President Barack Obama won the 2008 election by a landslide. He won the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after that. His popularity soared. He raised about a billion dollars for his re-election campaign. So why is he in such a tight election and why 500 Admirals and Generals are endorsing his opponent? As logical chess players, what do you think?
500 Admirals and Generals Endorse Romney
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times
November 4, 2012, 03:33PM
Five hundred retired generals and admirals are running an ad in Monday’s editions of The Washington Times calling on the country to elect Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday.
In plain terms the officers, who paid for the ad themselves, said they support Mr. Romney:
“We, the undersigned, proudly support Governor Mitt Romney as our nation’s next president and commander-in-chief.”
The ad then goes on to list all of the officers, in alphabetical order, in four columns of print.
• Click here to view the ad (PDF)
The retired admirals and generals said they decided to take this public stand to try to head off “having to live through four more years of what has been experienced since January 20th, 2009.”
The list contains a number of prominent four-star admirals and generals, including five former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Among those is the surprising appearance of retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former JCS chairman, appointed by President Bill Clinton.
….The most prominent Army general is Tommy Franks, who led U.S. Central Command and devised the plan for invading Iraq in 2003. His war plan was criticized for not planning for a robust Iraqi insurgency.
More here: Retired top military brass push for Romney – Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com
Political analysis through chess
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I am a retired admiral, but I am rooting for Osama… uphs, I mean Obama.
I think it’s because Obama is anti-military. That’s why.
Wow! These generals and admirals paid for the ads from their own money. Impressive.
Obama will beat Romney because his team is more aggressive.
Politics is a dirty play (just like chess sometimes)…en ya, Obama does not need army officers…he is a peaceful and a nice human-being, this is what my ‘logic’ ‘feels’…Mr. Romney is a ‘synthetic’ personality…my ‘logic’ doesn’t believe his ‘impassioned’ speeches…
You can’t trust any politician.
Susan, did you ever become a U.S. citizen? I know you’ve been living here for quite a while and represented the U.S. later in your career, but did you ever seek citizenship?
The armed forces should not try to interfere in democracy. They are there, paid for out of public money, to support whoever the public vote in.
Seems unrelated to chess. Some observations about your lead-in:
1) “President Barack Obama won the 2008 election by a landslide.”
Obama’s popular vote in 2008: 52.9%
2) “He won the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after that. His popularity soared”
Approval rating on Oct. 9, 2009 (date the award was announced: 53%
Approval rating on Dec. 10, 2009 (the night he accepted the award): 48%
Approval rating today: 52%
Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx
From the chart, no such ratings spike occurred as a result of the Nobel Peace Prize.
3) “He raised about a billion dollars for his re-election campaign.”
So did the other guy…
Total spending by Obama, DNC, Outside groups: $931,471,420
Total spending by Romney, RNC, Outside groups: $1,022,753,733
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php#out
Obama made a strategical blunder by using all his political capital for Obamacare instead of focusing on job creation. He should have asked a chess player to advise him.
ain’t this a shame?
It’s a shame that Obama can’t be elected President for life like Putin.
Is anyone else alarmed that this is coming out the day before the election? It looks like someone is getting desperate.
Of course these guys want Romney. They also want to go to war with Iran.
This endorsement shows that Romney will be a better commander in chief.
“Obama…blundered) by using all his political capital for Obamacare instead of focusing on job creation.”
But Mr Romney said (quote), “Government doesn’t create jobs”
“This endorsement shows that Romney will be a better commander in chief.”
No, this endorsement shows that the military wants to continue a lot of your money on toys and it also show that the USA is sliding toward fascism.
there are more choices, you know. if only people would vote for their “true” choice. you can check all your choices at comparapoll.com
The Washington Times? Susan, how could you?
The military is the last institution to influence the American ideal….
Eisenhower, a Republican president warned: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed…The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.”
…and that was in 1953 dollars.