November 2007 - Free The Memes

Free The Memes Archive
November 2007

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5:22pm Thursday November 15, 2007 (link)

So I have the Democratic candidate debate in Las Vegas on TV. This is the first time I've bothered to watch any of the debates. I read a fair amount of political gossip on the blogs I follow, and I read tons of news every day, so I think of myself as reasonably well informed. But I have managed to avoid actually listening to any political speeches, watching any political ads, or seeing any of the debates. Politicians generally just make me mad, and I have a tendency to start yelling at the TV.

Other than wanting to be informed, there's no point in my listening to any of these people. On the right, all the candidates are too hawkish for me. I don't like the support for torture, surveillance, homeland security, Patriot act, etc. On Iraq, they should at least have a backup plan in case Iraq explodes, or we finally realize the place is burning a hole in the budget with a recession coming on. None of them have any answer except "In it to win it!" That rules out all the major candidates in my book.

The exception is Ron Paul. While I agree with him in general about a less aggressive foreign policy and smaller government, I don't think immediate withdrawal from Iraq is going to work very well either. On many other subjects, his opinions run from impractical to deranged. Of course, that's the case for all the candidates, so I guess I shouldn't hold it against him.

On the Democratic side, Hillary seems to claim her years in the White House as "co-president" are a reason to vote for her. There's no clear role for Bill in her administration. Is he going to be her "co-president"? If they are "two for the price of one" again, then they've had their eight years and shouldn't be in the race at all. If we take the White House years off her resume, she's a middle of the road Senator with no interesting positions on anything. She's never run anything, and her most visible previous effort in government was the failed health care reform effort. If she were a male white lawyer from Arkansas, a one-term senator with fairly miserable public speaking abilities, she'd be nowhere in this race.

If she has to pull troops from Iraq, she'll tar the Democrats as even more defeatist and anti-military than they already seem. If she keeps the troops there, she'll contribute to the popular perception that politicians take their base for granted and don't give them anything they want. I think she's too poll driven to make the hard decisions, and too polarizing to make her choices stick without huge resistance.

I can't take Edwards seriously, since I think he's a huge phony. I also can't believe the Democrats will pass over the chance to elect either a woman or a black to the Presidency. Fortunately, he's pretty dead in the polls.

That leaves Obama as the only one to challenge Hillary. From what I've read, he really lacks the instinct for the jugular that it takes to win. He's too measured and cautious. Watching the last 20 minutes of this debate, I hardly notice when he's on screen, and his answers seem pretty dull. Asked a simple "yes or no" on drivers licenses for illegals, he hems and haws about the question, and pauses a couple of times. He's not even pushing back against his time limits. Richardson seems to get a lot more time than Obama has gotten. No sale.

Of course, recession and Iraq are both going to be intractable problems for any president. No one wants to talk about Social Security and Medicare, which will be obvious problems before the end of the next term. Iraq at best is a money pit for the next few years, and at worst, a disaster.

As a Libertarian, I suppose I should support the candidate most likely to lead to gridlock. That would be either Hillary with a strong Republican congress that hate her, or Ron Paul, who wouldn't get anything done at all, and would have fun vetoing everything that comes over his desk.

Of course, being registered in California, it doesn't matter what I think. Hillary is heavily favored to win the state in the primaries, and California always goes Democratic in the general election. Unless there are some interesting propositions, I may not even bother to vote.