Obama proposes $1 per pack cigarette tax to fund preschools

[Globe199]

Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest

And what a great idea, government run daycare er uh pre-schools.
I wonder how long before someone will shoot one up?

Please tell me you spent many hours conjuring up this thoughtful, insightful comment.

[DCMann2]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Unless you are young or completely new to politics this is normal for any president as far back as I can remember. Just look at all the partisan hacks here.

I'm young, but I'm not THAT young. I've been voting for as long as I've been able (I was 19 the first time I was able to vote even though I registered as an independent shortly after my 18th birthday), and while I don't really follow politics as closely as I used to I still like to keep on the up and up because I like knowing what's going on in the world around me.

I certainly was no fan of Bush for a number of reasons but that doesn't automatically mean I have a raging hard on for Obama. Gitmo is still open, the ACA sucks because it didn't go nearly far enough (single payer, please), the whole gun control issue is stupid and ultimately pointless (for the record I oppose legal automatic weapons and civilians owning military grade weapons, but I support universal background checks and don't care about clip size or any of that other crap politicians are going on about), the drone policy is horrifying, etc.

However, despite all these faults I still have respect for the office of president and there is no doubt in my mind that both Bush and Obama act(ed) in ways that they felt was right for the country as a whole. Being president is undoubtedly enormously stressful (just look at how Bush looked in 2000 compared to 2008, and look at how Obama looked in 2008 compared to now) and they are forced to make decisions knowing fully well that huge numbers of the populace are going to hate them for it.

I find it utterly disheartening that these frothing-at-the-mouth types are the people who get the most attention while those of us who clamor for reasonability and mature, adult dialogue are completely cast aside in favor of finger pointing, partisan sniping, and an immaturity that is completely embarrassing to the rest of us and the country as a whole.