Tag: national candidates

George Pataki

Warning: Undefined array key "adf" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 69

Warning: Undefined array key "sim_pages" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 70

Photo by Gage Skidmore

George Pataki seems to be running for president simply because there was no clear front runner for the GOP nomination. His campaign website doesn’t even talk about issues so I’m left to conclude that his platform is “as a former governor of New York my name has been in the media much more than the governor of Idaho so I may as well give this campaign a shot since my name has been floated as a potential presidential or vice presidential candidate in previous election cycles.”

If voters want to know where Pataki stands on anything they either have to follow campaign news very closely (because he gets hardly any coverage in the crowded field) or else they have to go to his Wikipedia page – where they will find a significant number of positions that really don’t agree with much of the national GOP voting base. (That’s only a strike against him because he’s seeking the GOP nomination – otherwise it wouldn’t play into my evaluation for this series.)

I went into this with no opinion of George Pataki but I conclude that as a candidate he is simply a placeholder in case the voters reject all the candidates who are really trying to win the nomination. I can’t endorse George Pataki for president since he gives me absolutely no reason to think of him as anything more than a fallback option.

Tags 2016, George Pataki, national candidates, not endorsed

National politics

Bernie Sanders

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Bernie Sanders has been a tough candidate for me to decide on. He has the personal and political experience to be taken seriously. He has a vision that he believes in to sell to potential voters (as opposed to candidates who just have a pet issue). From all appearances he is a man of integrity who can be entrusted with whatever office voters choose to elect him to.

The hard part about deciding if he deserves an endorsement is that his vision for the nation seems to be unrealistic. If I were a voter who agreed with the vision that he is peddling for America I’m afraid that if he were elected I would find myself disappointed by a President Sanders who was unable to deliver much of anything on his vision for the nation. What he wants for the nation is so different in some fundamental ways from what we have built here that I think the best historical outcome he could hope for would be to have historians look back on him and declare that he was way ahead of his time.

Tags 2016, Bernie Sanders, endorsements, national candidates

National politics

Rick Santorum

Photo by Gage Skidmore

In studying Rick Santorum I remembered that he had run for President in 2012 but had forgotten how well he did in that race and how much of a political track record he had before then. One thing that really stuck out to me about him is his commitment to his principles and values. Rick knows what he believes and isn’t afraid to defend what he believes even where it runs counter to popular opinions. His priorities include fighting for mainstream Americans, espousing conservative social values, and promoting a limited view of government.

He doesn’t generate the kind of excitement and headlines that other candidates consistently deliver but I suspect if I were to meet him on the campaign trail I would see a candidate with a firm grasp of the issues he was addressing based on putting in the work to study the issues and wrestle with some of the complexities.

Rick appears to be better prepared and more experienced personally and politically than many candidates who run for President and I find it very easy to endorse Rick Santorum for President.

Tags 2016, endorsements, national candidates, Rick Santorum

National politics

Donald Trump

Photo by Gage Skidmore

It would have been so easy to not give The Donald a fair shake in my candidate evaluations and simply say that his arrogance and tone automatically disqualified him as a candidate. Considering how much support he has even as his sophomoric personality has been on public display I think it is important to treat him as a serious candidate and study his campaign itself rather than the media coverage of his campaign.

Tags 2016, Donald Trump, national candidates, not endorsed

National politics

Evaluating Presidential Candidates

Post author By David
Post date September 29, 2015
No Comments on Evaluating Presidential Candidates

Image by Donkey Hotey

Eight years ago with two crowded presidential primaries I did a long series evaluating each presidential candidate. I evaluated every candidate I could find, not just those in the two major parties. It was an interesting exercise although I opted not to do it again in 2012. I wasn’t planning to do it for 2016 either because I had expected Hillary Clinton and the following GOP candidates (in no particular order) to be the focus of the race: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and possibly Bobby Jindal. With the way the race has been shaped by other candidates I’ve decided to do it again – specifically, I decided to do this after watching both Scott Walker and Rick Perry have the life sucked from their campaigns by Donald Trump who is a vastly inferior candidate to either of them (having tipped my hand on Trump I should probably do my write-up of him first). Last time I evaluated 38 candidates, this time I will only do candidates from the major parties.

