Brad Plumer discovers that poll respondents preferred Obama to Romney in ridiculous scenarios :
In a ship in a storm, who would you rather have as captain, O. or R.? (Obama won 46 to 43)
Who would you prefer to have care for you if you were sick, O. or R.? (Obama won 49 to 36)
It’s not too difficult to imagine situations, involving beer, Stetsons and barbecues, in which one might prefer G.W. Bush over Barack Obama. But here’s a challenge to RBC readers:
Construct a scenario in which your personal preference would be Romney over Obama, or Ryan over Biden.
Author: James Wimberley
James Wimberley (b. 1946, an Englishman raised in the Channel Islands. three adult children) is a former career international bureaucrat with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. His main achievements there were the Lisbon Convention on recognition of qualifications and the Kosovo law on school education. He retired in 2006 to a little white house in Andalucia, His first wife Patricia Morris died in 2009 after a long illness. He remarried in 2011. to the former Brazilian TV actress Lu Mendonça. The cat overlords are now three.
I suppose I've been invited to join real scholars on the list because my skills, acquired in a decade of technical assistance work in eastern Europe, include being able to ask faux-naïf questions like the exotic Persians and Chinese of eighteenth-century philosophical fiction. So I'm quite comfortable in the role of country-cousin blogger with a European perspective. The other specialised skill I learnt was making toasts with a moral in the course of drunken Caucasian banquets. I'm open to expenses-paid offers to retell Noah the great Armenian and Columbus, the orange, and university reform in Georgia.
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Since I am not likely to be on a ship in a storm, how about the equally implausible “Who would you prefer to handle your offshore accounts?” Too easy.
Gee I wonder why he has off shore a accounts? That’s right the US has the highest corporate taxes in the world!!!
You are kidding, right? we are 4th in the world for our business friendly practices. To have businesses in the US, is to have access to the cf
Greatest consumer wealth.
You are kidding, right? we are 4th in the world for our business friendly practices. To have businesses in the US, is to have access to the greatest
Greatest consumer wealth.
In theory, yes, but the practical tax rate in MUCH lower, thanks to corporate loopholes. No, Rmoney has offshore accounts in order to keep more of his passive income.
No, it doesn’t. The US has some of the lowest corporate taxes in the wealthy world - what it does have is one of the highest nominal corporate tax rates in the wealthy world. Between simple deductible business expenses and more complicated legal forms of tax evasion, we’ve got incredibly low corporate taxes, with wildly successful Fortune 500 companies often owing no taxes at all, or even paying a negative tax rate.
What do corporate tax rates have to do with personal accounts anyway?
Corporations are persons, my friend.
(Sorry, too easy.)
If you were a multimillionaire and a majority shareholder in a large but privately-held corporation, who would you rather hire as your corporate executive officer?
Question: is my company ethical?
Ryan over Biden: Who would you prefer to see in a gay porn video?
Or a straight porn video for that matter. Good call!
Biden since ryan probably has sex between a sherer with a holte in it. or, he could be secretly kinky and role play as an evil doctor wanting to give his wife an abortion while he and his gay lover get into a tussle. Hmmm, tough call. Biden would probably like to watch a bunch of girls.
Hahaha!!!
Straight porn with Ryan as the star. He’s hot!
This is by far your most profound thought on this thread. Kudos.
Romney over Obama - If you were a teacher who perpetually forgot to give the homework assignment and had to rely on a student to remind you.
Assuming we were beset by cannibals who promise to eat only one of us, I would prefer the company of Romney.
If you won the lottery, who would you rather have help you avoid paying taxes on your winnings?
They take them out before you receive them.
So noted. Revised version: If you just took home a company’s pension fund, who would you rather have help you avoid paying taxes on your loot?
Obama. He’ll just change the constitution to suit his needs
What changes has obama made to the constitution? I didnt know president even had that power.
The last amendment to constitution was in 1992.
Do you even check your facts or do you just say random things to anger people?
Who would be better as a sycophant - Romney, Ryan or, oh, hell, they have it hands down!
Best hair.
Most hair
Who would you hire as an office intern to run errands, make coffee and do the photocopying, Ryan or Biden?
Ryan. He would do it twice then explain to me how he could do it cheaper forcing me to move him into upper management so that my company could make more money!
From whom would you rather receive a check for a hundred million dollars, Romney or Obama?
Who would you prefer to write you into his will and then die, Romney or Obama?
Obama and obama
Romney uber alles: You’re in the advertising business, and Haggar wants you to prepare a menswear ad stat!, and the modeling agency sends in Romney and a bunch of other guys.
Ryan uber alles: You’re in the advertising business, and Jockey wants you to prepare an underwear ad stat!, and Jim Palmer is too old, and the modeling agency sends in Ryan and a bunch of other guys.
