Wrapped Up
June 5th, 2008
Bring on McCain.
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Copyright © 2001-2008 Daniel Andrews, an Atlanta Web Designer. This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Daniel Andrews, an Atlanta Web Designer. This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:17 am
bring on barr & clinton & mcain.
Let’s make this a worthwhile election.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I think that the main issue with Clinton v. Obama is that while they each have their own respective ‘bases’, ideologically they are very similar. Either one could run as a 3rd party candidate and garner a huge percentage of the vote, but Clinton knows that ultimately she’d only be causing Obama to lose to McCain, therefore torpedoing any chance she’d have at a spot in the administration or as a prominent leader of a Democratic Congress with a Democratic President.
Allowing McCain or a conservative to continue the direction we’ve been heading just for the sake of running would be an awfully short-sighted move. Besides, that’s what the primaries are for - although I can certainly see why you, as a libertarian/right leaning fella would want to see her continue to run. But I think she realizes the most important thing is to get a like-minded Democrat elected to begin to reverse the damage that has been done.
Barr and McCain differ on more isseus, but I see Barr as the right’s Nader. They’ll both pull votes from their respective ideological spheres, and might each poll around 4-5% nationally, but they aren’t in Clinton’s galaxy as far as ability to raise money or garner support.
I do hope to see Barr & Nader in a few debates if their support is substantial (more than 1 or 2% nationally).
What really excites me is that Barr’s main base of support is naturally GA. Georgia has been a Republican stronghold for quite some time, but if he can manage to grab around 8-10% of the vote here, that puts the state in play for Obama.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:59 am
We’re already headed down the shitter due to the process of an out of control washington. Neither Obama or McCain are the solution they are more of the same.
Obama loves to talk of his platform of change. He isn’t going to change anything, by change he means increasing the size of the government beyond the current absurd levels. Between our soft dollar, rising fuel costs, rising food costs (driven by fuel), rising cost of goods (driven by fuel), rising employment costs (minimum wage goes up to over $7 next year, etc, etc you throw on both parties desire to expand government by epic proportions, admitably the dems look to do slightly more.
This means monsterous tax increases for all of us, the money doesn’t come out of thin air. Obama’s plan specifically will penalize small business owners which are the backbone of our nation, carefully read his plan for change it’s full of liberal rhetoric like wanting small businesses to pay a “fair” amount for healthcare for their employees, etc.
The only “change” or “something new” he’s proposed is to take government to new heights and further grow the epic failure that is washington sprawl.
June 7th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Ultimately our mess is the fault of our 2 party system. Obama is a very radical left wing candidate that has been trying to pander to the masses of the democratic party.
McCain is a centrist, very liberal republican that has been trying to do the same to his parties more right leaning voters.
The issue is here the old “lesser of two evils” Look what that’s gotten us for the last 16 years. We’ve had two dynasties of jokes for presidents.
I may agree with 10% of obama and 20% of mccain but why on earth would I feel compelled to vote for one or the other.
Regardless of my extreme dislike of Obama you won’t find me casting a vote for McCain. I’ll be voting for the most viable 3rd party candidate regardless of their party affiliation because I believe in our need for more choice so we can have real “change”
Hopefully that vote will be for Barr-Root :)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Obama is running on the strength of a well-crafted slogan and not experience. Nothing will change except more of my paycheck going out the door. I’m not understanding how people can support all these social programs the Dems want to enact. Who is going to pay for all of that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the point of working to better your life and not someone else’s?
June 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Well thats where you went wrong in life you selfish bastard rick.
It isn’t about you, it’s about those that are ‘less fortunate’ than you. It is up to you as a hard working individual to help them achieve what you have.
Equality of outcome FTW!
June 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
You’re right, Ryan. I forgot about “income fairness” and “excessive profits.” It’s not fair that I expect to keep my wages. How silly of me. It’s not fair that I earn a paycheck, or have health care. Here, have more of my money! Praise Obama!
June 8th, 2008 at 12:15 am
What I’m really disappointed in is that Drudge has become an Obama haven of news. For someone that has had Libertarian leanings I’m sad to see the Bush-hating left erode people like this. This country has lost sight of its original goals. The Dems seek to further whittle away at that. More government, less guns, greater health care. Where does it end? When do you people start to take responsibility for your lives? Do you want every sporting event to end in a tie without winners because they all tried their best and you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings? That’s pretty much what a liberal-minded mentality wants. Less personal accountability. Hooray! Where can I address my check?
June 8th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Looks like I set off a nerve!
Well Ryan, I certainly agree with you on the second point. Our 2 party system is a disaster, and has contributed to much of the gridlock in Washington and their inability to work for us, instead of lining the pockets of bigger businesses, lobbyists, and their other supporters.
I’m supporting Obama not because I’m a die-hard Democrat (I’m not), but because I do care about core issues that Democrats seem to care about, and the rest of the field does not:
Foreign Policy:
- Ending the war in Iraq, refocusing our efforts against terrorism in Afghanistan and encouraging more cooperation within the international community regarding that fight.
- Ending American ‘imperialism’ in the Middle East and throughout the world by limiting our dependence on foreign oil & focusing on our problems - spending $12b a month in Iraq makes it impossible to do anything at home.
- Engaging our enemies diplomatically
Social Justice:
- A woman’s right to choose is opposed by McCain and Barr.
