A lot of this going around – courtesy and good manners are really the rules of the road which have evolved to keep us from hitting each other all the time. They work when we use them.
From the House, the tweets flew last night while the President was speaking. The SOTU is largely ceremonial; as such it demands the attention and respect of elected officialdom. But the rude will misbehave.
Obama talked about the troops and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tweeted: Mr. President, give them the tools they need to defend our country. Not just lip service.
Obama talked about who-knows-what and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tweeted: Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism. (This while the president was fulfilling his constitutional duty.)
Guess they don’t teach manners down in Georgia.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
I would say that Obama recieved more attention and respect than he deserved. Congress should have just told him to send them a written report and not to bother wasting their time with his first major campaign speech in his re-election bid.
Note for those unschooled in history – the SOTU address is not required and, in times past, the required state of the union report was a written document delivered to Congress.
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I think the SOTU actually is required though not in the form of a speech. Washington did it the ‘modern’ way, speaking to at a joint Congress. From then on, presidents used the written method until Wilson started going back to the House and it’s been so ever since.
So are you saying that because you don’t like this president, the President didn’t deserve the respect of Congress during the SOTU? That’s harsh.
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No. I’m saying that Obama didn’t and doesn’t deserve any respect because he’s done little or nothing to earn it – even by the standards listed by philosopoet below.
It doesn’t matter whether I like him or not.
Of course the same holds true for many others in politics on both side of aisle.
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What exactly has he done or not done that he doesn’t deserve respect as Commander in Chief? May we have some specifics please?
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Are you asking for specifics in his role a C-in-C or as POTUS in general? Could you be specific, please, since your C-in-C reference is a little confusing.
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So my friend – he said POTUS – a reply?
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…respect is generally accorded to those who accord respect in kind…
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Sorry, I meant POTUS. Thank you for correcting me.
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OK then – a brief synopsis of my reasons for asserting that Obama has done little to earn respect – in no particular order and limited to only those things since his taking office.
1 – His attitude toward the GOP (minority party) during the first year+ of his Presidency
2 – His ill-advised and ill-informed insertion of himself into local issues such as the Gates debacle
3 – The partisan nature of his responses to differing tragedies within the US, noticeably the difference between the abortionist Tillers death and the separate Muslim terrorist and Code Pink attacks on recruiting centers.
4 – All the lies, half-truths, and ambiguations surrounding his shilling for ObamaCare
5 – How he has failed to properly enforce federals laws that he didn’t like such as drug and immigration laws
6 – (Related to 5) How he threw Holder and Napolitano under the bus when they got caught following his orders.
7 – Not canning Holder after Holder had the already won case against the New Black Panthers dismissed.
8 – Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize even though he’d done nothing during 11 days between his Inauguration and the deadline for his nomination for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
9 – His incessant and inappropriate attacks on Fox News which managed to bother even the MSM.
10 – His hasty and ill-informed response to the Shirley Sherrod debacle.
11 – All the lies, half-truths, and ambiguations surrounding his attempts to justify the Stimulus.
12 – The particular way he used his bully pulpit to villify Wall Street and anyone who didn’t cooperate with his regime’s handling of the GM bail-out / bankruptcy.
No, my lack of respect for Obama doesn’t have that much to do with his policies. I do respect him as an enemy, just not as a man.
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1 – His attitude toward the GOP (minority party) during the first year+ of his Presidency
-How is that any different from the GOP’s or Tea Party’s attitude?
2 – His ill-advised and ill-informed insertion of himself into local issues such as the Gates debacle
-He admitted his mistake and tried to rectify it. Move on.
3 – The partisan nature of his responses to differing tragedies within the US, noticeably the difference between the abortionist Tillers death and the separate Muslim terrorist and Code Pink attacks on recruiting centers.
-He expressed outrage for Tiller’s murder, who in their right mind wouldn’t? I can’t argue about Code Pink however. I can’t condone affiliation with any zealot group (such as the christian coalition and George W. Bush).
4 – All the lies, half-truths, and ambiguations surrounding his shilling for ObamaCare
-Independent health economists have predicted that 32 million people who don’t have health care will do so in the next ten years. They have also predicted that the health care reform act will eat into our deficit by as much as $143 billion dollars.
5 – How he has failed to properly enforce federals laws that he didn’t like such as drug and immigration laws
-You must mean the great state of Arizona, home of legal racial profiling, which is diverting resources that were devoted to stopping drug trafficking and gang activity.
6 – (Related to 5) How he threw Holder and Napolitano under the bus when they got caught following his orders.
-Need some clarification please.
7 – Not canning Holder after Holder had the already won case against the New Black Panthers dismissed.
-Can’t argue with you there. I’m still scratching my head over that one.
8 – Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize even though he’d done nothing during 11 days between his Inauguration and the deadline for his nomination for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
-He accepted an award and donated the $1.4 billion prize to charity. I’m not sure what your point is.
9 – His incessant and inappropriate attacks on Fox News which managed to bother even the MSM.
