Does the French President have term limits? (only since 2008) How about the British PM? How long was Mitterand President? Was he a King?

Putin is no longer President.

Apparently some jokers have resorted to Putin-baiting these days instead of the usual redbaiting.

Yes, he's no longer president, he's Prime Minister - and the guy that was PM is president. Find me an example like that :)

Do you think he'll stay on power for as long as he's alive? Would you like him to? :)

An example - Jacques Chirac. He was Prime Minister on two different occassions, and also President for 12 years.

Another example - Mauno Koivisto, served as President of Finland for 12 years, was also Prime Minister on two different occasions, including right before his stint as President.

Another example is Finnish - Urho Kekkonen, served as President of Finland for 26 years, and prior to that was Prime Minister of Finland. Koivisto was Prime Minister under his reign before becoming President.

Another example is Muhammad Mian Soomro of Pakistan, was Prime Minister right before becoming President of Pakistan in 2008.

An example of President becoming Prime Minister - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan

I don't know if he will, and I don't know see what the big deal is if he wants to remain in politics his whole life. Many politicians do it around the world. Only Russia is singled out, because people like you are Russophobic chauvinists who think Russia has to play by different rules than your own politicians or the rest of the world's. He is abiding by the Constitution. Yeltsin ruled for 8.5 years with an iron fist, rigging the 1996 election and even shelling the parliament with tanks when he didn't get his way. Did anyone call the drunkard authoritarian? No. Because he was a happy western puppet.

In England we have a saying that people who are easy to provoke are readily ''wound up'' .........as in a clock. I wonder if there is a trans-Atlantic equivalent?

Same phrase over here plus we call them high strung as in musical instruments whci can be tuned higher by tightening the strings.

"Did anyone call the drunkard authoritarian?"

yes...

Yes we used to have 'highly strung' too, but it acquired some pseudo-medical connotations and it has fallen a little out of fashion of late. Still, I think that maybe its time for a return, shall we start a campaign?

Why are Londoners so insufferable compared to people from the rest of the country? I believe parts of Europe like to put all their most obnoxious people in their capital city, but I don't know why. 90% of the time Fulhamish's rhetoric is more opaque than Obiwan's, but yet he seems to be equally genuinely amused by himself and thinks he is quite clever.

The states do that in county seats, state capitals, and DC. They are called politicians and they think they know better than the rest of us.

The average person in DC is quite pleasant. It's a town full of intellectuals who actually read newspapers.

I was being sarcastic. My reference was focused on the politicians and pundits. The everage joe pretty much everywhere is quite pleasant.

Having only known cities like Boston and Worcester growing up, I was *shocked* the first time I went to DC. Everyone was so polite, it actually made me uncomfortable. I didn't eve know what to do.

How lovely to attack a particular individual and judge a community of several million with one easy sweeping cover-all pejorative reference at the same time; ad hominem to the power of 8 million! I am not sure how widely this should be applied though.

This rather quaint response rather reminds of Saturday morning pictures where you could tell the good and the bad guys by the colour of the hat which they wore. Oh for the simplicities and certainties of childhood, how I miss them!

LOL @ Fulham whining about ad hominems after calling me high strung while contributing nothing to the discussion. A principled one, he is. Always willing to dish it out but can't handle a response in kind.

And nobody has ever generalized about the disposition of particular cities before - least of all Londoners, right? I'm sure they all treat the northern English and Scots like individuals.

Isn't it so nice to see moral equivalence taken to such a high plain? That last touch of putting words into 8 million plus people's collective mouths, without a scrap of evidence was particularly neat. I wonder if you need a special kind of citation manager to pull that particular academic tour de force off?

LOL. This is an academic argument now? As for evidence, look at the comments section on any football game summary after a game between a London club and a northern one. Then tell me what cosmopolitan and accepting comments you find written by the open-minded and never judgmental Londoners.

Here's one of the thousands you will find.

"MILLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come­ on you lions, we need a win to go above Northern scum,­ leeds, ( who are losing at this point) and go sixth, in­ line for the premier league, Smashin arsenal. WE FEAR­ NO FOE!!!"

