Serious Business

Should a candidates personal profile be a factor in their electability?

I'm pretty sure this is one of those 'detail specific' issues. In general, I believe the answer to be yes. But only to a degree. A candidates temper and charisma fall into the yes catagory, for a president needs to have a sense of diplomacy. Reactions to situations invoving personal issues prior to candidacy is a yes, potentially the country is about to be their new baby.

But family is a big no. Your spouse, kids, parents, and siblings have no relevance to the issues at hand. Leave them out if it.

i think you should only talk about a persons spouse if they get themselves involved. If your wife or husband stands up and says they like this bill or law, or whatever, then they are fair game. Dont get into the game if you dont want to play is all im saying. But otherwise, leave it the hell alone.

Should a candidates personal profile be a factor in their electability?

I'm pretty sure this is one of those 'detail specific' issues. In general, I believe the answer to be yes. But only to a degree. A candidates temper and charisma fall into the yes catagory, for a president needs to have a sense of diplomacy. Reactions to situations invoving personal issues prior to candidacy is a yes, potentially the country is about to be their new baby.

But family is a big no. Your spouse, kids, parents, and siblings have no relevance to the issues at hand. Leave them out if it.

I think I might disagree where family is concerned. If he likes to yell at his wife and ignore his kids, I'd have less confidence in his ability to keep his priorities straight.
Personally, I think high profile civil servants should have little expectation to privacy, and someone should be keeping a public record of them. Being a governor, senator, judge, VP...these are not jobs that anyone should be doing for the comfort and luxury. These are people whose primary priorities should be the public, not them selves.
I'm all about making political positions less luxurious. I think it would help to weed out the people who are primarily seeking power and influence through the government.

true, but that's more a focus on the candidate himself. I'm refering to the lives of the family members themselves. I don't care about a twenty something daughter running around boozing it up. That sort of thing. Or parents being swingers. Or siblings with alcohol problems. I don't care, personally.


Also, and this is becoming less poplular; I. Do. Not. Care. About. A. Presidents. Religion.

Now, if he has religious views that are going to severely impact a political decision, I care very much. If he thinks God spoke to him and told him to clense the land of all heretics, then I care VERY VERY much (because well, I'm a heretic). Seperation of chrch and state is not cut and dry. Granted. Religious views are going to affect political views because they affect personal views and that is the core foundation of a political view (topped with the monetary view of who is paying them off the most to believe what).
But I don't care about candidate A's church, or the congragation, or the pastor, or the sect of chrisatianity their from. They're all fucking christians. Move on.

true, but that's more a focus on the candidate himself. I'm refering to the lives of the family members themselves. I don't care about a twenty something daughter running around boozing it up. That sort of thing. Or parents being swingers. Or siblings with alcohol problems. I don't care, personally.

This much I agree with.

but the religion thing... man, overtly hugely religious people scare me, because they will do ANYTHING in the name of God.  Without applying logic or reason, ignoring common decency and compassion (because if God is on your side, the fucking heretics don't deserve any compassion, they're not even really human anymore).

Religion dehumanizes those who are of another sect (generalization alert).  This is bad.

Oh very much agreed! That's what I was going for, but I don't think I said it right.



Bush's "I'm president because God wanted me to be so" statements and attitude has scared the piss out of me daily for 14 years.

A candidates religion has minimal impact on my decision to vote for them... until they start talking about not believing in evolution, or believing that the earth is only 6k years old, etc.

Saying stuff like this is not an attack on my faith (or lack thereof), it is not even an attack on my intelligence, it is an attack on logic itself. 

This pretty much sums up my feelings on how modern politics works.

Though Craig Ferguson has some valid points too.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/GEtZlR3zp4c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/GEtZlR3zp4c</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ioy90nF2anI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ioy90nF2anI</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQ4eeQzDlgM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQ4eeQzDlgM</a>

I just thought of something... a black man president of the united states of america would be an Obama-Nation!

I know... it's corny. I amuse myself easily.