Do you think Barack Onama is a good man even though he is a politician?

1. 61

   Africanusposted 13 years ago

   Do you think Barack Onama is a good man even though he is a politician?

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2. 63

   cafeteriaposted 13 years ago

   Politics aside, Obama seems to be a good husband and father. Based on this, I would have to say he is a good man.

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3. 82

   Joelipooposted 13 years ago

   I cannot say I know enough about him as a man to make that judgement.  The only person we really know is Barack as a politician.  I do not like him as a politician and do not agree with his views.  However, Obama was associated with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, so that is definitely one aspect I cannot respect.

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4. 61

   sen.sush23posted 13 years ago

   The question is quite irrelevant in the sense that a politician can be good or bad as a politician. Whether he is a good man or not is quite out of the scope of consideration, as it is his political ideologies that affect hugely the life of millions of people. Wrong policies or practices as a leader may lead the country to the brink of disaster. His being a very good man would be of no consequence then.

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5. 78

   Attikosposted 13 years ago

   I have no idea. As a politician, he's a coat of paint, a cardboard cutout with a hinged jaw and a teleprompter. His strings are pulled by people off stage. By all accounts he's a loyal husband and father and a man most people like on a personal level when they get to know him, but aside from those hearsay reports we know so little about him it isn't possible to make a judgment about character.

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6. 69

   xethonxqposted 13 years ago

   Yes I do. I think he is an inspiration to many, many people. I feel like he has a good heart.

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7. 59

   NiaLeeposted 13 years ago

   I don't know him as a man, so I don't want to be a lesser human being and judge, I just think that this kind of position are not made for people who are Good. There are decisions and actions that require something really difficult for a Good human being.
   He may be a good man.
   Let's remember that in today's society, presidents are way less powerful than we believe, he is the living proof!
   They are not free to get things done but are accountable for not doing it!!! This is completely crazy!

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8. 0

   Old Empresarioposted 13 years ago

   I have never met him. He seems like a sarcastic smart-ass who makes wise cracks and jokes all the time when the cameras are not on him. But unlike John McCain, Obama rose in politics through his own merit. McCain rose by dumping his first wife and marring an heiress whose well-connected family financially catapulted him into politics.

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9. 72

   Faceless39posted 13 years ago

   Anyone in the position to decrease our freedom, bunk the Constitution, destroy the country financially, bail out the lobbyists and cronies, and kill thousands of civilians via bs war is evil, in my opinion.

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10. 80

    Doc Snowposted 13 years ago

    Most likely; I've never met him and haven't even read much about him as a private person, though, so I venture that opinion based only upon 'general impression.'
    
    I don't think politicians are particularly evil as a class, by the way.  There is of course the specific effect of an attraction to power--that's part of politics, and a part that can bias the sample, since power-lust can manifest in really bad ways.  But it doesn't always show up that way; think of the athlete who always wants to have the ball in his hands, no matter how dire the situation:  he knows that he's good, and that no-one is going to try any harder than he will.  That's the positive face of the desire for power--in some, it looks like a desire for responsibility.  I think that's not uncommon among politicians, many of whom are, I think, quite sincere when they say that they are in it to "do good."
    
    It's also true that politics entails endless compromise and much horse-trading--and that's the good part, given that the alternative is unbridled power which can ride roughshod over everyone else!  But the backroom deal, the crass trade-off and such are never inspiring, nor particularly edifying.  It often seems that in the real world the right thing may have gotten done, but generally not for what anyone would call the right reasons.  And all of that creates a certain 'grubbiness' that adheres to the political profession.
    
    In the US right now, it seems to me that it's worse than that, though.  In addition, there's now a level of partisanship and ideological blindness that has resulted in the dysfunctional Congress we all--well, about 90% of us, by actual polling data--witness with disgust.  In my opinion, it results from a dysfunctional  media in which spin often becomes outright lying, and which has become largely unrestrained by legal or social sanctions.  That has meant the death (or at least serious illness) of the old saying that "You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts"--everyone now operates from their own little set of "facts", too many of which may not be true.
    
    And that's an evil that is systemic, not personal.

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