You honestly think that with a Republican in office right now the troops would be coming home? Really?

BTW: As a public service announcement to Fox News and the rightys on here. You can't rip people saying things that started with Bush are Bush's fault, and then turn around and give Bush credit for things that happen during the Obama administration. It makes you look really petty and dumb.

It wouldn't matter if the CEO of Halliburton was in office. The troops were required to leave by an agreement made by Bush and the Iraqi government to be gone by the end of 2011.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

But why? I thought we were beloved liberators who the Iraqi's loved having around. Why would they want us to go home?

You would be wrong. They didn't want us there forever. We didn't want to be there forever. Bush laid the groundwork. Obama finished the job.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

So then give Obama credit for finishing the job.

If you're gonna give Bush equal credit for the Iraq withdrawal, then give Bush equal blame for the current state of our economy.

BRick is correct about the agreement. However, I also agree with Baby McNown's opinion.

Fine. They both did it. However, Bush did set the timeline. Obama had to follow it. Let's see what he does in the rest of the area.Bush is more to blame for the current state of the economy than Obama, though Obama is catching up as we get more into his presidency.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Of course I disagree with BR but I'm also not willing to give Obama a shout out on this one. It was easy for Bush to make a deal that he didn't have to keep. Also the deal Bush made wasn't something Obama was forced to keep. They've been negotiating for the past 2 years on a deal to allow American soldiers to stay in Iraq past the deadline. Recently those negotiations broke off (Iraq wouldn't grant immunity to the Americans) and that's when Obama decided to keep his campaign promise.

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Eye rolls? Doesn't seem that odd to me. Have you ever heard of Diplomatic Immunity?

Please explain how he wasn't forced to keep it. You acknowledge that he wanted to go against it but was unable to do so and that's why it's happening. I guess it's all just a big coincidence that they are leaving at the exact time that was agreed to prior to Obama coming into office.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

It is. Obama's base hates him. He needs to throw them a bone or 2. It's unlikely to work considering he even ignored them in the first couple years he was in office. I would be more understanding if he went to the left in his first 2 years and then came back to the center to get reelected. Instead he went left with his rhetoric his first 2 years but the results were center right and then he decided to go right in year 3 with his rhetoric and results and his base finally said "FUCK YOU". Now he has to fight for his base when he should be fighting for the center. Terrible advisers. He will be a 1 term president unless the republicans do something really stupid and nominate anyone other than Romney.

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Because he wasn't forced to do it. They could have changed it at anytime and they were trying to. They've been working with the Iraqis to keep some troops there. The Iraqis couldn't get their agreement passed through their parliament. Obviously for political reasons Obama couldn't keep 50k troops there but they were working to keep somewhere in the neighborhood of 20k there. When their deal couldn't get passed he decided to make a political statement out of something he was working NOT to do.

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brick, bush started the war, and it was clearly a war we didn't even need to fight. certainly not be there for over 8 years. especially when the "mission was accomplished" all those years ago. if i were him i'd stay as far away from this story as possible. he shouldn't have listened to cheney.

Barack Romney is the same guy. The election will be moot if those are the candidates.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They are. However if you want a moderate republican you may as well elect an actual republican.

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Ummm...except for the extensive business experience that Mitt has that Barry doesn't. Romneys business experience is pretty impressive. He took over a business that was failing & ready to go under & turned the company around in 1 year. His salary was $1 dollar. Comparing him to Barry is ridiculous considering that Barry has never held a real job & managed or balanced anything in his life. Romney is an experienced successful business executive, which is exactly what this country needs. I realize that the comparison is that both guys are moderates, but come on... Mitt went to Brigham Young & is a Mormon. Mormons are conservatives, not moderates. Because he worked in Mass politics, he had to appear to be more to the center than to the right in order to get elected. I believe that his real beliefs are far more conservative, Having said that, I don't really care.
I like Mitts business experience. Comparing Mitt to Barry is an insult to Mitt.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Hey Mr. President,

We are still waiting to leave Germany, Japan, Korea, and the Dakota territories.

Thanks for the heads up though.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

We got like 10 bases in Kuwait, so who cares if they are in Iraq or not.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

i think the "$1" salary thing was a little over the top (i think he comes from a well off family anyway) but his contributions in business can't be denied. i think he helped start staples in the 80's. he also made a profit for the winter olypmics back in '02.

not a big fan of mormons (i put them slightly above scientologists on the made up religion scale) but i've never really had much of an issue with him.

all politicians will play ball no matter what their personal convictions are. if he needs to be more centered, he'll do it. a lot of republican presidents have done "democratic" things and same with democratic presidents doing "republican" things.

i haven't been a fan of obama's administration on the whole, and i think the jimmy carter comparisons are fair. i'd still like to see obama finish what he started though.

Why not? The recession Bush II dealt with began in Clinton's term. Is it Clinton's recession? When things finally blew up near the end of Bush's 2nd term and he kept elect-Obama in the loop as he worked bailouts... was that his problem or Obama's? Certainly Obama inherited it and by my reckoning followed what it looked like Bush had planned. But if you remember, the Fed was tinkering all of Bush's 8 years trying to keep the thing afloat.