Tags 2016, endorsements, national candidates

National

Primary Season is Finally Over

Post author By David
Post date June 4, 2008
4 Comments on Primary Season is Finally Over

With the official end of the primary season I can finally end my self-imposed ban on posting about the primaries. Of course Maureen Dowd has already said everything that needs to be said about the current situation. So there are three options for my vote in November (in order of my preference):

Obama keeps his promise to work out a deal with the republican nominee to stick with public financing for the general election and I vote for Obama.
Obama breaks his promise on public financing but does not put Clinton on the ticket and I am free to vote for someone else.
Obama takes Clinton on as his running-mate (which would almost certainly include opting out of public financing) and I vote for McCain (even McCain would have a better chance at uniting the country that Obama with Clinton on the ticket).

I did not start out in the Anyone But Clinton (ABC) camp but these last two months of the primary campaign have convinced me that ABC is the best course for this country.

I admit that it’s very easy for me to announce how I would vote my conscience far in advance because no matter what I do my vote in the Electoral College is 5 votes for McCain – like it or not.

Tags Clinton, McCain, national candidates, Obama, primaries

National

Hillary Clinton: Babysitter in Chief

Post author By David
Post date May 5, 2008
6 Comments on Hillary Clinton: Babysitter in Chief

Here is another gem from Laura. She came in to my office this afternoon and told me that she had just seen a bit of a speech by Senator Clinton. She thought it very important that I be aware that Hillary Clinton had just told her audience that they wanted a President who would solve their problems, take care of their families and watch out for their children. (I don’t claim that to be verbatim.)

Of course my first thought is that I would prefer a president who would enforce the laws of the land, defend the Constitution, and tell the truth to the American people. I don’t need someone to keep pushing the lies that there are painless, if complex, solutions to the problems we have been busy creating for ourselves.

Upon reflection I realized that maybe Senator Clinton is really making a good offer – free babysitting of my kids. I’ll bet she’s a lot more dependable than many a teenage babysitter. Of course by the time I finished writing this I realized that she never said she would babysit for free – or even for cheap.

Tags campaign promises, Clinton, kids, Laura, national candidates

technology

Bob Barr

Post author By David
Post date April 11, 2008
6 Comments on Bob Barr

Unless you are an active participant in the Libertarian Party, this is probably the first and last time you will hear that Bob Barr is exploring a run for President in 2008. Why do I bother to mention it – because I was bored.

I got an email as part of an email list I didn’t know existed with the announcement about Mr. Barr. As soon as I located the way to unsubscribe I visited the campaign website. I decided to write about it because of how familiar some of the features were – they looked like they had been lifted off of the Ron Paul website. Some of the widgets he had looked like leftovers from the Mike Huckabee website. It turns out that the firm that designed Bob Barr’s site also designed Ron Paul’s site. (I have no information on who designed the Huckabee website.)

Unless Obama is convicted in October of having McCain assassinated in September there is no way we will be hearing about Barr in November. If he, or any other third party candidate, gets into any debates he will be largely ignored as every minor candidate is (as determined by the media) during each debate where they are allowed a backstage pass – I mean a place at the debate.

Tags 2008, national candidates

National

Connecting Clinton with Romney

Post author By David
Post date February 26, 2008
6 Comments on Connecting Clinton with Romney

I’m sure that title sounds like a kind of heresy here in Utah, but I can’t help noticing in the last week that the supporters of Hillary Clinton are sounding very much like the supporters of Mitt Romney were sounding after the Florida primary (myself included). Unless they turn out to be less mistaken about the upcoming primaries than I was about February 5th they will soon have to adjust to the new reality in the Democratic party.

Tags national candidates, primaries

National

Really Inevitable

Of all the things that we don’t know about the outcome of this year’s election there is one outcome that would be dependable. If Clinton is elected we will see more news like this. Those who vehemently dislike the Clintons will continue to make comments that most of us consider inappropriate. When they do we can also be sure the Clintons will never let any slight pass unchallenged.

I’m fairly certain that David Shuster meant to elicit a reaction from viewers but did not mean any particular offense towards any of the Clintons. I don’t mean to suggest that his comments were appropriate, but the only apology that might be acceptable to the New York Senator would be an unequivocal endorsement from MSNBC (and even that might not be enough).

The thing we know for certain is that another Clinton term would mean years of investigations and acrimony in Washington guaranteeing that nothing useful gets accomplished. No other candidate would produce such a predictable response from the country.

Tags 2008, Clinton, national candidates