in common?!?! THEY BOTH HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD!! The EXTREMIST MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD that our prez IS A MEMBER AND SUPPORTER OF! And yet what do we still see happening? IDIOTS posting threads about "Oh see there you go...Obummer IS NOT A Muslim because he just admitted (at a big annual national venue of the morning prayer club in DC where there was SURE to be a huge mainstream brainwashing presence that would be used to get the word out) THAT JESUS IS HIS SAVIOR"

COME ON GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK HERE!! Nothing in those people that just gulped that up...nothing in their small brains went off after hearing that news?!?! You mean to say that YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT CRAP?!? See people THAT is the reason that I am slowly losing hope for this country. Until we rid ourselves of the disease that is referred to as the PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL (or those that are just plain stupid), then we would now be wasting our time in trying to convince these morons to open their damn eyes up to see what is going on around them.

You see...I am convinced now that unfortunately a majority of these people won't wake up until this comes to their own back yard, and I am NOT going to wait for that. Preparations have already begun for me and my family. Nah...it is a waste of time at this point. I am now simply going to be a consumer of information that is intended to my benefit only. These people are too far gone brainwashed with the daily distractions to ever hope to see what's going on. Polls like that....even though again thanks for posting, but honestly what good are they? I mean what will they accomplish other than just being another distraction of the left/right lie and how "divided" they are. What a joke.

NT

Seems to me Obama is being the typical Presidential figurehead he's meant to be a polarizing president much like LBJ,Nixon,Ford and the rest.It's all for show and it always saddens me how many of my fellow posters fall for the left/right scam.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


I think I will take both pills with a big glass of scotch.

Change takes time. Unless he topppled our democratic system and shoved change down our throats rather than moving slowly, carefully and deliberately as he has...it wouldn't be honoring the system of government we have. Did you ecpect Obama was going to change things completely overnight? Did you think the GOP was going to let him? They are not grand anymore...pretty much just... old.

I see sweeping and dramatic differences between this and the last regime and think anyone that doesn't just isn't paying attention. Obama has been a little too willing to bend to the wishes of the GOP considering his position as a Democrat was what got him elected. Is that what you call being the same as the last guy?

It is compromise. What a concept

Hogwash and a load of bunk because they said the same thing about Clinton and about Bush. So what? Each one just outdoes the other by a lil bit? Is that it? More like the most polarizing president in the past couple of decades or so is always the one who's in office.

You're right, though, it's Gallup.and they should know better. There were probably 100 ways to couch those results based on the results they wanted and the opinions they needed to sway. Why the hell are they always focusing on the negative aspects? Sick of this divisive, depressing crap from every angle..

Originally posted by glome
I think in 20-30 years when people look back at this Administration they will see the corolary between racism on the right and the charges against him. Remember similar criticisms were launched against MLK.

Racism has nothing to do with the 'right' being against him. MLK is being revered today in the black community like some sort of 'god' when in fact he was a womanizing, woman-beater.

In the late 70s and early 80s, before the days of the internet, I had some books on MLK. Not the kind that would put him in a good light. These books contained FBI files. Why was the FBI interested in MLK? For one thing, he was being funded by the USSR. Why is this of any interest? Well, during the time when communists ruled Russia (USSR), they prohibited black people from living in Russia (USSR). To put it in layman terms; black people were not allowed. Period. Yet, MLK graciously took their money they offered him. Why? They didn't believe in civil rights for their white people much less black people here in America. They gave him money because he was a follower of Marxism. The same exact thing Obama follows.

In the 80s, MLKs wife had a court-order to seal MLKs FBI records for 50 years. Why? She knew what kind of husband she had and she knew if these files were made public, they would 'stain' the image the black community was wanting to portray of him.

Obama wants nothing more than to tear this nation apart. Why? Because he knows a divided nation is easier to conquer than a united one. I will give Obama credit though. He is doing a real good job a splitting this nation in half.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

 

Because in the past, presidents have been able to make eye contact on an 80% basis, where as Obama stares into the prompter 99% of the time, with a 1% address to the crowd. Huge difference. I was waiting for your response in his defense. Took longer than usual, your slipping~

Are the statistics you cite above from a scientific fact-based research study or did you make them up off the top of your head? When making a wild statistical claim like that you need to provide a valid source. Otherwise, you damage your credibility here in this thread and elsewhere on ATS.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

 

Because in the past, presidents have been able to make eye contact on an 80% basis, where as Obama stares into the prompter 99% of the time, with a 1% address to the crowd. Huge difference.

Hmmm, then how can President Obama influence his hypnotic mind control over the masses with only 1% eye contact? Wow he is good.

Obama is Hypnotising the Masses -Theory

Snap Out of It - Obama is using Clinical Hypnosis on You!

By the way got any links to substantiate your claim?

reply to post by Newbomb Turk


Man you said it all. There is no hope for the nation. People just vomit up whatever crap the talking heads on TV throw at them and spew it as gospel. Theres thread after thread after thread on here about Americans waking up, but nobody seems to ever notice or care that we just continue plotting along on the same path with the same policies regardless of whatever puppet is sitting in the white house at the time.

