Real Question

[Westside Steve]

No, I didn't think axelrod wrote the president's speeches.

Then again, outside of possibly having some kind of a vague notion, I don't suppose the president writes formulates or plans too many of his policy items either.

BTW I doubt that bush did.

WSS

[Westside Steve]

And I apologize for confusing you with the Rove reference.

WSS

[VaporTrail]

and let me repeat that my buddy Doug went to cleveland state or toledo or somewhere and passed the bar on his first try. Unlike 3 others from that section who had gone to harvard.

WSS

 

The only thing that someone doing their undergrad at Harvard tells me is that this person has rich parents.

[Westside Steve]

The only thing that someone doing their undergrad at Harvard tells me is that this person has rich parents.

Well, some kind of outside influence anyway.

I mean, didn't Bush go to princeton?

I don't dislike the little fellow but he never seems like an ivy league type to me.

That said, I was kind of impressed by a doctor I met in key west who'd graduated from harvard and done his residency at johns hopkins.

WSS

[Mr. T]

What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.

[heckofajobbrownie]

And I apologize for confusing you with the Rove reference.

WSS

 

But there wasn't a Rove reference. You wrote that Axelrod wrote the words on Obama's prompter. Which kind of makes it hard to pick it on a Rove reference.

 

You write like shit, and then pretend you're going too fast for us.

[heckofajobbrownie]

No, I didn't think axelrod wrote the president's speeches.

Then again, outside of possibly having some kind of a vague notion, I don't suppose the president writes formulates or plans too many of his policy items either.

BTW I doubt that bush did.

WSS

 

You don't seem to have a very good handle on what it is a president does.

[Westside Steve]

But there wasn't a Rove reference. You wrote that Axelrod wrote the words on Obama's prompter. Which kind of makes it hard to pick it on a Rove reference.

 

You write like shit, and then pretend you're going too fast for us.

 

Not "us"; you.

WSS

[Westside Steve]

Your last example is wayyyy different. If you get a professional degree from places like those, it says much more about your intelligence than a bachelor's. Someone who's kicked ass through Harvard and Johns Hopkins medical schools is going to be very intelligent. It's just hard to say that about anyone who gets their undergrad there, as there are going to be many underachievers. For example, I went to UD to get my BS in Physics, I was a huuuuge underachiever, though. Even though the school isn't prestigious, the degree is, and I love when I tell people that, and all of a sudden, they treat me like I'm going to be the next Einstein.

 

 

 

When really, I figured out I wasn't a good enough physicist to cut it in grad school, which is where all the important research goes. I found out I was a better chemist and biologist, and now I'm getting a masters in biology, with my research focus in biophysics. I feel what I'm doing now says wayyyyy more about me than anything I did as an undergrad. And another thing, just because someone is working towards a masters, phd, jd, etc, it doesn't necessarily imply that they're intelligent. The only thing that having "Dr." in front of your name absolutely means to me is that you spent a big chunk of your life becoming well versed in a likely narrow subject. For example, I think that anyone and their brotherhood can get a PhD in biology or chemistry if they put enough time into it, and it takes a little bit more for them to convince me that they're intelligent. Physicists, on the other hand, those guys are wizards... It takes a whole new level of understanding of math and the ability to manipulate a coordinate system to cut it as a PhD in physics. My intelligence grading scale would be completely different from heck or sev's... Let's see...

 

 

I'll work my way down

 

10 - Physicists of all sorts and sizes, Programmers

9 - MD's, DO's, lawyers, chemists, mathematicians (even though I place lawyers as a 1 in all other subjects because they're scumbags)

8 - Engineers, people with MS's in math, physics, chem, or engineering

7 - Pharmacists, Biochemists

6 - Psychologists

5 - People with MS's in soft sciences

4 - Science majors

3 - High school educated

2 - English majors, Business majors

1 - Communications majors

 

Basically, if I know nothing else about you, this is how intelligent I think you are. Once you open your mouth, you're able to move anywhere. For example, one of my friends was a history major at West Point. Now he's learning to fly helicopters in the army. He's an 8.

 

Well bud, I think you put lawyes a little higher on the list then I would have.

But it's still a pretty humorous though insightful list.

Communication major made me laugh but even below them I place the marketing major.

" How can you spot a marketing major? He's the guy in taco bell wearing a neck tie. "

WSS

[VaporTrail]

What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.

 

I respectfully disagree

 

Well bud, I think you put lawyes a little higher on the list then I would have.

But it's still a pretty humorous though insightful list.

Communication major made me laugh but even below them I place the marketing major.

" How can you spot a marketing major? He's the guy in taco bell wearing a neck tie. "

 

I try to infuse everything I do with a touch of smartass douchebaggery

 

And it's hilarious, every year since I've been to college, around May or June, I've seen at least one of my friends post on facebook, "Nobody told me my communications degree was going to be worthless!" And when you get a bunch of people who paid a shitload of money to go to a private school, then choose to pick a useless degree, you can't help but laugh at their plight. I was a business major for two weeks, before I realized I was paying way too much money for a degree everyone and their brother has.

[Westside Steve]

"Nobody told me my communications degree was going to be worthless!"

 

 

Well they shoulda guessed.

If it seems easy and kind of fun and there are a shitload of people in the claasses and the job you really want is on the cool side of the camera.......

