Saturday, June 16, 2007

RE: Presidential preferences

Q: Mitt in your top 4? I have lost all respect.

A: Well, Hillary would go up to #2 on my list if I could be sure her husband won’t embarrass her again. As for Romney, I guess I always go for the underdog. His Mormon background isn’t going down well in certain quarters, and if you take the long view that might shake things up in a good way. My favorite Romney quote: "marriage is between a man and a woman ... and a woman and a woman."

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Presidential preferences

Since you asked, here’s my current personal picking order:

(1) Bill Richardson
(2) Mitt Romney
(3) Rudy Guliani
(4) Hillary Clinton

Right now it’s most likely that the race will be between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. So I guess I’m voting for Rudy. But if it ends up being Hillary v. John McCain, or Hillary versus Fred Thompson, I guess I’m voting for Hillary.

Hillary has got a big lead for the Democratic nomination and is likely to be able to protect it. What dirt could they dig up that would be worse than the smacking around she’s taken all these years? Rudy’s lead on the Republican side is not so great. I think he’s perceived as a good match up against Hillary in some ways (puts New York in play, which will cost the Democrats money to defend) but not so good in others (he’s on wife #3, Hillary is still on husband #1). John McCain could be strong against Hillary too, but his statement that he wants to be the last man standing in Iraq is costing him (on some level you got to admire a guy willing to go down fighting for a lost cause). Mitt Romney makes the Christian conservatives nervous and that is fun to watch. Enter Fred Thomson.

There a lot of other people running, although a lot of these candidates are really running for Vice President or cabinet posts. And, in fact, I suspect my two top choices Richardson and Romney, are probably only in contention for VP at this point in the race.

Here’s my take on the rest of the field:

Other Democrats running not currently on my list to vote for:

Joe Biden – longtime Senator from Delaware
Joe Edwards – former one term Senator with no executive experience
Barak Obama – first term Senator with no executive experience
Christopher Dodd – longtime Senator from Connecticut, familiar face that stands for what?
Mike Gravel – former Senator from Alaska, aging crackpot
Dennis Kucinich – Congressman with limited executive experience
Wesley Clark – retired general not officially running
All Gore – former VP not officially running

Other Republicans running not currently on my list to vote for:

John McCain –admirable individual but no executive experience. GWB’s worst mistake was not picking him to be VP instead of Cheney.
Fred Thompson – protégé of Howard Baker (one of the last honest men on American politics), but no real executive experience, except on the screen
Tommy Thompson – former Wisconsin governor, solid Midwesterner with some good ideas on health care.
Mike Huckabee – former Arkansas governor, possibly a crackpot
Jim Gilmore – former Virginia governor no one has heard of
Sam Brownback – Senator with no executive experience
Tom Tancredo – Congressman with no executive experience
Duncan Hunter – Congressman with no executive experience
Ron Paul – Congressman with no executive experience
New Gingrich – former Speaker of House not officially running

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Democrats Love Jesus!

Q: Thought you might find this interesting. Boston Beatnik Post: Democrats Love Jesus! Link:

http://bostonbeatnik.blogspot.com/2007/06/democrats-love-jesus.html

A: My personal favorite was Hillary Clinton:

O'BRIEN: But I'm going to ask you a delicate question. Infidelity in your marriage was very public. And I have to imagine it was incredibly difficult to deal with. And I would like to know how your faith helped you get through it.

CLINTON: Well, I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith. And, you know, I take my faith very seriously and very personally. And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves, so, that a lot of the ... a lot of the talk about and advertising about faith doesn't come naturally to me. It is something that -- you know, I keep thinking of the Pharisees and all of Sunday school lessons and readings that I had as a child.

But I think your -- your faith guides you every day. Certainly, mine does. But, at those moments in time when you're tested, it -- it is absolutely essential that you be grounded in your faith. For some people, being tested leads them to faith. For some people, being tested in cruel and tragic ways leads them away from faith. For me, because I have been tested in ways that are both publicly known and those that are not so well known or not known at all, my faith and the support of my extended faith family, people whom I knew who were literally praying for me in prayer chains, who were prayer warriors for me, and people whom I didn't know, who I would meet or get a letter from, sustained me through a very difficult time.

But I -- I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought. And that's all one can expect or hope for.