-Every conservative politician under the sun attacks MSNBC. That’s what happens when a network leans left or right of center. They open themselves to criticism.
10 – His hasty and ill-informed response to the Shirley Sherrod debacle.
-Can’t argue that one either. He royally screwed up. He did own his mistake and try to make it right though.
11 – All the lies, half-truths, and ambiguations surrounding his attempts to justify the Stimulus.
-As opposed to Reagan and both Bushes? Trickle down economics has yet to prove itself as viable. They were the biggest offenders of deficit spending. They also brought about the largest gaps in social classes seen in this country. But you’re right; they would never lie about about their stimulus packages
12 – The particular way he used his bully pulpit to villify Wall Street and anyone who didn’t cooperate with his regime’s handling of the GM bail-out / bankruptcy.
-Bush gave the Auto industry a $17.4 billion check with no plan for pay back and no supervision. He also bailed out countless banks and savings and loan industries, again with no pay back or supervision. Obama held Wall Street and the auto industry accountable for their failures. By bailing out and supervising the GM over haul, over a billion auto related jobs were saved.
Of course nothing says you have to respect him in any way shape or form. Personally though, I don’t think it’s a good idea to shape an opinion based on Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh.
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I reject that President Obama should be less respected as Commander In Chief than as President of The United States.
It’s plain and simple, although you say it has no bearing Jonolan, your opinion of whether or not Mr. Obama deserves respect or not is based on the fact that you don’t like him – don’t agree with him, and think others could do a better job.
You don’t accord your enemies or opponents respect, and one day this will undo you, emotionally, politically and financially.
…there is not one of his actions, mistakes or not, that can compare to the past president, a man who mislead this nation into two disastrous wars, took his eye off the bankers and presided with a deep blindness over the stealing of many American Citizens personal liberties…
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Total. Information. Awareness. TIA.
Huge growth in National Security Administration.
Homeland Security.
If we weren’t a real national security state before Bush, we sure are now.
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I would submit that we’ve been a national security state since WWI, when German immigrants in this country were viewed with disdain. That was also about the time when Americans began to chase after anarchists and socialists. Bush took it to a whole new level of paranoia however.
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You’re right that it’s not new. I think it really took hold with the creation of the CIA after WWII to fight the Cold War.
And yeah, those anarchists of the early 20th held a romantic sway over many people.
Although I support his efforts, I think Julian Assange has a touch of the anarchist about him.
We always seem to have an idealized notion of who we are and in a way that allows htis nonsense ot go on because we can deny it.
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It may have even took hold when the FBI was created; J. Edgar went after many celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin for their political beliefs. Personally I’m a fan of Anarchy, it’s a very misunderstood ideology. It’s the Nihilists that we need to watch out for 🙂
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Do you think Assange is something of an anarchist?
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J Edgar went after everyone. He had a huge file on Kennedy.
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I don’t remember, nor can I find upon re-reading the thread, where anyone said that Obama should be less respected as C-in-C than as POTUS.
As for your assertions – They’re fairly far off-base, but that’s hardly surprising. The same can be said about your views of Bush and the wars we’re fighting.
Like, dislike, and respect have little to do with each other.
Of course, we’d also have to define respect. The sense in which Moe means it, a certain level of deference and politeness, is somewhat different than the sense of respecting one’s enemies’ capabilities.
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“They’re fairly far off-base, but that’s hardly surprising. The same can be said about your views of Bush and the wars we’re fighting.”
Have you ever been tortured? Cheney when ape-shit when Obama declared it un-American to torture ilegally and legally held prisoners of idealisms. Who’s view is distorted?
We attacked Iraq because we were told they had WMDs. No, no WMDs. Over 5000 dead american kids, and well over 100,000 dead Iraqi’s, but not WMDs anywhere. Who is being mislead?
Have you not read that of the 19 terrorists that played a part in 9/11 almost all of them were Saudi, and not one of them were Iraqi or Afgan?
The only thing that can be said in favor of Bush was that he was a hand-puppet, a patsy, a chump and a fall guy.
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It’s quite possible that he is an anarchist. He’s doing his best to undermine the concept of the nation state with his never ending stream of revealing documents. He is surely reinforcing others notions of rejecting the state with all the damning information that he is releasing.
You’re right about J Edgar. That man accumulated a ton of information on politicians and celebrities. The only thing that may have been larger than his secret files would have been his closet full of dresses and high heels.
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Heh – and he got away with it. Re wikileaks, have they released the banking stuff yet? Seemed to me that the law didn’t really try to get him until he announced the big bank info he was preparing fo rpublication.
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Not yet, but it should be soon. He recieved the two discs on the 17th, and commented that it would take him about two weeks to go through all the information. Hopefully by the end of the month we’ll all get to delve into the money hoarding, tax evading, swiss chocolaty goodness. That’s if the site isn’t closed down by then. Of course if that happens we may still be able to find it through one of his mirror sites.
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