One of my gripes with the OWS kids is that they shoulda thought a little harder about the need for graduates in whatever they took out a loan to study.

 

I was a theater major. I didn't want to build sets or hang par cans.

But you need those guys more.

 

That's why you get more points for debate than boy's extemp.

<G>

WSS

[heckofajobbrownie]

Not "us"; you.

WSS

 

Okay, sure. Your Axelrod quip was obviously a slight at Democrats and their fixation on Rove circa 2004, and anyone who didn't get it isn't up to your speed.

 

Whatever helps you get through your day.

[Westside Steve]

Okay, sure. Your Axelrod quip was obviously a slight at Democrats and their fixation on Rove circa 2004, and anyone who didn't get it isn't up to your speed.

 

Whatever helps you get through your day.

What a coincidence.

I had thought that Axelrod was more just a handle than a speech writer. ( Like the way you guys always pictured Rove)

So after a couple of rounds of what I'm sure you thought was a brilliant response, a quick web search turns up the fact that the guy actually is part of the president's speech writing team.

 

Ain't that sumthin.

WSS

[heckofajobbrownie]

Yes, because he's the senior political advisor and message crafter. Much in the same way an executive producer gets a writing credit because they give ideas in the writers meeting. Rove would be considered a speechwriter in that sense too, but that wasn't his main focus. (Though Alexrod is more involved with big speeches than I suspect Rove was.)

 

But Axelrod's job isn't to sit down and write or type out Obama's speeches - he's not a speechwriter. It's to help design what's in them. But he is actually a very talented writer. One thing he does do is help with the comedy stuff - the Alfalfa and Gridiron speeches and such. He's a witty guy. So you'll see his work in those and some of the bigger campaign speeches, but the day to day stuff, like speaking to a group of doctors about health care reform, he's not involved with.

 

The chief speechwriters are Jon Favreau and the President himself, though the President doesn't worry so much about the day to day speechwriting either. (And you want it this way.) He'll work up most speeches before he gives them, and is heavily involved with the bigger speeches.

 

So, again, it's not accurate to say that Obama just reads Axelrod's words off a prompter, even though now we're pretending that was a retroactive double reverse backflip jest directed at the Democrats' fixation on Rove.

[heckofajobbrownie]

Also, Steve, I knew Republican leaders/insiders didn't care much for Gingrich, but I didn't expect them to be shitting on him on a daily basis.

 

Then again, they know what happens if he wins the nomination.

[Westside Steve]

Yes, because he's the senior political advisor and message crafter. Much in the same way an executive producer gets a writing credit because they give ideas in the writers meeting. Rove would be considered a speechwriter in that sense too, but that wasn't his main focus. (Though Alexrod is more involved with big speeches than I suspect Rove was.)

 

But Axelrod's job isn't to sit down and write or type out Obama's speeches - he's not a speechwriter. It's to help design what's in them. But he is actually a very talented writer. One thing he does do is help with the comedy stuff - the Alfalfa and Gridiron speeches and such. He's a witty guy. So you'll see his work in those and some of the bigger campaign speeches, but the day to day stuff, like speaking to a group of doctors about health care reform, he's not involved with.

 

The chief speechwriters are Jon Favreau and the President himself, though the President doesn't worry so much about the day to day speechwriting either. (And you want it this way.) He'll work up most speeches before he gives them, and is heavily involved with the bigger speeches.

 

So, again, it's not accurate to say that Obama just reads Axelrod's words off a prompter, even though now we're pretending that was a retroactive double reverse backflip jest directed at the Democrats' fixation on Rove.

 

LOL

Thats the ticket.

Like that knight in the monty python sketch who keeps losing arms and legs.

WSS

[Westside Steve]

 

 

 

 

So, again, it's not accurate to say that Obama just reads Axelrod's words off a prompter, even though

 

Even though......

........He does.

[heckofajobbrownie]

Steve, I'm rolling my eyes.

 

If you want to believe the president is an "empty suit" and that all he does is read lines off a prompter that he didn't write and his senior political advisor did, what can I tell you? But you should know a couple things:

 

1) All presidents have speechwriters. This doesn't suggest anything about their intelligence either way.

2) All presidents use prompters or notes, and for every single speech. Neither does this suggest anything either way.

3) Most presidents are, to varying degrees, involved in the speechwriting process. Obama is one of the most involved in history. In fact, he often writes virtually all of his big speeches.

4) One of David Axelrod's jobs is message crafting for the president and the campaign, which means he often has a role in what's coming out of the president's mouth, particularly thematically. But he's not part of the speechwriting team. Because his job supersedes the speechwriters. He's at the helm of the table. He's got lots of responsibilities. Speechwriters have one.

 

So if you want to make a small debating point that sometimes David Axelrod wrote some lines in an Obama speech, or told a speechwriter how he wants a line crafted in an Obama speech, that's fine with me. But the point you were trying to make (before the retroactive backflip) was that people thought Obama was smart because of his speaking ability, and that he didn't even write those speeches, and David Axelrod did.

 

That is not an accurate characterization. It's not even close. It's just one you insist on believing because you like "empty suit."

[calfoxwc]

Obamao uses a teleprompter most all the time. He's a programmed empty suit.

 

Empty of any American princiiples and values, empty of honesty and integrity, and he and michelle obama are UNAmerican dirtbags.