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/championship/2010-2011/norwich-city-millwall-382149.html

Here's another, this time from an Arsenal fan

"Sam Arsenal fan 3 Oct 2010
Livepool fans, you're s*it now and not even your beloved gerrard/torres connection can do you any good. Hide behind your pervious champions league victories all you like... cos now you're NOT EVEN IN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH pathetic northern scum. As for Spurs....... we p*ssed over your kids at your s*ithole stadium like it was nothing. Except we had the respect to not celebrate like we'd won the world cup (like u did with the 5-1 victory over us in the nothing-cup)"

http://fanchants.com/football-songs/arsenal-chants/seen-gerrard-win-league/

" drew says:
January 5, 2011 at 9:17 am
DITYY FUCKING LEEDS!!! TYPICAL NORTHERN SCUM!!!!!!!!!!!"

To be fair, Putin, you are talking about English soccer fans - and the vocal ones at that. The game makes them crazy. It's like a war. I don't understand why. Australian Rules fans don't carry on like that. The spirit at a typical Aussie Rules match is much more good willed.

Actually it's probably pent up aggression after years after being exploited by the capitalist class. After the revolution when the workers take control of the means of production I am sure they will chill out :-P

Well yes, but my overall point was that Londoners frequently engage in generalized 'ad hominems' about people who live elsewhere. More examples can be gleaned from looking at the London gutter press. Anyone remember Boris Johnson's attack on Liverpool after they mourned the loss of soldier killed in Iraq, that they "wallow" in their "victimhood status"? Londoners rewarded him by electing him mayor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3749548.stm

so the other thing about putin besides being in office a long time (which, PS, good democracts small-D hate everywhere. *cough Rick Perry cough*), is that he kind of rigs elections.

i'm not a russophobe. russia is cool. russians are cool. russia's government is not cool. it's fucked. more than your usual government.

" My reference was focused on the politicians and pundits"

i actually imagine pundits and politicians are pretty decent people too in person, as long as you don't talk too much about their jobs... heh.

Which election was 'rigged'?

"Good Democrats" are all in office a long time. Name a single prominent politician who hasn't been.

I think it might be an American pathology that we have this thing against any politician with experience, and require everybody to be a so-called "outsider". Especially since in parliamentary systems you need to serve in government a long time before you can become the leader of a major party in parliament and have a shot at being the Prime Minister.

I'm so tired of western governments/media claiming this or that election is 'rigged'. 90% of the time when they say it is, it isn't, meanwhile elections that are 'rigged' *cough* Ivory Coast * cough, are hailed as 'free and fair'.

Stop manipulating democracies for your own ends. You are an "authoritarian's" dream come true, because they can say with virtual certainty that 'democracies' are being corrupted by foreign interference.

Russia is the source of two of my favorite things... vodka and caviar. And their literature and music are pretty damn good too.

putin you don't have to love russia to be a real communist you know.

you dont have to apologize for north korea's atrocious failings either

when was the last U.S. President who was an "outsider," some evidence of a pathology there (why when you disagree with something does it have to be a pathology?) Probably the biggest "Outsider" President in the last 50 (perhaps 100?) years is sitting right now. The only way you could say the United States has some "pathology" for supporting outsiders is if you include Governors as "outsiders" which is a bit of a stretch.

Putin33, given that you are an admirer of the former Soviet Union, what is it you admire about Vladimir Putin? To be clear, I can see why some might admire V. Putin, but I am not so sure sure why you do? Has he made any moves to return Russia to a command economy? Would he like to wind the clock back to Soviet Russia days? To be honest I don't know much about him, and I will concede that Western media often paints him as something of an ogre (but they do also give him credit too, so the portrait is not entirely one-sided).
I don't know much about him so I looked him up in Wikipedia and the following statement caught my eye: "During his presidency, Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes". The flat income tax and reduced profits tax doesn't sound like something that you would agree with. Are these measures not pandering to the rich? What makes him different from our own western bourgoise/capitalist leaders?

putin was apologizing for north korea?