We need a president with active duty experience

tweaker2

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
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Look at the ones that did

Carter
Kennedy
Eisenhower
Truman

These we are all, more or less, pretty good presidents, at least compared to the ones since Carter. We need less governors and senators and more millitary men.

Interesting premise. What we also need less of are corrupt businessmen who disguise themselves as patriotic politicians, get elected, start wars for profit and then run the country into the ground while getting rich from it, similar to what corporate raiders do by dismantling a company and feeding on its dismembered body parts for quick obscene profits.
 

Freshgeardude

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2006
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I stopped reading after you said Carter was a good president, although I'm inclinded to agree with the title statement
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
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Hmmm I wonder why you didn't mention GWB on that list... Proposal fail.
 

Rastus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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35 years old and being a natural born citizen of the US or Kenya are the only qualifications for president.
 

tweaker2

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
14,475
6,896
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35 years old and being a natural born citizen of the US or Kenya are the only qualifications for president.

Or how 'bout being a failure at every business he tried to run like Bush 43 is as qualifications? ;)
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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35 years old and being a natural born citizen of the US or Kenya are the only qualifications for president.

I would have said 'also getting elected' before the 2000 election.

Of course there are many more 'unofficial' requirements.
 

Angry Irishman

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2010
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Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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LOL at the parrots repeating the Republican talking points.

Man, we could use another Carter.

Appointing Paul Volcker who did good at the fed at fixing the economy (Reagan got the credit, it took time), with the most successful legislative record we've had since LBJ.

Keeping us out of war, making an energy policy to get off foreign oil dependancy a priority, all kinds of beneficial social policies, making human rights a priority...

Oh ya, did I mention groundbreaking Middle East peace achievment that won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Heck of a lot better than death squad supplying, constitution violating, massive deficit, corrupt right-wing championing, class warfare Reagan.

The thing Carter is criticized for, leadership style, Obama is good at.

I'd take Carter over Obama no problem.

Carter was not the compromiser with interests like Wall Street Obama has been.
 

Angry Irishman

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2010
1,883
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LOL at the parrots repeating the Republican talking points.

Man, we could use another Carter.

Appointing Paul Volcker who did good at the fed at fixing the economy (Reagan got the credit, it took time), with the most successful legislative record we've had since LBJ.

Keeping us out of war, making an energy policy to get off foreign oil dependancy a priority, all kinds of beneficial social policies, making human rights a priority...

Oh ya, did I mention groundbreaking Middle East peace achievment that won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Heck of a lot better than death squad supplying, constitution violating, massive deficit, corrupt right-wing championing, class warfare Reagan.

The thing Carter is criticized for, leadership style, Obama is good at.

I'd take Carter over Obama no problem.

Carter was not the compromiser with interests like Wall Street Obama has been.

Mostly agree....

Carter actually get's a bad rap. I think in his heart he is/was truly a patriot having the military service to prove it. He was dealt a series of bad luck situations of which he still wears the stains today.
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
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Mostly agree....

Carter actually get's a bad rap. I think in his heart he is/was truly a patriot having the military service to prove it. He was dealt a series of bad luck situations of which he still wears the stains today.

Carter had some serious flaws (apparently he was a horrible micromanager which you really don't want in a president) but he also inherited a crappy economy & decades of bad Iran policy. He wasn't nearly as bad as people make him out to be, and he deserves credit for appointing Paul Volcker to head the fed and then bearing the heat for Volcker's unpopular but ultimately successful interest rate policies.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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Stateside for the Texas Air National Guard hardly qualifies for active duty.

It depends. Certain events in the national guard count as active duty while stateside. For example:

Active Duty Pay

It pays to be part of the Guard.

Whether it's your first job or the next phase in your military career, the Guard offers excellent pay. Your earnings depend on your rank, your job and even your education level. The higher your rank, the more you'll earn.
Your Active Duty Pay during training—that’s during Basic Training Basic Training:
(BT) 10-week course of intense physical and mental training, during which recruits develop essential Soldier skills and values. and then during your job training ( Advanced Individual Training , or AIT)—could be as much as:
http://www.nationalguard.com/benefits/guard-pay/active-duty-pay

But I agree, most of the time the national guard does not count as active duty.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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Carter had some serious flaws (apparently he was a horrible micromanager which you really don't want in a president) but he also inherited a crappy economy & decades of bad Iran policy. He wasn't nearly as bad as people make him out to be, and he deserves credit for appointing Paul Volcker to head the fed and then bearing the heat for Volcker's unpopular but ultimately successful interest rate policies.

