Life Is Beautiful

I hope he gets to his 100th. If there is anyone out of the 45 people that have been President of the USA who deserves to get to that milestone it's him. And I love how back in February everybody here was getting ready for the inevitable yet here he is...still with us.

reading how most of the people here know one of the greatest stage actors of all time through his HP roles only hurts even more than his passing. Well, both Dumbledores now gone...

Only 29 days until his 99th birthday, you guys think he'll make it?

You guys can laugh all you want but it was tremendous. The greatest mugshot in history. Everyone agrees. People were amazed. A guy came up to him in the Sheriff's Office, big guy, strong guy, with tears in his eyes, and said he's never seen anything like it. People couldn't believe it, it was so amazing.

There are a few factors that are firmly against Biden. He is unpopular right now, like scary unpopular. Those are not good numbers for an incumbent. His disapproval ratings right now are even worse than those of Trump around the same time in their respective terms. The independents and swing voters who haved rallied around Biden might simply sit this one out if they are dissatisfied with him. Remember, in 2020 most Americans voted AGAINST Trump, not FOR Biden. A low turnout, coupled with a probable third party candidate like Joe Manchin, might be enough to tip the scales in Trump's favor. That is not to say that Biden has been a failure, far from it. I think that Biden (or at least his administration, in case someone wants to be cute about it) has been really good so far. Don't let that Brandon baloney fool you: Republicans secretly like him. It is why he has been able to accomplish so much behind the scenes. He has achieved in 3 years what Barack Obama could not do in 8. To me, he is, in many ways, the LBJ to Obama's JFK: much more effective, got more things done, has a better ability to compromise and work with Congress, but lacking in charisma, popularity and communication skills. It's unfair, but that's what politics is most of the time, a popularity contest. Part of this reputation also resides in the fact that Joe Biden was never able to boast correctly about his accomplishments due to the aforementioned lack of communication skills. In the same way that COVID was the worst thing that could have happened to Trump in his election year, it was actually the best thing to have happened to Biden. Biden's campaign in 2020 was basically "I am not Trump". All he did was make a few Zoom interviews from his basements and a couple of masked speeches here and there in mostly empty fields. He also encouraged Americans to vote in any way, shape or form, while Trump commited the UNBELIEVABLY stupid mistake of telling his supporters NOT to vote by mail-in ballots and to go wait for hours to vote outside, in person, in the middle of a freaking pandemic. This time, things will be drastically different. Biden will actually NEED TO campaign and sell his brand of president to independents and swing voters. Because the "hey at least I'm not Trump!" routine can only get you so far with voters who could not care less about the Georgia phone call or Stormy Daniels. Some of them might have buyer's remorse if they are not happy with how things are at the moment and as I said before, for the first in all of our lifetimes, American voters will have on the ballot the same guy who was in charge before the incumbent. For the first and most probably only time in their lifetime, they will have the choice to get the previous guy back in office again. That is tempting. Some of them might even see the different Trump trials as mere political witch hunt, especially with them coinciding suspiciously with election season and also with the different treatment the Hunter Biden story is getting. I still think that Biden will win, but it's not going to be the lopsided victory many Democrats are hoping for. Also, a lot of things can change in a year and as we both said, this election is unique and nearly impossible to predict.

I just want to point out that this is EXACTLY what people said in 2016, and we all know what happened next. AND this was back in the time where Hilary was pulling like 99 per cent in some polls right before election day. Right now, Trump is virtually tied with Biden in the polls, and has continued to climb in the last weeks. Let us also remember that he BARELY lost in 2020 (and would probably still be office if it were not for COVID). Yes, Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million, but in the swing states where it actually mattered, the difference was around tens of thousands of votes. Next year, the states who have voted for Biden with a large margin will probably vote for him again, no reason not to, and ditto for Trump barring maybe North Carolina. All that it would take for Trump to get the WH back is to flip three states out of the five that are PA, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. I am not saying that it will definitely happen, but there is a growing chance that it just might. Let us remember that nothing about this election cycle is normal. For the first time in more than 100 years, a former president is having another try at the presidency, against the same guy who beat him 4 years ago.

Thank you. That was my point all along. You need a certain period of time because nobody can forecast the full effects of the presidency. Just look at how many presidents were rehabilitated recently: Truman and LBJ were despised by almost the whole country (and other parts of the world) when they left office and now they are in the top 10 of almost all historians, with Johnson ranked even higher than the once more popular and adored JFK. Heck look at Ulysses S. Grant, for 150 years he was seen as a bumbling drunk who lucked his way through the Civil War and later filled his cabinets with corrupt politicians so that he can go play with his horses, but is now being celebrated as a champion of civil rights and an advocate of Reconstruction. On the other hand look at how history treated the likes of Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Jackson or even the more recent Ronald Reagan. From beloved presidents who were highly regarded by historians and the general public to controversial or downright vilified figures. I remember that, as recently as 2006, Woodrow Wilson was still like number 6 on C-SPAN's list, and now it seems that every other Youtube history video is about how he was the worst person to ever live.