I call foul on that one. When Jim Palmer says he pitched a shutout in the World Series and 20, and he won 268 major league games, and three Cy Young Awards, and got elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, his memory is correct. And he’s MUCH better looking, even in his sixties. He’ll never be too old to beat out Ryan for that gig.
Oops … “at 20”
Romney over Ryan: You are sitting at a table together, and somebody send the two of you a bottle of Echezeaux.
Ebenezer wins the thread so far.
Whom would you rather see receive his entire annual investment income in pennies, and drop it on his toe?
who would you rather see in a cage fight with Donald Trump?
The Donald himself, his ego is too big to let anyone else in the cage.
Comparing the POTUS to Mitt in,truth telling is an oxymoron
But isn’t that the point? That it is truly difficult for people [sic] to develop a plausible, sensible, reasonable, everyday scenario in which Romney is preferred over Obama. The only one I can think of would be were I to want guidance in order to become a member of the LDS faith. There Romney would win hands down. That folks are willing to accept Obama over Romney in “ridiculous scenarios” may ultimately be a better predictor of the outcome of the election than we are willing to entertain. It’s certainly a question I would want included in future polling.
How about: You don’t have adequate Health Care Insurance. Who would you chose as the Governor of the State you live in ?
Or Conversely: You are going out with the guys on a night on the town and you need a good “wing man”,and the “Bogarting” of a Joint does not upset you) who would you chose ?
No seriously-not withstanding President Barrack Obama’s prior incarnation as Barry “The Bogart”- Mitt Romney’s campaign advisers have done a thoroughly unprofessional incompetent job of selling this candidates qualifications or personality,and I am sure He has both. The negative campaign strategy was flawed from the beginning. Romney’s people starting with the primaries, were always playing “not to lose” instead of going for a win. Mitt Romney needs a total campaign overhaul but at the late stage of this election,it may be too little,too late.
Obama is a gutless wonder….anything for a vote to remain in office. Has done nothing for our country but make it weaker and vunerable. Those who are fans of his either dont know how to read or have forgot about the 11 million plus unemployed, ……we will all be very negatively effected and suffer from obamas rea plan. Wake up !!!!.
I keep hearing this, he had done nothing. He did alot until the republicans got in there and vowed to obstruct. Our healthcare costs dramatically stopped increasing due to his legislation. he had invested in business while balancing it with our health and incremental impacts. He has extended the tax cuts bush ort in place, and dramatically reduced government payroll. He has deported more illegal immigrants that the last to presidents combined. Signed a nuclear treaty with russia. Pulled us out of iraq, an unnecessary and extremely expensive war. keeping our promise to vets, etc. got our vault money paid back from the banks plus interest. Yep, money may be the only thing important to a business, but government is people.
Anonymous, maybe you should learn how to write properly before you start accusing people of not being able to read.
Which ticket would prefer to see cast as (2 of) The Munsters?
You don’t think Biden would be awesome as Gomez?
Uh, Gomez was the lead character on The Addams Family.
Crap.
If we’re casting the Addams Family, Biden is, hands down, Uncle Fester. We’re talking multiple Emmy awards.
Who would you rather have show you round the Temple in Salt Lake City, Romney or Obama?
Obama. Romney knows he’s not allowed to let me in.
They said the same thing about Regan all he did was end the cold war.
I believe the USSR ended the cold war by colapsing economically. Gorbachev presided over the end but only because it was inevitable as had been predicted in the early 1970s.*
*You just can’t run a country by concentrating all the power/wealth at the top, spending god awful % of economy on military and failing to manufacture cunsumables. Does this scenario sound familiar?
If you had to jump from a burning building, who would you prefer to try to catch you, Ryan or Biden?
Depends on how much money I had.
Biden would be softer to land on.
Trick question: a Randian would never try to help anyone.
If you had to fire half your staff, who would you turn to for advice, Obama or Romney?
What foreign policy credit goes to Obama? And taking numerous out of country vacations and whisphering secret deals with Putin do not count.
Who would you rather prefer as pres in order to decriminalize pot and stop funding the bankrupt drug war
Ron Paul would of been a better choice but most people didn’t think so
Who would you rather trust to run the economy, someone with experience running a successul enterprise, or someone with no experience running a large organization?
Whose birth certificate would you be more curious to see?
What enterprise did Romney run? I think you’ll find he was never a manager of a running operation. (name one please)
Romney’s. I’ve already seen all of Obama’s birth certificates, so I don’t need to see them again.
The executive branch of the federal government is not a large organization. Duly noted, consider my eyes rolled.
ROMNEY OVER OBAMA:
Your at college party with a huge bag of pot in your purse. You need to go pee. Who would you want to hold your purse while you go to the bathroom?
I chose Romney because if I gave my purse to Obama he would take my bag of pot and redistribute it and hand me joint when I returned from the bathroom.
