Sunday, January 27, 2008

My Endorsements

I have been asked by some people in Florida what I think about their primary coming up. Since my own primary in New York is very close too, I figured this would be a good time to give my endorsements. No surprises really, I have been supporting these guys the whole time but here are some reminders why. As usual, please excuse any choppiness or grammatical errors. This blog is done usually without revisions (due to time constraints) so fight your way through it and I hope you catch my drift. Maybe one day, when this is my full time job I can revise, rewrite and make everything look perfect. In the meantime read what I am quickly typing while the boss is away getting coffee.

Democrats: Barack Obama

This was always a bit of a close call for me - especially at first. I had great respect for Bill Clinton and while Hillary was never a favorite, she seems to be very smart and quite able to be President of the United States. Barack Obama lacks Washington experience and seems almost too nice for the job. However, over these few months of the campaign, I have seen two things that puts me solidly in the Obama camp. First of all, Barack is indeed smart enough and tough enough for the job. His impressive leadership abilities are apparent in the way he has created an effective national campaign in a very short period of time. Barack Obama also would bring the most change to national politics - which we desperately need. Secondly, Hillary, or "Billary" as it now seems to be the case, have shown over the past couple months a shocking disdain for the truth and common decency. The Clinton administration of the 1990's was competent and much better than what preceded and followed. However, their choice to lie, mislead and most recently introduce hateful racial undertones to the current campaign disqualifies them from my consideration. It also has sent my opinion of Bill Clinton way, way down. As someone, who loved Bill and was never a Hillary hater - I am surprised to find myself saying this but if she wins the nomination I MAY NOT even vote Democratic! Anyone who knows me understands just how much the Clintons have irked me for me to say that. They are acting like ... republicans ... in this election. In the interest of consistency I have to publicly rebuke them for that. It really is a shame.

Republicans: Mike Huckabee

Reports of Mike Huckabee's demise is premature. And I sure hope it is wrong all together. Although Huck has said some really odd things on the campaign trail, I still think he would is the best of the choices on the GOP side. To this day, he remains the only Republican that seems to understand that trickle down economics does not work for everyone and that compassion is not a dirty word. He is a breath of fresh air and, if not for a lack of money and experience in the national spotlight, would be the runaway favorite for the Republicans. I still think he has a real shot to win it all - after all he won Iowa with little money and came out of nowhere to do it. Florida can put him back in the mix and I sure hope they do.

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