I also agree with everything you have mentioned in here.

I still cannot believe I am defending him but pretty sure Operation Warp Speed was an objectively good thing for the whole world (unless you are antivax and in that case no need to reply further). No to mention The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which is immensely based. And hate to tell you this, but supporting the drone war is not strictly a conservative thing. Obama, for instance, ordered 10 times more drone attacks than George W. Bush. Although the latter is more to blame for starting most of the damn wars in the first place. But still, this thread is about the great man that is Jimmy Carter and I feel that I am polluting it just by mentioning Trump. I also feel that it is too soon to accurately judge the presidencies of all the people I have mentioned in here, especially 45's. Heck he might not be done being president yet.

i know this is not the thread for it, but since you brought the "Orange Man bad" routine. I honestly thought Trump did an ok job in his first 3 years. Not great, but absolutely not the descent into the abyss of Hell that CNN and MSNBC promised us: decent economy, no new wars...it was just regular conservative business (you know, minus the tweets and the impeachment). I would go as far as to say that his first 3 years of presidency were, in many aspects, better than Carter's term. In fact, most analysts were predicting by the end of 2019 that The Donald was heading into a landslide reelection never seen since Reagan's second term. Then 2020 came and it all went downhill from there. Easily the worst year of any president since the Great Depression. Yeah you could say that most of it (COVID, BLM riots) was not his fault and just his bad luck, but his response clearly did not help. I have no doubt in my mind that if he had just SHUT his mouth, listened to the scientists and made a few masked speeches here and there, urging Americans to stay home and fight this virus like the true patriots they were, the nation would have rallied behind him and he would easily still be president today. Because despite ALL of the shitshow that was 2020, he still BARELY lost that election. Vlogging Through History put it best when he said that out of all his enemies, Trump is his own worst one. Now back to Carter, I really hope that he would at least get to celebrate his 99th birthday.

on this day 77 years ago, future President and future First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter got married.

I have nothing good to say so I won't say anything.

His mother, a staple of Late Night/Late Show (I always loved her "Guess the Pie" segments), passed away yesterday (R.i.P.) on Dave's birthday. He's also had quintuple bypass as early as 2000, when he was 53, which is approximately the same age his father had when he passed away. Definitely a candidate and a very big name that should not be missed.

He was a musician?!

Richard Nixon, Kurt Cobain, Jackie Kennedy, John Candy, Bill Hicks and Kim Il-sung from 1994 Jerry Garcia, Selena, Dean Martin and of course the assassination of Yitzah Rabin from 1995 Francois Mitterand, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Kelly and Marcello Mastroianni from 1996 Deng Xiaoping, Jacques Cousteau, Robert Mitchum and Jimmy Stewart from 1997 (up until late August), with the last two less than two months before Diana.

Diana. PS: After answering ladyfiona I think the correct answer might be Jacques Cousteau, who died some two months before Diana. I was 6.

Wasn't Shannon Doherty on the list too or did I imagine that? and nothing makes me madder than the spelling mistake on Robert Duvall, I do not want to see that for a whole year.

I don't think a lot of people will be calling the death of a 95 year old good news, but then again this is HERE. BTW, would you guys call this the biggest DL miss ever?

It gives citations for its claims or else it gets the hose again. RIP Benedict, I love how he angered so many people over here as a final service to Earth.

There was a weird time in history during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency where not only he was the only living president, he also had no vice president! Poor guy said he felt really lonely.

Trump is definitely going to be the GOP frontrunner if he choses to run again tonight. He is still popular there, is a debate monster and the MAGA cult is still going strong. As Dave Chappelle said, never underestimate the poor whites. However, I do not think that he will do a Grover Cleveland and win. The element of surprise is gone. The media, as someone else has already said, is not backing him this time and the midterms are already a telltale indicator of what is going to happen next. A Trump nomination is basically a guaranteed four more years for the Democrats. As for Biden, if he is healthy enough, he will run. It is very difficult to say no to power once you have it, especially if there is a chance to have it again for the same amount of time. As far as I know, LBJ is the last president to say no to reelection (he finished JFK's term, won his own in a landslide and could have run for another one but chose not to). I am not sure if it was his failing health or the unpopularity of his administration that made Johnson decline to run again (unpopularity AT THE TIME, since now LBJ is widely considered a top tier president), but unless Biden has equally strong reasons not to run, nobody in the Democratic Party is going to stop him.

Ok I just found out that he was on the Deathlist back in 1993 (the year I was born) and now I have to go lay down and think about it for the next four hours.

What other 50s rock stars are still with us? Pat Boone and Cliff Richard come to mind...