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Pence Doubles Down on Trump’s “Putin Has Been Stronger Leader Than Obama” Statement

Pence Doubles Down on Trump’s “Putin Has Been Stronger Leader Than Obama” Statement

“I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president”

President Obama is a weak leader, but then most textbook narcissists are. I get that. But Putin? A strong leader?

At Wednesdays’s Commander-in-Chief forum, Donald Trump cited Putin’s approval ratings (because I’m sure Russian polls aren’t cooked) as evidence of Putin’s “strong” leadership; leadership that Trump suggested is stronger than President Obama’s. While that might be true technically, are we really looking to compare the once free-world with a communist dictatorial foe?

Apparently so.

Speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash Thursday, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Governor Mike Pence doubled down on Trump’s odd comparison:

From CNN:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday defended his running mate’s statement that Vladimir Putin is a stronger leader than President Barack Obama, calling it “inarguable.”

In a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the GOP vice presidential nominee said Donald Trump was speaking “boldly” as did the 40th president of the United States.

“I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president,” Pence said.

But pressed by Bash on the difference between the two nation’s governments — namely that in the US democracy presidents share power with Congress, Pence acknowledged that Trump was not advocating for a dictatorship.

“Donald Trump said last night he doesn’t particularly like the system,” Pence said in reference to Russia.

Is Assad a strong leader? What about the Ayatollah?

I get what Trump’s saying, but comparing the strength of a dictator to the leader of a Republic and then deciding in favor of the dictator is just…odd.

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Comments

I get what Trump’s saying

Evidently not.

    Every time Team Trump come out with weird statements and proclamations like these, we always have to wait a day or so before his acolytes can explain to us what he really meant.

      Valerie in reply to Amy in FL. | September 9, 2016 at 1:12 pm

      Usually, it’s more a matter of digging up the actual quote, and saying out loud the difference between what he said, and what they said he said.

      Over. And Over. And Over.

Unfortunately for Pence he has to defend a lot of stupid comments. I can’t wait to hear how explains “We should have taken their oil” from Trump during the forum in reference to Iraq. Sometimes it is better to just say it was a stupid statement and move on. Trump is getting better and we all have to remember that he has been a huge egotist for most of his life and ANY form of public exposure was deemed to be good for Trump. Now he has to retrench and learn that he is now accountable for anything he says or does. Let’s just hope he can keep it all together for two more months!

    jeffweimer in reply to inspectorudy. | September 9, 2016 at 11:52 am

    My guess about the oil comment is that we should make it impossible for them to profit from it. Take control of the fields at least temporarily, arrange oil sanctions (like Saddam), whatever it takes. Starve them of the ability to use oil to support themselves.

      inspectorudy in reply to jeffweimer. | September 9, 2016 at 5:39 pm

      You are acting like Pence. You are saying something that Trump did not say and you are putting your spin on it. There is nothing wrong with your opinion but that is all it is. He said “Take the oil”. To me, that means loading it either in trucks or in a pipeline. He didn’t say take the profits or place oil sanctions on them. Why can’t he just stop saying these goofy things? Why can’t he stop talking about Putin? Talk about the economy and the 97,000,000 (Millions), people out of the workforce. Or talk about the lousy reputation that the US has in the world today but stop the stupid crap!

        “Talk about the economy and the 97,000,000 (Millions), people out of the workforce. Or talk about the lousy reputation that the US has in the world…”

        LOL, it’s in just about every comment he makes. Maybe listen to Trump occasionally rather than the voice in your head?

Putin has ~80% favorability rating in Russia. He took their economy from 22nd in the world to 7th. He helped orchestrate an 8-fold increase in Russian income, 7-fold increase in the middle class, and 50% reduction in poverty. If Obama had done that, then I’d say he was a great leader too.

But wait, there’s more! Putin defied Obama in the Balkans and Syria, and has restored the Russian Orthodox Church. He’s seen in Russia as defending Christiandom against radical Islam. Obama’s policies has lead to the mass slaughter and enslavement of Christians.

By any objective standard, Putin has been a better leader for Russia than Obama has for the United States. It’s sad, but true.

99% of us don’t give a rat’s behind about this. Do you really think it is going to change voters positions because of this?

All politics is local and if Trump gets those inner city locals to not vote Dem, who cars what he says. Based on interviews with “the locals” he seems to be winning them over and with the huge screaming liberal voices that are having head explosions, I think he might have them on the defensive. Interesting enough, the standard liberal tactics are to paint the republican front runner an idiot. They succeeded with Bush, McCain (through Palin) and Romney.

I was listening to Sirius Progressive talk radio and I have to say that Stephanie Miller and Nomiki Konst must have never graduated from 8 grade. I think Trump Deranged Syndrome is like pneumonia to the BDS as a cold.

There goes the Crimean vote. Meanwhile, NK just tested another warhead.

Even a mule of average intelligence knows the difference between being led and being driven.

Some T-rump suckers are NOT that bright…

Rags is out to prove that he’s more intelligent than the average mule. Wouldn’t a donkey be more fitting?

Assuming this quote is accurate

“[Putin] has very strong control over a country,” Trump said during the town hall, which was hosted by MSNBC and NBC on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid in New York City. “Now, it’s a very different system, and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly in that system, he’s been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader.”

I don’t have any problem with it. He even notes the difference between the systems, something apparently missed by Kimberlee. Putin is inarguably a strong leader who has played a weak position into something far more favorable on behalf of his country. It is necessary to recognize when a rival power has a strong leader. To fail to do so would be stupid, perhaps fatally so.

