A scary thing is happening. I am actually watching the news. And listening to the analysts. And reading the news stories. I am actually paying attention to politics. For once, the field of candidates is not composed entirely of old, white men. And that makes me excited.
I like Hillary Clinton. I like that she’s different because she’s a she. But I don’t buy that she’s more experienced than some of the others. I don’t like how she is rarely spoken of as “Hillary” or “she” but more often referred to as “the Clintons” or “they.” And I absolutely cringe at the thought of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton. That’s 24 years of two families. And another Clinton isn’t the change that she claims to be.
I like Barack Obama. I like that he’s young and different. I love listening to him speak. But I wish he had more than two years of Congress under his belt (though maybe not having been in DC for years and years is a good thing), and I don’t like his already-announced intention to delay NASA’s future programs to fund education programs. Education is important, and I don’t believe that we should choose our next president based on what he or she thinks about the space program. Yet that is my chosen career, and decisions made in that arena hit very close to home for me.
I’m indifferent to John Edwards, perhaps colored by my parents’ opinion of him as a former North Carolina senator.
I even like Mike Huckabee, oddly enough. Probably because he’s a likeable, friendly guy. I like that he’s actually willing to diverge from the Bush path, even in the face of other candidates falling over themselves to emphasize that they’ll stay the course. (Do they really think anyone wants to stay the course anymore?) But mainly I’m scared that he might turn out to be an overly religious nut-job. He doesn’t believe in evolution. I don’t understand people who don’t believe in basic principles of science. I don’t trust people who don’t believe in basic principles of science.
I like McCain. I respect McCain. If we have another Republican president, I hope it is McCain.
Romney has always seemed like a user car salesman to me, and Guiliani’s entire campaign revolves around 9/11. No thank you to both of them.
I haven’t decided who will get my vote. I still have months to decide. But I’m watching more closely than I ever have in the past.
McCain is 72 – don’t you think that’s too old? Even if he’s OK, you know he’ll be going mentally downhill by his second term. If McCain is pres, you better like his vp, wife and cabinet because any one of them might be doing the ruling.
I didn’t know about Obama and his NASA statements. That upsets me. So many of the problems that schools are having are not going to be fixed with more money, but more support from the parents and parents being involved in their children’s lives.
I sometimes wish McCain had won the primary in 2000. I may vote for him, but I suspect he’d only do one term.
Thompson strikes me as someone with very informed policies, but I doubt he’ll garner sufficient public support to win the nomination.
Huckabee is a good speaker and charismatic.
Between Obama and Clinton, I’m unsure. While Obama is a fresh perspective and charismatic, his inexperience and/or poor advisors have led him to make some policy statements that concern me. Stating that genocide doesn’t warrant intervention or that NASA’s budget should be raided for kindergarden education are two of note. On the other hand, Clinton has a lot of experience and presumably a similar set of advisors that her husband had. I don’t like Clinton personally. But I think she’s pragmatic enough that, from foreign policy and national security perspectives, America will get by.
I’d like to see a McCain-Huckabee ticket.
I think both of their character stands for something. I just don’t think Huckabee, as much as I like him, will garner the national support. I don’t think Iowa was an abberation, but those involved in the caucus process were well in-line with his views. (I also met Huckabee in a non-political setting – the Little Rock Marathon Expo and he’s good friends with Houston’s Dr. Jeffrey Ross.)