"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters"

Quote: rxwine

Well the historians/political science people have Bill ranking up to 8th best President on several factors. So, I think that answers that question.

No serious historian could rank Clinton yet, not enough time has passed to look at his record historically. You need 40-50 years and really you need someone not alive at the time to look. Clinton in the end accomplished little during his time. He was dragged kicking and screaming to sign welfare reform. Otherwise his claim to fame will be being impeached. He was elected twice without a majority yet remained popular. Great? Hardly. Average mostly.

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Whereas LBJ was a stinker personally, but I give him credit on civil rights act.

Along with a Vietnam quagmire and an ongoing structural deficit due to massive social program spending, much of it failed.

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Some people love their doctor because he has a great bedside manner. It's nice but it doesn't mean crap if he is incompetent. You want the biggest a-hole in the hospital to work on you if he's the best doctor, regardless of his other failings. You don't want the nicest friendliest pilot with good morals, you want someone who is a damn good pilot regardless flying your plane.

You seem to have the idea that it has to be all one or the other only. I will not keep a doctor who is a jerk, I want a guy who is polite and explains the problem. I would not keep Greg House as a doctor as I do not purchase services where I get treated with disrespect. As to the pilot I likewise not going to employ a jerk because he has to interact with crew and passengers so I will want competence as well as interpersonal skills.

IOW, being able to "do the job" is not enough. You can always find someone who can do a job.

Conservatives don't like Clinton because he's the closest thing to Ronald Reagan to win the presidency.

They don't really like Reagan, the President. They like Reagan the 1979-1980 campaign.

Liberals hate Nixon because he was too close to their positions, too.

Quote: rxwine

Reminds me of another thing -- kind of a pet peeve.

Some people love their doctor because he has a great bedside manner.

I think everyone is doing what works for them. I am genuinely appreciative of the blunt honesty of one nurse who explained "it" to me. She said, we can talk about anything you want, but you have about ten minutes left [out of fifteen]. It took me nearly ten weeks to get there, after being on waiting lists, and I was gobsmacked to find out others had waited as long also, and then to find out that some are just in the system, waiting, basically because they are lonely and want someone to listen. At times, those patients as I see it, are choking up the system.

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It's nice but it doesn't mean crap if he is incompetent. You want the biggest a-hole in the hospital to work on you if he's the best doctor, regardless of his other failings.

Agreed. Doctors are just people, usually with better paying jobs and a lot of power and responsibility. The "really good" ones have whole departments wrapped around them, maybe even a hospital wing and have the longest white coats in the building, followed by an entourage of interns with shorter white jackets, hanging on every word. They are thought of as gods, not only by their inner sanctum but by they, themselves. They don't even have to breathe the same air we do, theirs is "rairified air". It is special air, it is brought in on a cloud.

With "the best of the best", you don't even get the full fifteen unless there is something special about your case, that either interests them or has a possibility to prove something they are pursuing. I think they have their patients screened, much like a DA and only take the cases which they are likely to win. When you do get to see them, you better hope what you have is what they choose to address or you get the "dreaded referral".

People that haven't gone beyond the first few doors have no idea how much it behooves them to be totally involved in their own care/treatment, have a personal medical grade atlas of human anatomy, and learn "dr. speak", because they seem sadistically to enjoy using language which they know you don't understand. If you have to stop and ask what a word means, that is part of your fifteen minutes. It helps if a patient can use med speak when referring to body parts. If a patient wants to be "in the game", it's best to know the rules.

Be prepared, be you own best advocate and find another professional that can help explain it. As a matter of fact there are nurses that can go with you for that reason, to reduce it to common language. Of course, all this, is IMHO. Nice, polite, pfft....just give me one that is civil that has a dept. wrapped around them, I can deal with the god complex. I try to explain it to newbies the same way if someone asks me in a crowded casino how to play the come bets. It is a game within a game within a game. What do you want most?

I just don't see how Trump is going to fail to make the 1237 delegates needed to be the presumptive nominee. It is clearly going to come down to the last day (Jun 7th), but he is polling so well in New Jersey and California that he is almost certain to win the required number of delegates.

Right now he is just 19 delegates short of 50%. He may stay under 50% all the way to the last day, but CA and NJ are going to push him over.

He is still only at 37% of the popular vote, but I don't think it will matter.

Quote: Pacomartin

I just don't see how Trump is going to fail to make the 1237 delegates needed to be the presumptive nominee. It is clearly going to come down to the last day (Jun 7th), but he is polling so well in New Jersey and California that he is almost certain to win the required number of delegates.

Right now he is just 19 delegates short of 50%. He may stay under 50% all the way to the last day, but CA and NJ are going to push him over.

He is still only at 37% of the popular vote, but I don't think it will matter.

I would be shocked if Trump doesn't get the nomination regardless if he gets 1237 or not

The establishment is so distraught over
Trump and Cruz, the party might run a
3rd candidate to ensure a Hillary win.
It's all about the super rich remaining
rich and in charge. Hillary is an establishment
tool, she can be managed. Cruz and
trump are not, they might be loose canons.
We long ago stopped electing people
who the people chose.

Quote: terapined

I would be shocked if Trump doesn't get the nomination regardless if he gets 1237 or not

History tells us the obvious. If one candidate is close, than he can find the handful of delegates he needs from the unobligated to vote for him.

Analysts have said that Reagan's impromptu concession speech in 1976 was so moving that it was virtually the start of his campaign for 1980.