Once again, Trump is playing the role of the mouthy kid in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and, again, he was not saying anything different from the opinions of very many Americans who follow the international news.

This is just another dishonest attempt by the pro-Hillary mob to whip up a kerffluffel. This has gotten very, very old.

    jack burns in reply to Valerie. | September 9, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    Agreed but Trump needs to just lose the goofy bromance. Shut up about it. This strike a nerve with the pro-Hillary mob mainly because Putin’s not far enough to the left.

      stevewhitemd in reply to jack burns. | September 9, 2016 at 1:47 pm

      It struck a nerve with the pro-Hillary mob mainly because Putin is what Hillary wants to be, and the mob would prefer that none of us notice that until it’s accomplished.

    Putin is not a “strong leader”. In fact, he is not a leader at all. Leaders inspire, set example; they can be held accountable. It’s not that Putin isn’t clever or that he doesn’t know how to hold on to power; Putin is a strongman.

Here’s an historical fact…

strong man (woman) regimes coming in on the heels of an ineffective government are ALWAYS able to show an improvement in “stuff”. For a WHILE.

True in Germany with Hitler. True in Italy with Mussolini. True with Putin. True anywhere you find the elements.

Likewise, it is true that the strong man (woman) eventually has to resort to increasingly totalitarian means to maintain their regime.

With Putin, you have expansionist adventurism, murder of opponents, and state-sponsored organized crime with Putin-approved oligarchs, along with KGB doctrines applied world-wide.

Not the kind of thing conservatives find they can approve, much less admire.

    inspectorudy in reply to Ragspierre. | September 9, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    All one has to do is to look at any institution that leftists control to see where they would go with ultimate power. Universities, all government agencies, welfare and entitlements, PC correctness in our speech and viewing civil discourse involving the police and of course the 2nd amendment and abortion. They have shown over and over that they always lean towards taking away individual rights for the good of the public. Remember the FBI agent who was an informant during the 60’s and 70’s during the leftist’s movements and he said that if they had been successful they would have put over 25,000,000 Americans into “Reeducation” camps. And if that failed there would have to be more severe measures taken, (Execution). We know where hillary will take us if she gets away with her agenda.

It would certainly be scary to have a president who ruled by executive order, rather than by negotiating with congress.

Kemberlee, but wait, here is the chaser:
Putin shuts down highly respected independent Levada opinion poll on the wake of the Russian election:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2016/09/06/putin-shuts-down-last-russian-independent-pollster-in-anticipation-of-russian-and-us-elections/#363b2e087dd9
The latest Levada poll showed Putin’s United Russia party rating falling precipitously from 39 to 31%.
Putin is not a “strong leader”, just a strongman.

Jack Burns,

Even then Rags fails miserably.

Eeeeeeeeeore! 🙂

Regards

Mailman

    Ragspierre in reply to mailman. | September 9, 2016 at 3:35 pm

    Thus speaks the jack-ASS…

      jack burns in reply to Ragspierre. | September 9, 2016 at 4:01 pm

      Rags, now you’re just sounding colicky. Did some of your peas get mixed with your meatloaf and mashed potatoes again?

      Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | September 9, 2016 at 5:01 pm

      I’ll be enjoying Steak au Poivre, with mushrooms sauted in Madera and butter on the side, with fresh green beans cooked with bacon and onion.

      I’ll follow that with a fine cigar and some Islay Scotch.

      WAY too rich for a West Side butt-boi like you.

        jack burns in reply to Ragspierre. | September 9, 2016 at 5:22 pm

        Nothing but the top of the line Hungry Man dinners for our little Rag man. Or is that the “John Wayne Gacy” special at Golden Corral? You did get the word order a little scrambled though, sure you meant to say “you’ll be enjoying butt-boi(?)”… See if you can get the caretaker to add some fava beans and a fine box chianti.

Is Trump just baiting her into bringing up Russia during the debates?

I mean seriously, we’re parsing words about what “strong leader” means when the real topics of discussion vis-a-vis Russia / Putin should be:

1) Ukraine and the abandonment of NATO commitments
2) Assassinations by the KGB on US soil
3) Obama / Clinton’s mis-steps in Syria resulting in vastly increased Russian presence and influence in the Middle East
4) Ditto re: diplomatic screw-ups with Turkey opening the door for Russia to have their long-sought naval gateway to the Med
5) What in the fuck is the strategy with Iran? And the billions of money (cash!) handed over to the mullahs… how much is going directly to Russia for missile systems that will be aimed at our troops?
6) Clinton Foundation pay-for-play resulting in 20% of US uranium reserves now being owned by Russia
7) The retarded “reset button” debacle… how embarrassing.

Seriously, that vile, criminal, sickly lying whore Clinton should be absolutely eviscerated over Russia. This parsing of words is stupid and completely misses the point.

my Persian cat is a stronger leader than Obola…

our SCOAMF couldn’t lead me to a cold beer at quitting time.

of course Putin is a stronger leader than 5hit Midas: everyone is.

In one thread the nevertrumpers are protecting shrillary, and here we have them taking up for obambi.

Putin’s a real wimp compared to obambi alright.

These global statesman run around blowing smoke up each other’s arses, but Republicans are supposed to act belligerently so they can be called uncouth and the like.
The old adage about flattery seems to be forgotten when the bigotry of the uncouth is invoked.