Saturday, December 22, 2007
Losers
Since you losers couldn't even tell me who to vote for, I'll have to make my own decision.
I'm closest to the "Anybody but Huckabee" camp right now. The only reason he wasn't my least favorite of the viable candidates was that I didn't realize he was one. If the Republican party wants to jump off a cliff, Huckabee's the way to go, but I'd much prefer a viable opposition party.
Democrats have a odd way of making people hate them. If only the Democrats had some shadowy silhouette somewhere that could be their candidate, labeled "not a Republican." That candidate would march to victory, probably with a unanimous electoral vote. But instead, they have Clinton, and it's not even clear that the Democrats are even going to win the presidency. Obama wasn't too far from the "shadowy silhouette" until recently, but he's been having to open his mouth to get the Democratic nomination, and that'll really cost him in the general. I'm pretty unclear on how exactly the two differ in terms of their actual platforms (something about kindergarten ambitions, last I heard), but it's not like I trust a word Clinton says, so her pre-election platform is largely irrelevant to me. (This actually makes her a more attractive candidate in my eyes, and if my vote mattered, I'd probably vote for her)
Republicans, though, know how to be likable. That's why Huckabee is surging among Republicans by promising to be the most liberal president since George W. Bush, which is saying a lot. I don't know why people like him hate freedom, but that's the way it works with those religious nuts.
Oddly enough, despite overplaying the "old white guy" card, the Republicans seem to show a lot more diversity of opinion in their field than the woman and the black guy, who are now discussing who spoke more syllables in support of peace during the past three weeks. Or something.
Unlike Huckabee, the other Republican candidates may actually have a chance at beating the Democrat. This is why Huckabee is surging. The media loves him, because he gives them the best chance of getting Clinton into office, which would mean an unending stream of scandals... and dollars, for media folks.
On the other end of the scale is Fred Thompson, who may or may not be running for president. It's really hard to tell, and the media wants to keep it that way, because what could they do with Fred Thompson? "You did something bad!" "So?" "Oh, no, we can't write about that! We're all fired!" Fred Thompson is the federalist in the race (Ron Paul isn't a person, so he doesn't count). Since he's willing to stand up for principles, rather than just parroting whatever will get him the most votes, he won't get many votes. Sadly, Thompson is the closest thing there is to a candidate I agree with, politically, in this race.
In between is Mitt Romney, the most democratic of the candidates. He seems likely to turn whichever way the wind blows. People are dumb, though, and I don't much care for such candidates. Also, he's kind of creepy.
Rudy Giuliani is running for president, and I remain at a loss to figure out why. He doesn't seem to have anything to offer in terms of ideas or goals or whatnot. This makes him the favorite.
John McCain hates free speech. If all I wanted was someone to go to war, McCain would be my guy, but voting for the guy who doesn't like rights because I think he can win a war seems to be a dangerous approach. Until he gets down on his knees and apologizes for the Free Speech Reduction Act, I will never support McCain. After all the arguments about fairness and dirty money and whatnot, at the end of the day, he supports letting the government decide what can and cannot be said about the government. That's a tool we can't give up, even if we trust them now. Once it becomes the case that we can no longer trust them, it's too late to get that tool back.
And Huckabee is the anti-libertarian, who takes the nanny-stating of the Democrats and the morality-imposing of the Republican to form an enemy of freedom more powerful than you could possibly imagine. I'd almost vote for Ron Paul over him. Fucking Huckabee. Hurry up and scream like a retard.
I'm a decline to state dude, so I probably won't bother voting in the primary, even if it's still a live issue by the time it gets here. And, as a Californian, there's no sense in me voting in the general election. It makes presidential politics quite sporty, rather than, say, a matter of life and death for millions.
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