I guess you could say that election 2008 is in full swing now. At least, that’s what the media seems to think. Yawn. I don’t know about you, but I can’t really get excited about any of them, regardless of race, creed, political persuasion, dietary needs or style sense.
Nonetheless, let me introduce them:
Barak, jr. senator from Illinois
How this fellow has gotten into the front runner section, I’ll never know. He is, I believe, a first time senator, inexperienced and makes some statements don’t make a whole lotta sense to me. And while it may be cool to see the first black president (though Bill Clinton seems to think that’s him) I think there might have been better choices. Still, he’s good looking, charming and the ladies seem to dig him. Will it be enough?
McCain bitter, indecisive senator from Arizona:
Embittered and resentful loser of the 2000 run for president – a man who espouse conservative values when it’s convenient but whose voting record shows an inclination toward whininess and socialism. His love-hate relationship with the president, his party and his constituents makes him a volatile choice in anyone’s book. Though I respect the fact that he is a war hero who survived unimaginable indignities during the Vietnam war, he may have too many ocd tendencies to be put in charge of things like bombs and budgets.
John Edwards, senator from S. Carolina
While the man has great hair (if you don’t believe me, just ask him) and some may find him cute in a leave it to beaver sort of way – the guy doesn’t seem to understand that suing people who don’t agree with you is not the way to go when it comes to national politics. He is a dichotomy at best and an idiot at worst, who uses cliche slogans to get his message across.
Rudy Guliani, former Mayor of New York, named Mayor of America by some magazine whose name I forget
I have to admit I like Rudy. He seems like a nice enough guy, has a fair amount of personal scandal in his past and handled what happened to his city on Sept 11th as well as I think anyone could have. But he’s awfully liberal for a conservative and will likely just confuse the voters with his widely diverse positions.
Hillary Clinton, senator from New York, former First Lady
Her ability to change positions on issues and to speak out of both sides of her mouth are her strong suits. Certainly the most polarizing of the ‘candidates’ this woman seems to elicit strong reactions – you love her or hate her but there seems to be no in-between. How or why the people of New York decided to elect her to represent them in the Senate and how or why anyone would think she has any qualifications to run a country is beyond me, but apparently some people think her proximity to Bill Clinton is enough. Like Barak, it would be a milestone in American politics to see our first woman president, but I can think of several other women who have more experience, knowledge, and ability to lead than this woman.
Other candidates:
Fred Thompson – he’s an actor, he’s a senator, he’s an actor, he’s a private citizen. What is he? And why does anyone think this guy would make a good president? And how on earth can they compare him to Ronald Regan? It’s all beyond me. He is beyond boring and couldn’t be bothered to attend the debate, opting instead to appear on a late night talk show to announce. So, I say, no picture for him.
Mitt Romney – governor of Massachusetts. Good looking, a bit indecisive and apparently the fact that he is a Mormon worries folks that we may end up with multiple first ladies. Interestingly enough, no one worries about Barak being a Muslim and his insistence on swearing in on the Koran. Go figure.
Dennis Cucinich – still trying to figure out what he is – I think he is in Congress, though I can’t imagine why. But I like a little fruit every now and then, so why not?
Joe Biden – mean Joe. Even when he smiles he looks like he wants to slug you.
Ron Paul – more froot loops anyone? This dude just seems pissed off and condescending to everyone and everything. Seems like he just wants to hermetically seal off the borders, forget that there is a whole big world out there and have us all stick our heads up our collective butts.
Tom Tancredo – Congressman from Colorado? Intelligent and passionate about his one issue, but one all-consuming issue ain’t gonna fly.
Finally….Algore – former Vice President, former loser of at least two presidential elections and perhaps still the senator from Tennessee.
While he insists he isn’t running, the rumbling and rumors continue to fly. Apparently those in the Dem party who don’t like Hillary want him. Since he is now a celebrity, a film maker and the green God of the universe he may indeed feel that the presidency is beneath him. Time will only tell.
So there you have it, the candidates as we know them. I may have overlooked a couple but if I have it’s only because they haven’t really hit anybody’s radar. To say I am disappointed in our apparent choices puts it mildly – I haven’t seen a such a large group of yawn-meisters in quite a while. In my mind, our only hope is that some dark horse, independent will appear out of the blue and save us from this sorry lot of wannabes and bring the country to a new era of American politics.
So…what do you think?
WC
Anita Rodgers Mystery Writer 
Well, if Guliani doesn’t make the primaries it’s not going to be a republican president at all next year. I think most Americans would still be afraid of republicans after Bush.
