who would you rather have as president right now?

[Swing Voter]

Barack Obama. I do not trust Robert Gates to be able to work with Congress to pass domestic reform, whereas Obama looks to be successful with the public option pretty soon. Obama's foreign prospects have also satisfied me; I see no reason to prefer the untested Robert Gates to manage our entire nation.

[Swing Voter]

Basically. Some of the states there were designed solely to give extra GOP votes.

You don't honestly believe that, do you?

[Swing Voter]

Basically. Some of the states there were designed solely to give extra GOP votes.

You don't honestly believe that, do you?

That was why the Dakotas were admitted separately.

That is a rather opinionated response. The Dakotas split parties in each of their first two national elections. The Mountain West in that era was dominated by William Jennings Bryan and the Populist Party had modest success. I would hope you could come up with a better argument to back your absurd assertion.

[Swing Voter]

Gates

Care to explain your response? I'm interested in seeing why people would prefer a man they know barely anything about to a sitting President.

[Swing Voter]

Gates

Care to explain your response? I'm interested in seeing why people would prefer a man they know barely anything about to a sitting President.

First off, welcome to the Forum.

I know far more about Bob Gates than Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan before they became President.

Mr. Gates' bio is more impressive than all of the aforementioned Presidents before they became President...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

I also believe he posesses the maturity and temperment for the job and he's clearly not "partisan" in the bad sense.

That said, I think he would like to retire as SoD and hang out on a beach somewhere.

Thank you, and thank you for providing a more in-depth response. I was unsure of there being any reasons one may have other than dislike for Obama, but your response was decent.

[Swing Voter]

Basically. Some of the states there were designed solely to give extra GOP votes.

You don't honestly believe that, do you?

From the Divine oracle wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Territory

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I just don't see how that is possible considering the political leanings of the Dakotas at the time circa their admission. Seems to me that they were slightly more favorable to the Democrats.