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Originally Posted by UGAalum94
I kind of like Grant, not that I'm suggesting he was an effective president. I think the Ken Burns series on the Civil War just built up my sympathy for the guy, and it's hard for me to see him as "retarded."
That's neither here nor there, I realize.
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Oh, I actually like Grant too, but it doesn't change the fact that he was an unbelievably awkward President - while he was an unreal general (especially the amazing Vicksburg gambit), he basically abandoned all of the qualities that made him a great general when he took office, hence the "functional retard" portion . . . how a guy that smart, creative and willing to take risks becomes a risk-adverse, corruption-loving, Panic of 1873-ignoring douche is beyond me.
Again, YMMV and all that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UGAalum94
I personally blame the media, as I tend to do for almost everything. I'm not saying the press was somehow less biased or more intellectual in their coverage or anything insane like that, just that the relentless coverage of all aspects of a candidates life, 24 hours a day for maybe even years leading up to the race isn't making it easy to hold anyone in high regard. And I think it might keep good, sane people with normal egos from ever considering actual public service by holding office.
Would you run? I damn sure wouldn't.
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I'm not sure that the office of President was ever the province of people with "sane egos" at any point in history, to be quite honest, but I can certainly understand where you're coming from with the rest - and that was kind of my point. Just because we're bombarded with this stuff on TV, over the air and on the Internet doesn't mean that it's any 'worse' than stuff that happened in 1950, 1850, or 1750 - there's quite a bit of evidence that this is actually the norm, not a recent development, but we're simply more saturated with information than before.
This is kind of like the inane outrage at "those darn kids" by older generations - it happens every year, and has since the beginning of time. I guess in my mind, this is kind of similar to only showing the top half of Elvis's body on TV - we can shake our heads all we want, but that doesn't mean we're "right" or righteous.