Do I blame Bill, George, Barrack? (Economic cycles don't give a shit about who's in office. And meltdowns happily occur during office transitions)

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Well, Obama's administration is a lot like an outsider group, much like Carter's was. Carter at least had legit governing/managing credentials from being the governor of GA.

Ultimately, he may turn out to be just as stymied as Carter was.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

His salary was $1 because his daddy was loaded. And how many jobs from said company did he ship overseas? Try again asshole.

From the Boston Globe (regarding Romney's company Bain & his Staples relationship)...

The primary objective, of course, was to make money. That meant every job couldn't be saved. Some strategies, such as a roll-ups, are designed at the outset to cut jobs. In roll-ups, similar firms in the same industry are acquired and combined to boost revenues while eliminating duplicative jobs, particularly in administrative areas such as payroll, personnel, and information technology.

Bain embarked on a roll-up after acquiring Ampad in 1992. Two years later, Ampad bought the office supplies division, including the Marion, Ind., plant, of typewriter maker Smith Corona. Ampad shuttered the Indiana plant in 1995, moving equipment and production to other Ampad factories.

Ampad, too, became squeezed between onerous debt that had financed acquisitions and falling prices for its office-supply products. Its biggest customers-- including Staples-- used their buying power and access to Asian suppliers to demand lower prices from Ampad.

Romney sat on Staples's board of directors at this time.

Creditors forced Ampad into bankruptcy in early 2000, and hundreds of workers lost jobs during Ampad's decline. Bain Capital and its investors, however, had already taken more than $100 million out of the company, in debt-financed dividends, management fees, and proceeds from selling shares on public stock exchanges.

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

A little more on Romney's business experience. I think we can all agree that he was good at making money. The question is: was he good at creating jobs?

From the Murdoch owned NY Post...

* Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

* Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003.

Romney's Bain invested 22 percent of the money it raised from 1987-95 in these five businesses, making a $578 million profit.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/a ... z1bWbedYJZ

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

Someday people will learn that running a business isn't anywhere near the same as being president. You don't get to make the same decisions. Being a governor is close but being president is a far more difficult a job. Governors don't age 10 years in only 2 years. There's a reason why that happens. I imagine it takes every president several years to mentally get back to normal after leaving office.

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Not really. Governor George Romney spent most of his life in public service/not-for-profit work--back when public service didn't equal becoming insanely wealthy at the taxpayer's expense or by rotating back to private industry and becoming a lobbyist etc.

George Romney was CEO of now-defunct AMC car company for a period--just prior to becoming Governor of Michigan and then a candidate for President in 1968. So worried was Nixon about Romney challenging him in '72, Nixon tapped Romney to head a new cabinet dept but then froze Romney out of administration decision-making. Til Romney got fed up with tricky Dick and left to do charity work the rest of his life..fucking (not really that) rich asshole.

But during the time he was AMC's CEO, Romney gave ~25% of his income to charity: of the less than $3 mil he made in 8 years as CEO he gave about $700K to charity ( majority of that to the magic underpants crew, however).

And the taxman likely took the rest. As back in the late 50's and early 60's, until JFK starts reducing tax rates, the top marginal rate for Federal Individual Income taxes was 91%--and anything over 100K was taxed at about that level. Which confiscatory tax rates are probably why George Romney as AMC CEO would give money back to the company if his income was too high for a particular year (possibly also accounts for the high-level of charitable donations). Tho regardless if the money went to the government or charity--it didn't end up in Romney's pocket.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

true. like i said, the comparisons are fair. but...i hold carter in high regard as far as a humanitarian. still not sure how to look at obama. he's come across to me as very phony, much like clinton. clinton got away with being a kinda lazy president, though, because the economy wasn't in the toilet as it is now.

the president is almost always going to be defined by their administration, and it would depend on what romney would choose, should he be elected. i think that his ability to make money is something to consider...however, you're right, being president means a lot of compromise. it would depend on who he surrounds himself with. now i sound like hub discussing politics...ugh.

I think Hova's point re: people have to do what you tell them to do applies more to Generals who become Presidents than businessmen. Truman said something to that effect when he was leaving and Eisenhower taking over.

A CEO's success is based on the same thing a President or Governor's sucsess is based on: their ability to persuade. A CEO has to address stockholders, boards of directors, fellow executives in his company, his employees, regulatory agencies, the financial press, investors and analysts on conference calls, occasionally the broader media (e.g., BP's CEO dealing with the Gulf oil spill)...and so forth.

Course, the same is true to some extent for a General (or anyone, at any job, for the most part). However, Generals orders come with the threat of court-martial and imprisonment should someone not follow them.

Good point. Something lost in the hoopla over the Obama administration's foreign policy success is that until July of this year, he had the same Secretary of Defense that W replaced Rumsfeld with, Robert Gates. Wasn't Gates a former CIA director? And they replaced him with the incumbent CIA director, Panetta.

And Hillary as Sec of State probably deserves quite a bit of credit for the U.S.'s foreign policy over the last 3 years. Same as James Baker was the guy who made Bush I's foreign policy so effective.

Obama still gets to make the victory lap, but his foreign policy pit crew deserves a shout out as much as he does.