You know what I think? I think that the real owners of this country let a black guy be president so when the country takes a catastrophic nose dive economically this year (and I firmly believe that it will) everyone in their ignorance will get to blame the blacks for it." The black guy did it!" is all they will hear on TV. Divide the country even further, and distract from who really calls the shots, but that could probably be a thread all in its own.

reply to post by Newbomb Turk


OK, I'll do one of these ping-pong replies:

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk
Man I am slowly beginning to lose hope in my sorry ass nation waking up to ANYTHING

I categorically reject that notion, since this nation is the best country on the planet. Granted we have lost our way but we will survive due to our resiliency and history of overcoming hardship. It's just that many are too intelligent to subscribe to your myopic, fanatical right wing extremist view. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." But if you'd like to lose hope and give up, don't let me stop you. Reminds me of a half-term Governor. :shk:

The EXTREMIST MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD that our prez IS A MEMBER AND SUPPORTER OF!

That is a blatant lie. There is NO EVIDENCE to suggest the President is a member although he has purportedly met with the organization in the spirit of "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

But I suspect this explains your misguided, unsubstantiated ramblings:

For the right-wing, it's not much of a leap to go from "President Obama is a secret Muslim" to "President Obama is secretly in league with the Muslim Brotherhood." And in the wake of protests in Egypt, leap they did.

SOURCE

IDIOTS posting threads about "Oh see there you go...Obummer IS NOT A Muslim because he just admitted (at a big annual national venue of the morning prayer club in DC where there was SURE to be a huge mainstream brainwashing presence that would be used to get the word out) THAT JESUS IS HIS SAVIOR"

Thanks for the compliment, I am pretty proud of that thread to expose the smear campaign and end the MYTH once and for all. I invite you to join the discussion if you can muster a worthy argument rather than spewing vitriolic babbling.

Until we rid ourselves of the disease that is referred to as the PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL (or those that are just plain stupid)......

How do you propose eliminating nearly half of the country? I'd love to see some elucidation on that.
As far as those who are simply stupid, I assume you are referring to entire FOX News audience.

I am now simply going to be a consumer of information that is intended to my benefit only.

TRANSLATION: Continue to visit WND, listen to Limbaugh and watch Hannity / Beck.

I categorically reject that notion, since this nation is the best country on the planet. Granted we have lost our way but we will survive due to our resiliency and history of overcoming hardship. It's just that many are too intelligent to subscribe to your myopic, fanatical right wing extremist view. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." But if you'd like to lose hope and give up, don't let me stop you. Reminds me of a half-term Governor. :shk:

OK, I hear this from Americans all the time and I have to ask.... How many other countries have you been to abroad to make this comparison? Is this a statement that you drew from your own conclusions or are you simply repeating what you've been told all your life? Most people blindly throw this statement out there and have never even left their home state. I've been abroad, and I can tell you there are lots of countries in the world that have much better standards of living for their people than here in America. Also it does'nt much help your case that you describe Americans with the adjective "too intelligent" Also, why can't anybody express an opinion without unfairly being labeled as "left" or "right" they are after all two sides of the same coin with the same agendas, just the illusion of opposition. Maybe someone can have some of both of these so called views without subscribing to either one you think?

reply to post by ghostsoldier78


Wow. How wrong can one person be? I've done my fair share of traveling to some rather impoverished countries (namely Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti) I used to surf quite a lot when I was younger and they all have great breaks. Plus a few more affluent nations. I'm also conversant (perhaps not fluent) in Spanish. (Lived in Mexico for a year surfing, living on the cheap in a rather meager neighborhood in Matzatlan.) Great waves and herb, btw.

¿Tienes albondigas en su cabeza? (Do you have meatballs in your head?)

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk
Until we rid ourselves of the disease that is referred to as the PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL (or those that are just plain stupid),

Interesting that you consider people with whom you disagree a "disease". I urge caution on this. It is this kind of thinking that leads to pogroms, oppressive governments, civil wars, ethnic (or in this case, philosophic) "cleansing", etc.

The spread of this apparent inability to discuss matters of importance with, or defend the rights of, people with whom we disagree is probably the thing that is taking this country down the tubes faster than anything else.

reply to post by kinda kurious


Fair enough, mi malo, I was just wondering if you were one of the many Americans who mindlessly proclaim that we are the greatest, when they've never even seen outside the country. It irks me bigtime, thats like me talking about how much better skydiving is than surfing, when I've never ever skydived and have nothing to compare it to. And yeah, I do have meatballs in my head, we all do....ever seen "Hannibal"?

reply to post by ghostsoldier78


Cool then, we're good. Granted my Spanish is a tad rusty from lack of practice but I was always able to get directions, beer or food. But once was asking someone if they wanted to look at (mirarlo) something but I said mierdo instead which means I asked them to poop on it. Funny how everyone always smiled when I spoke with them.

Obama becoming president is like a heart-warming made for movie story where a bumbling hospital cafeteria cook is suddenly recruited to be the chief heart surgeon. Did I say heart-warming? I meant horror flick.

Politics are amazing. Imagine how companies would function if hiring was done through elections.