which is worse: a politician with offensive views/opinions or a politician who pretends to have offensive views/opinions solely for political gain?

what say u

the latter

From a purely practical standpoint I'd say the former, since it seems like they're more likely to actually try and get their views made into law instead of keeping them as perennially useful wedge issues. Both fucking awful though. Yes, that's right, I am unafraid to take a bold and controversial stance against bad things that everone hates.

Examples, J0rdan?

What's the difference? Serious or playacting, Joe Lieberman is a twat.

well alfred it's more philosophical i guess -- today i was reading greenwald's book and there was a section in there that had a quote from john mccain on gay marriage, talking about traditional family and all that, and i just thought to myself "john mccain seems somewhat reasonable, i doubt that deep down inside he actually thinks that gays should be banned from marrying. he was probably just placating to the GOP base," & then i couldn't really decide for myself which would be worse -- john mccain thinking that gay marriage should be banned, or john mccain advocating it for political reasons

in practice it's the same i guess, but i mean on a... person-to-person level or w/e

it's kind of the same thing from a few days back where ppl were debating whether or not sarah palin is a paranoid gun-clutching mongoloid or if she just pretends to be a paranoid gun-clutching mongoloid

it kinda feels like the same thing altho i guess the latter is worse bcuz it leads u down this completely fruitless path of like "oh is this just for show, do they truly believe this?"-style interpretation & it ends up sidetracking any conversation abt the issue itself.

btw J0rdan, now that you're reading Greenwald's book, do you care to take back your remarks in the Tim Russert RIP thread ;)

hahaha, i think about that sometimes tbh

George Galloway, or the guys who tried to beat him up? Hm, not sure -the guys are totally unredeemable, but Galloway is more likely to get things done.

i really never had feelings for tim russert btw -- i didn't really start watching cable news all that intently until 2 years ago maybe & i still don't watch the sunday morning shows cuz i sleep until 1 pm -- idk why i got so huffy in that thread

i'll be first in the line to pull the "had no use for him card" if david gregory croaks next month

I didn't take it all personally. He seemed like a decent guy, family man, and so on. I was very careful not to attack him personally.

my dad really liked him a lot tho because they're both from buffalo & russert wasn't that much older than him, so i have to remember to bite my tongue around the family if the subject of luke comes up

Oh, christ, Luke Russert on the other hand....

my dad really liked him a lot tho because they're both from buffalo

!!!

is your dad a bills fan???

sort of, but he's much, much more of a sabers fan

i will accept that

i spent a lot of time up in buffalo in the summers when i was a kid -- loved it up there, altho i can't even begin to fathom the winters

it's a great town in the summer

latter is worse because of the additional layer of cynicism imo.