- The PATRIOT act has done little to keep us safer, while doing everything that the terrorists would love to see - the erosion of our civil liberties. It’s time to revise and/or repeal it.
- Ending Lobbyist’s influence in Washington
The Economy:
- It’s time to invest in our country’s infrastructure, instead of paving our way into more congestion and causing more and more folks to drive.
- Investing in alternative energy, research and development while raising current fuel standards
- Cutting taxes on the middle class, not the super wealthy.
- Balancing the budget, paying down the national debt.
- Cap & Trade
Healthcare:
- It’s time for us to catch up to the rest of the Western world with a system that is fairer, more accessible, and more diverse than what we have now. I am not really a proponent of a truly universal system (as I know Americans would not go for that immediately), but I think that Obama’s plan will cut costs and make healthcare insurance more available to folks who currently cannot afford it.
Education:
- Merit Pay for teachers
- 100 hours of public service a year = $4k in tuition
- Either fund NCLB properly or scrap it
Is he a perfect candidate? Of course not. Will he be able to do everything he talks about? Of course not. But he is far and away the best candidate for the job in my opinion.
Rick, Obama actually has proposed to roll back the tax breaks on the richest Americans, but to keep the tax cuts for middle class Americans like us, while also offering to give tax credits to all middle class families, especially homeowners.
I think your critiques of the liberal platform are a bit simplistic, and are right out of the Rush Limbaugh fear-mongering that has dominated conservative talk radio for so long. The bottom line is that government is good at some things, and awful at others. But the simple fact is, it isn’t going away any time soon, nor would I want it to -some things are best done together, rather than individually. I believe we all have a stake in one another - economically, socially, and morally. Our successes become my successes, and our failures become my failures. To make our country the place it should be, we do have to make some massive changes in the way things work around here, and I think that means blowing up some government programs, cutting spending on some, and expanding others. If that makes me a bleeding-heart liberal, so be it.
With that said, I certainly believe that people should be judged on their own merits and rewarded accordingly in their pursuit of a career, but to imply the conservative agenda of “Obama is a mega-liberal, modern-day Robin Hood” is way off base.
We are obviously not going to agree on this - we have different priorities and that’s okay. But I think it is important to get the facts straight - Obama isn’t going to raise taxes on middle class Americans, and to imply any Democrat in the past 40 years has simply tried to take your money and give it to ‘poor people’ is a bit simplistic and naive.
For people that are so incredulous that ‘more of their paycheck is going out the door’, you’d think you guys would take a close look at what a debacle Iraq has become, and how much we spend daily, weekly, or monthly over there. I find it ironic that you are all too willing to scrap public education or any other public service that is flailing (which is a point well taken - I agree it needs to be fixed/scrapped/rethought), yet are perfectly fine with spending $12 BILLION dollars a month in a war that makes us no safer, yet is bankrupting this country. We are literally borrowing money from China to finance this war, and there is no end in sight.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
You’re right, we won’t agree on this. It’s nothing personal. This is the nature of politics.
You say that he isn’t going to raise taxes on middle class Americans. Yet, raising taxes on the upper class is OK? They have more money than us so they should pay more. How is that fair? I know I’m arguing for a class of people that I don’t belong to, but I’m still not following the logic.
You seem to be a big fan of “fairness” when it comes to certain issues. As a person that is living life a little more fair than most people you don’t seem to have an issue with your lifestyle. You have video game systems that you adore, a car and a decent paying job. If you want to talk about fairness then share those things with the people that are “less fortunate.”
I’m not fine with all of that money going out the door to support the war. There is so much wrong with the government that neither a Democrat or a Republican is going to fix. This country has gotten so far off the path that was originally set that I don’t think it can ever be corrected. Simply living with the “lesser of two evils” each election is not going to work. What is the solution? I don’t know. My point is that throwing support behind these people that are going to maintain the status quo will not work. As soon as a president is sworn in all those promises seem to disappear. No change will happen.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Lots of boilerplate going on here, and it’s really a waste of our time to try to reply to it all. I’ll say this though: the bottom line is that Obama, nor any political candidate will be ‘raising’ taxes in the truest sense. They will be undoing the foolish tax cut that Bush enacted in spite of the fact that we were about to go to war with Afghanistan, and a year later went to war in a second country.
In modern history, there is not one example of another country cutting taxes while at war. As long as we’re fighting two wars, it is completely unfathomable that we as Americans thump our chests yet make no sacrifices.
I am a big fan of ‘fairness’, but we’re talking about tax fairness & opportunity fairness (better schools, affordable healthcare, etc), not one’s charitable decisions. How much I have given to charitable or political organizations isn’t really the point here - we’re talking about taxes, yes?
Our current welfare system only accounts currently for roughly 1% of our Federal budget, and while I feel that it is in constant need for reform, I think it’s a drop in the bucket compared to other areas of spending. Namely our military spending.
It’s all too easy to say that all politicians suck and Washington is broken (which it is to some degree), that you’ve given up hope on everything, and it’s beyond repair. The cynicism is certainly understandable, and I don’t claim that any politician can come in and ’save the day’. Obama is certainly no exception to that rule. I do, however, think that his positives outweigh the negatives that his platform has. Additionally, I can’t even begin to think of the mess we’d be in if McCain were to win. In that way, this a very important election, and I plan on voting for the candidate who has the best chance of enacting positive change for this country.