Carter was also the best president to have in office when Three Mile Island went bad. They could not lie to him, since he was a Navy Nuclear Officer and would know better. It must have been refreshing for the people handling the problem to be able to talk to him in tech talk and he could understand fully what was going on.
 
Feb 10, 2000
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It depends. Certain events in the national guard count as active duty while stateside. For example:


http://www.nationalguard.com/benefits/guard-pay/active-duty-pay

But I agree, most of the time the national guard does not count as active duty.

Guardsmen are, at times, on active duty orders, but they are still not active duty members, any more than reservists called up for deployment are active duty members (they are not). In my experience in deployed settings, Guardsmen tend, other things being equal, to be the least fit and disciplined military members, though as members of the Reserve and Guard have increasingly been relied upon for deployment this has improved somewhat.
 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
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They were all reserves

George H.W. Bush was one of the youngest naval aviators in WW2 serving in the Pacific theater. He had plenty of active duty combat experience even being shot down in his torpedo bomber.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
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Guardsmen are, at times, on active duty orders, but they are still not active duty members, any more than reservists called up for deployment are active duty members (they are not). In my experience in deployed settings, Guardsmen tend, other things being equal, to be the least fit and disciplined military members, though as members of the Reserve and Guard have increasingly been relied upon for deployment this has improved somewhat.
That used to be the case, but part of the G. W. Bush/Clinton force draw down was integrating the National Guard and Reserve components into our war plans. A Guardsman today is quite likely to be deployed into a combat situation; we simply can't fight a war without them. Guard components are accordingly also much better equipped than Vietnam-era units, although not quite up to active duty unit levels.

One counterbalancing factor I see in having a former active duty POTUS is the tendency to second guess the experts. Unless his or her experience is relatively recent and goes up to the Joint Chiefs level, a former active duty POTUS could not have enough experience to second guess the Chiefs militarily - but he or she might well think so, which would be a major problem. On the plus side, of course, anyone who progressed beyond junior officer would understand the options laid out, and their likely military results.

But I still think the problem with our exhausted military is much more our American priorities than Obama. We simply demand too much while giving too little, and far too much of what we do give is based on political considerations rather than true needs. Obama isn't willing to give up his own priorities to give the military what it truly needs, but neither is Congress or any serious Presidential candidate back to Reagan, who had and faced down a very significant military threat to our nation. I doubt that even Reagan would have expended much political capital building up our military with our most significant likely threat being Iran or some similar nation. Even if we had a former active duty POTUS who made the military his number one priority, I can't see him or her getting enough through Congress to be significantly better than Obama or Bush.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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Guardsmen are, at times, on active duty orders, but they are still not active duty members, any more than reservists called up for deployment are active duty members (they are not). In my experience in deployed settings, Guardsmen tend, other things being equal, to be the least fit and disciplined military members, though as members of the Reserve and Guard have increasingly been relied upon for deployment this has improved somewhat.


Agreed on their training, discipline, etc. However, some of their time counts as active duty for military retirement. Even the official national guard website (which I quoted) says such. That is why the term "actived for duty" exists. :)
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
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Mostly agree....

Carter actually get's a bad rap. I think in his heart he is/was truly a patriot having the military service to prove it. He was dealt a series of bad luck situations of which he still wears the stains today.

That's good to hear, but then don't post Republican talking points attacking Carter - the current one going around.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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I would have said 'also getting elected' before the 2000 election.

Oh no, you are not one of those "Bush lost the election" conspiracists, are you? It is in the same group as we faked the moon landing and we used super thermite to take down the twin towers.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
72,326
6,039
126
35 years old and being a natural born citizen of the US or Kenya are the only qualifications for president.

I know. The Generals tell a story about the day they explained to the Mau Mau in Chief how drones work and he did a little dance and said, "Come on guys, you're shitting me."