Hillary’s not going to make it. She’s a Clinton. And she’s a Sith.
John Edwards might make win the election. Not necessarily the presidential election, but the Michael J. Fox look-alike election.
Call me crazy, but I think Obama has a good chance. He’ll most likely get the black vote and the muslim vote. If he can make it past the primaries, he’ll have a pretty good chance at president.
Hey DT,
Even if Obama got the entire black vote – which he probably wouldn’t – it’s only 13% of the population. He’d need to get more than that to win. While he may look pretty good on paper, he really is quite inexperienced, especially on foreign policy and I don’t think people generally speaking would have confidence in his ability to rule, especially during war time.
And while it may be true that Democrats are afraid of Republicans, I don’t think it’s true of the general populace. Oh yeah, the media, they too are afraid of Republicans. Still, I don’t think it’s most Americans.
WC
LikeLike
Once again, I think it will be a matter of voting for one candidate to ensure the “greater evil” doesn’t win the vote. For example, if somebody hates Hillary enough, another candidate may cash in on that person’s vote just to ensure that Hillary doesn’t make it into office.
Nobody can get very excited about the choices, and while they are rather diverse choices in some respects (two majority minority groups represented – Afro-Americans and women), given no terrorist disasters, I predict the swing will definitely be to the left. Notwithstanding another terrorist attack, Americans won’t be able to stomach another Bush-type candidate because the general public has grown tired of the war in Iraq. This is apparent from the fact that the only viable Republicans running look like Democrats wearing elephant hides.
If there is even a whisper of believable terrorism on the horizon, then Obama’s presidential campaign will instantly go up in smoke–it doesn’t matter how charismatic he is, his religion will turn into a generalized stereotyping of “all Muslims are bad” and out he will go. He isn’t going to carry the Southern Baptist vote anyway–that’s for sure. Black and Muslim won’t be a wining combination for this demographic no matter how you spin it. I can see a lot of gun-toting Southerners rushing to the polls to keep this candidate out, no matter who the Republican is they have to vote for.
So…we’ll see.
~ PG
Hey PG,
I’m still holding out for a darkhorse but yeah, probably the lesser of two evils. We should have a clause in the Constitution that states if we don’t want any of the candidates that we get to do a do-over. 😉
I don’t know about a swing to the left though. That happened in 06, remember? The dems were going to go in and change everything and fix everything from soup to nuts. And they have done nothing but bitch and moan. They have accomplished nothing they said they would – except raise the minimum wage. Big Whoop.
Also, since I believe that Hillary is the forgone conclusion on the Dem side I don’t think that fairs well for them either. Not that I think there is a conservative candidate that is worth much either. McCain might even be worse than Hillary – none of them seem very strong in conservative views or issues. Though I would be willing to bet that if a Dem does get in, we will indeed have another attack on this country – especially if they do what they say they will do.
Throughout history, the public has always grown tired of wars – it’s nothing new and when politicians have given in to public pressure and recanted, the results were less than favorable (Korea and Vietnam are good examples). Nobody likes war, but sometimes you have to do it. The difference in this case though (IMHO) is that with technology and the connectedness of the world today, being surrounded by oceans doesn’t deter enemies like it used to.
WC
LikeLike
Well, if it comes down to Hillary versus McCain, I will grit my teeth and pull the lever for the Senator from New York, and I suspect rather a lot of people will be able to hear my not-so-silent prayer.
Hey CG,
Interesting that you think that Hillary is worse than McCain. Although it really is a tossup for me too. Though, I could never vote for her – I just couldn’t.
WC
LikeLike
I like Rudy. Perhaps it is just a holdover from a really good movie but he’s better than the alternatives.
Yeah, Rudy is high on the likeability scale for me too – just not sure he could garner enough of the vote. I dunno, I just can’t get excited about any of them.
WC
LikeLike
I think that it sounds like we’re in trouble.
I also think I need to start paying attention. I can’t believe the election is just next year.
Wow, where does the time go?
I think you may be onto something there. Yeah, the time is flying and it’s scary. 😉
WC
LikeLike
i’m going for Rudy too, but i’m so disappointed that Howard Dean isn’t running again. His animal noises and excitibility is definitely going to be missed by me.
LOL Reggie,
Not to worry, I think the current crop will give us some more than memorable moments. Stay tuned and keep the popcorn at the ready. 😆
WC
LikeLike