

Wow. Super Tuesday has turned into a nightmare. Neither the republicans nor the democrats have a clear winner (although McCain is looking likely for republicans). Even worse than this, I don't know if I'll be able to vote for either candidate in the end.
On the democrat side we have basically Clinton and Obama. Clinton is not acceptable to me or most Americans. She's false. In addition I hate socialized medicine (having seen it firsthand in England). It doesn't work. Then there is Obama. His rhetoric is interesting. We need to unite! Unfortunately he is the most liberal senator right now and holds many positions that would make even his liberal supporters cringe. I don't see how someone on the extreme far left is supposed to unite the country. A moderate might. A democrat with a few crossover issues might. But Obama? I don't believe he will.
What about the republicans? Surely there is hope in the friendly right :). Not really. McCain is almost certain to get the nomination now. That would be great (tongue in cheek). McCain has been fighting dirty. At the same time he doesn't have the conservative vote. He's mainly been winning by picking up independents. The conservatives have been split between Romney and Huckabee which means conservatives won't get a conservative candidate.
McCain worries a lot of people. On the conservative side there is distrust about a lot of his crossover bills. These were on campaign finance reform, immigration and other issues. I think some of these were really bad ideas and some even unconstitutional, but I don't want to discuss them in detail. Moderates will be annoyed with McCain's war stance. He makes George Bush look like the president of Switzerland. McCain joked a while back that we need to "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran". Who jokes about that when they are running for president? If elected he's going to have to deal with Iran. I can see him having friendly talks with that statement on the record. Its fine to say, we can't let Iran kill everyone, but to say what he said is stupid. McCain's war positions are more troublesome than this one quote, but this is a blog, not a novel so I'm going to move on.
A search of McCain's other issues will find a lot to worry conservatives, independents and democrats. I'm not sure if I'll be able to vote for him. Maybe if Romney were his running mate, but maybe not.
What if McCain picked Huckabee as his running mate? That would appease conservatives, right? I don't think so. Having Huckabee as a running mate would significantly decrease my chances for voting for McCain. Huckabee is on the conservative side of the spectrum, but on almost every issue he is skewed enough that I don't like him. If Huckabee gets the nomination I don't plan to vote for him.
Now, talking about both parties, I've noticed that they are both fighting amongst themselves. They are both going to implode. The Hilary-Obama brawl is pitiful to watch and the republican mudslinging fest has got to go. There aren't going to be any good candidates if we keep this up.
My final thoughts: Why can't republicans care about the environment, admit that global warming exists, care about education, and not rush into war? Why can't democrats be pro-life, pro-values, anti-socialism, and anti-heavy taxes?
Final final thought: The senate thankfully has the most power in the country. We need good senators (and to a lesser extent representatives) to moderate a bad president.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
What's Happening to the Political Parties?
Posted by Scott at 1:35 PM
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2 comments:
So . . . you support Ron Paul? sounds a lot like his platform.
Anyway, good analysis of the situation post-super tuesday. With Romney's chances of winning the nomination now next to none, the only candidate I can see myself voting for is Obama and just hope and pray that his rhetoric of unity will move him toward the center as President.
No I most certainly do not support Ron Paul. The problem with him is that I know his viewpoints, something I don't think many of his supporters do. He want to end the war on drugs, legalize prostitution and have complete isolationism bringing home all US troops worldwide. My source on this is Newsweek magazine and Ron Paul's own website. Ron Paul would be awful. Libertarian theory is interesting but not practical, like communism.
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