If I was flying along at thirty five thousand feet in my BBJ, and ran out of fuel. I would want Romney and Ryan with me to get out and Push.
Suppose you wanted to kill your aging granny….
Obama
You even get rhetorical questions wrong, don’t you?
Hello, toaster! I haven’t seen you for years at Balloon Juice. And thanks for rebuking Billie.
Yeah, I got banned over there for being insufficiently obeisant to Crazy Black Narcissist Lady. Not really tempted to try and go back as long as Cole is under her spell.
If you died and was meeting God today and he was judging you based on the morality of your countries leader, who would it be Romney or Obama. It would be Romney every time. z
Uh, have you read Jesus’ anecdote about the camel and the eye of a needle?
It fascinates me how some people just know that Obama is personally immoral, although they can cite virtually nothing in his life that is morally problematic. It’s almost as if they judge him by something other than the content of his character. I wonder wonder wonder what that might be.
I have been a dem all my life. This time I. Will be voting for Romney. Obama has been the worst leader we have ever had
What do you expect when the Republicans left the mess for him to clean up. Did you really expect him to do it in four years, did you think a Republican could?
That’s all I ever hear from the Obama camp, “its everyone elses fault that we couldn’t get our job done.” Please come up with a valid response because all the blame shifting is getting stale. Obama failed because he was to busy playing golf and chairing the U.N. (which is a violation of his oath to presidancy AND the constitution) Obama planned to fail all along so I don’t know why the Democrats are even surprised that he did.
We Democrats are not surprised Obama failed, we wanted him to fail, because we hate America and God. We hope he fails even more in his second term. Agenda 21 will finally come to our shores, and if you can’t peddle a bicycle, then good luck getting down to the free beer and vegan food distribution center. The cadres will visit daily to assure you have all the vegetable wax candles in your Obama shrine lit, and if you don’t, you’ll be carted out of your home and into a housing project, so a family living there can have your home.
Obama said it - you didn’t build it, and everybody gets welfare all the time. And, if you can stand having your mind blown all the way to Mars and back, dig this - Romney’s in on it too. Either way, we’re taking over, and freedom as you know it will be dead as Elvis. Health care for everybody. Retirement pensions for old folks. College loans for young folks. New roads and bridges. Equal rights for gays and straights. It will be hell, and the living will envy the dead. Might as well start stocking up on ammo and dried food now. This sh*t’s getting ready to get real.
Geoff, you made my day, that comment required some craftsmanship.
Chill dude! You’re gonna blow the whole plan.
Democrats always seem to bring that up- republicans do not want people to do well off. well guess what? read a god damn economics book for once instead of how to safety pad every corner in your house, and you will understand it does not work and is not moral to FORCE someone with more money to hand it over to the government to pay for your sorry ass welfare check. we all know you dems just cannot grasp the fact that in this world suffering and poor people ARE A PART OF LIFE. But whatever all you happy liberals will realize these things once were told what type of underwear to buy since were living off of the very people yo hate: rich people.
“I was a Democrat my entire life, until I found out they didn’t hate black people.” — average talk radio fan
Who would you prefer to have as company when facing a pressing need to outrun a bear? Romney for sure.
If you are a hard working American who pays their bills and works for your money.
I would certainly want the guy with experience looting pension funds, so I have a chance to never receive Medicare or Social Security. Because freedom.
So you would rather Obama take your money now and give it away? You should try using your head for more than just a hat rack and plan ahead. Don’t wait for someone else to plan for your future.
4 more years we can’t afford it as a country. Wisconsin has it right.
Meeting God today? President Obama clearly - Excellent family man with two feet on firm ground. Putting your dog on the pricey car roof hardly exemplary of “family values.”
Well, Mitt did hose the poop off before rolling on. That’s sumpthin’. Iddin’ it?
Whom would you consult for advice on forging legal documents?
Like who was running Bain Capital in 2000, 2001, and 2002. But since you’re clearly a birther, and therefore mentally challenged, I won’t ask you to look up the reference.
Your classmate is looking a little shaggy and needs a haircut stat. Romney or Obama?
Obama, of course. It’s like the old brain teaser about the town with only two barbers: you choose the barber with the bad haircut because he’s responsible for the one with the good haircut and the guy who looks good was responsible for him.
Who would you want to get congress to cooperate and get something done ? Obama has failed for the last four years .
Yeah you are totally right, the system was not intentionally rigged by the framers to allow a strong minority in the legislature to almost completely stop the government from functioning. Oh wait…
Get congress to cooperate? Romney, only because he’d be dealing with democrats who, unlike their Republican opponents, still cling to the democratic value of compromise.
And who could blame congressional republicans, he just doesn’t LOOK trustworthy somehow, you know what I mean? And forget about his full name, yyeeeeessshhhh.