What is it that the American people want?

[angus]

In 2004,

They didn't want Kerry to be president.

2008

They didn't like McCain.

2012

They didn't like Romney.

What is it that the American people want?

To have their cake and eat it too. 

We expect a superhero who can withstand all manner of vetting and probing and round-the-clock, 24-month campaigns in a fishbowl existence with perfect teeth and a perfect wife and 2.3 healthy, well-behaved children and answers to all manner of questions.  Then we complain because we have in the end to choose between the lesser of two evils, but realistically only the most aggressive, megalomaniacal sort of politician can stand up to the intense and unrealistic scrutiny under which we expect our candidates to survive the campaign trail.

[angus]

In short, the American people want Heaven but they do not want to die to get there. 

"if a chinese find two dolla, he spend one and save one.  if an American find two dolla, he borrow five and spend seven."

== a (not so ancient) Chinese proverb, heard by angus on the streets of Shangai recently.

[angus]

They want Obamacare.  Yes, the name has been successfully poisoned, but the constituent pieces always poll well.

Indeed.  Obamacare always does better when it has a different name.

Sadly, it's polls like this that make me question what kind of value policy polls have at all.

affordable+care+act.  what's not to like?

Good marketing strategies is what it's all about.  Obama has his own Karl Rove.  I don't like Bush or Obama, but I've voted for each of them at one time or another.  Along with most Americans, as it turns out.  

I was milling about in Cancun one night a few years ago and this spanglish-speaking norteño barker approached me with a handful of coupons, "hay, mang.  Take one.  Which one do you want?  I know that you gringos will eat a steaming bowl full of shit so long as someone gives it to you for 20% off, and names it appropriately."  I guess he pegged me for one of those gringos with an irreverent sense of humor.  

Anyway, you're right and Shakespeare was wrong.  Very much is in a name.  (To be fair, Shakespeare never had a chance to meet any gringos because they didn't yet exist in his time.)

[angus]

I don't like Bush or Obama, but I've voted for each of them at one time or another.  Along with most Americans, as it turns out.  

Factually incorrect.

Ha.  I figured someone would take an interpretation of the statement and show that it was demonstrably false.  Sure, you can spin it that way, but I spun it much more simply.  A majority of voters voted for Obama in 2008, and I was among them.  A majority supported Bush in 2004, and I was among them.  So, taken collectively, "they" voted for Bush in '04 and "they" voted for Obama in '08.  I have that in common with "them."  It's a subtle quibble, and I don't want to distract from the point of naso's fine thread with it.  I do take your point as well.  Certainly many are not eligible to vote, and even then only a small percentage of the eligible voting population bothers to choose its elected officials, and even then they just go with Pepsi or Coke, depending upon how their parents have instructed them, so who can say for sure what they really want?