It's a sad era when the most important factor to consider when voting for a candidate is whether or not you'd share a beer with him. Whether or not he has facial asymmetry, whether or not his smile looks genuine. Sure, the debate mediators will ask questions about foreign policy, the environment, the economy. But their questions aren't designed to get answers, only gaffes for the press room the next day. A candidate's economic outline can't be touched on in a minute and a half, but they have more than enough of an opportunity to make themselves look likable or unlikable in that time.

And really, that's what elections are based on. Look at that Ted Cruz thread. It wasn't a joke, it was a serious article by an actual paper. That's what people are concerned about. How they look. How they speak. It's truly sickening.

Charisma has its place in politics. Compromise and political efficacy require persuasion and reassurance.

Ed Miliband would have made a great PM.

On a more serious note, Democracy is a popularity contest after all, it's working exactly as intended.

Charisma has merit in politics
Your statement is self-contradicting

Water is wet

It's sad that being a manager of a McDonald's has more qualifications to it than being president of a country. For being president the only two things you need are a natural citizenship and being of age.

Quote from: BerzerkCommando on February 12, 2016, 05:03:24 AM

It's sad that being a manager of a McDonald's has more qualifications to it than being president of a country. For being president the only two things you need are a natural citizenship and being of age.

...And 270 electoral votes--which is to say, the public support of over half the country's adult population.

Sooo, kind of a crude comparison.

Let's also not forget the wallet size. Not a chance in hell some guy with no money to his name would ever make it up there either.

Have you ever heard of JFK

Quote from: Verbatim on February 12, 2016, 05:55:51 AM

Quote from: BerzerkCommando on February 12, 2016, 05:03:24 AM

It's sad that being a manager of a McDonald's has more qualifications to it than being president of a country. For being president the only two things you need are a natural citizenship and being of age.

...And 270 electoral votes--which is to say, the public support of over half the country's adult population.

Sooo, kind of a crude comparison.

The point is that you don't need any leadership skills or a political background or even political knowledge in order to run. The only requirements for you to run are like I said, you have to be a natural citizen and be at least 35 years old. Some foreign person who has great ideas and a very good political background can't run for president, but some high school dropout with no political knowledge can all because they meet the only two requirements.

So what? The office is supposed to be theoretically open to any natural  born citizen of age. Other government offices are open to all citizens of age.
Government of the people, remember?

And it's just as bad when an employer chooses one employee over another because of facial features. Bringing up something bad doesn't absolve this other bad thing that's happening.

I wasn't disagreeing with you; I was still responding to Berzerk's asinine comments about qualifications and shit.

Quote from: โค SecondClass on February 16, 2016, 03:50:31 PM

And it's just as bad when an employer chooses one employee over another because of facial features.

This is actually not that bad a thing in many cases.

A salesperson, for example, gains a lot from being physically attractive or at least pleasant to look at. You may not like it, but unless you're consciously trying to be le open minded, you are statistically more likely to buy from an attractive seller than an ugly one.

This isn't the case in many other fields, but it is in enough jobs that you can't just totally discount it.

EVERYONE should constantly be trying to be open minded. You can stick a "le" in front of it, like social tolerance is some kind of joke, but that just makes you look ignorant.