Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Yeah, I'm not sure you can say anyone else was running the country.  He didn't keep staff or cabinet members around for long, and there's certainly not much chance he'd listen to anyone else telling him what to do, anyway.

You can certainly argue that he might have run it haphazardly, or poorly, or both... but whatever happened, was coming from him, and not someone else pulling his strings.

Of course, the idea that the president "runs the country" is a bit amiss, anyway.  The legislative branch makes the laws, and the judicial branch adjudicates them.  A president could sit back and do pretty much nothing, and the country would still continue to operate. 

I kind of disagree on this front. 

Even with people moving in and out, the more "running" of the country that a president does take more focus, energy and will from that president. And it just doesn't strike me that he has that kind of focus to really do it. He'll say loud things, bother people and do things that make him feel important, but he never struck me as a guy in there to "do the work." 

And in a lot of ways, as you said, a president is a figurehead as much as anything. But he never gave the impression of rolling up his sleeves and getting elbow deep on much. 

It was 1920s/1930s Germany. You're acting like the "weaklings who joined along" weren't ALSO anti-Semites.

Oh they were, but it wasn't like everyone was in on grand plans to beat up Jews in the streets and take their property all at once. 

As I've said my typical vote here in CA for the Presidency is for the Libertarian candidate. I don't have to worry about voting for the lesser of two evils

That's the ticket I punched the last two X for POTUS.Now I have to go lesser of the 2 evils - sadly

I would prefer it if candidates ran on their positions instead of the constant attacks on personnages.

Of course, that would be boring, and they'd lose.  Nearly all ads are negative.

My one "rule" in political ads would be that they cannot name or depict the other candidate, or any of their major supporters.  They could say "my opponent".

I'm taking the sports car to the golf course and have a few beers

60 degrees here and not many Friday afternoons like this one are left

this political banter is boring

If your answer is "well, I guess we have no choice but to align with the folks that think Jews are a pestilence to be eliminated and the cause of all our issues," you can get all the way fucked. Fuck the monster who pushed it, and fuck the weaklings who joined along.

If we need to stand for counter arguments that back that, we're too weak to stand for much.

That wasn't what they *THOUGHT* they were agreeing to.  

First, they were stuck between allying with the Communists and allying with the Nazis so there were no good options.  

Second, the Communists were a bit more insistent in their anti-democratic refusal to join with others.  Ie, the Communists more-or-less demanded total control whereas the Nazis agreed in principle to a coalition government.  

In theory the Nazis didn't have much control in the initial Hitler Cabinet.  Hindenburg (elderly WWI war hero General) was still President and most definitely NOT a Nazi.  Additionally, the Vice Chancellor, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice, Minister of War, Minister of Economics, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Labor, Postmaster, and Minister of Transport were all non-Nazi's.  The only Nazi's included were Hitler as Chancellor and the Minister of the Interior.  Goebbels and Goring were added soon thereafter to newly created posts.  

The people who made the decisions were in a terrible situation with no good options.  Judging them with the benefit of hindsight isn't fair to them.  At the time they *THOUGHT* that Hindenburg, von Papen (the Vice Chancellor), and the other non-Nazi ministers could keep the Nazis from taking full control or doing anything too crazy.  My point isn't that it worked, it obviously didn't.  My point is that they were constrained by the lack of viable options and at the time this looked like the best bad option available to them.  

Having one good eye and one bad eye is annoying, I'm learning.

I have to go back again Monday, doc said I had a cornea scratch and he wants to ensure it's healing.  My other eye gets fixed on the 20th.