Month: February 2007

Citizenship

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I am very interested in being an active participant in my community. Currently I am participating with a community group which has yet to name itsself. Members of the group should be getting an email soon from our group leader inviting them to come to my site and vote in the poll on my sidebar in an effort to chose a name for ourselves. I will continue to give some updates on the group activities here, although more details will be available when our group gets a name and a website (pending).

Tags community

General

Goodbye Tom

I have been so busy with work lately that I just barely looked at the news for the first time this week. I was disappointed to learn that Tom Vilsack has abandoned his bid for the presidency. Tom was the first candidate to enter the race and the first that I endorsed. His reason for leaving – too much focus on money in the campaigning. With a much lower profile than many of the other candidates, he could not raise enough money to fund the kind of accelerated campaigns we are seeing.

I hope that, if Tom is willing, some candidate will be wise enough to choose him as a running mate. In fact, I think candidates from outside his party would do well to consider him. (I know I’m going out on a limb there, but politics as usual is not helping us.)

Tags 2008, national candidates

General

Chris Dodd

I would not consider myself to be as familiar with Chris Dodd as I am with a number of other candidates. That being said, his experience as a public official showed through very quickly as I started learning about him.

While the fiscal conservative in me does not agree with some of his positions, his stated desire for a pay-as-you-go federal budget makes me hope that he would at least raise taxes before spending on unnecessary items. It also makes me hopeful that he would take a good hard look at our federal programs and try to reduce the inefficiencies in our burgeoning government programs.

While his ideology does not align perfectly with mine, Chris is a good candidate and would be a credit to the office of president. I therefore endorse Chris Dodd for President.

Tags 2008, endorsements, national candidates

General

John Edwards

Evaluating John Edwards for endorsement has been something of a challenge. I tried to maintain my objectivity in the matter, but I am surely swayed by the fact that I liked him as a candidate in 2004. In an attempt to be objective I found myself looking for reasons to not endorse him for 2008.

After much searching I concluded that John Edwards is a better candidate now that he was in 2004. He appears to have learned much from his previous presidential run while maintaining the optimist and idealism which were some of his strengths last time. While I do not agree with every one of his positions on every issue I think that he has the character to make a good president and the ability to bring this nation together in ways that would be impossible for some other candidates.

He is honest enough to admit that his desire for universal health care is probably not attainable without a tax increase. This kind of candor before being elected bodes well for any potential public servant.

I made the decision harder than necessary. In the end, I easily endorse John Edwards for President in 2008. He is a capable candidate and I believe that he would make an admirable president.

Tags 2008, endorsements, national candidates

life

Yes, I’m Still Alive

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here and I am going to work harder to change that. Things have been very busy at home and at work lately. Right now I would like to give a few projections of what is happening and will be happening with me and the blog.

The candidates have been filing in and I have not kept up. Here is the current list of candidates and the order in which I will be making my endorsements (this is based on the order they filed to the best of my knowledge): John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Sam Brownback, Christine Smith, Joe Biden, and Duncan Hunter.

I am personally taking a more active interest in local and state politics right now. I am actually going to meetings on current issues, such as the Mountain View Corridor highway that UDOT is looking to build. I believe that politics should be more local and less national so I am trying to make my own actions (and commentary) reflect that belief. I will be posting more on those issues, although I will still be covering national issues and races as well. The limit is that I will not cover races that I can’t vote in – so no coverage of a controversial race for governor in another state even if it is making headlines around the nation.

I have also felt the need to move from blogger again. It’s time to revive my personal site so I will be moving to WordPress again and have it hosted at davidjmiller.org. I already own the domain, but it has been dormant for a while. I’m not going to rush the move, I want to import my posts from blogger, but I may move forward without that.

I am actually considering the possibilities of participating with parties and/or candidates at some level and I may finally be ready to donate somewhere. That’s a huge change for me. While I love talking/writing on the subject I am ready to do more than just pontificate.

So, life is great right now despite my silence here. I am hoping to export the energy that I am finding from that to help make a difference in the things that I have always talked about.

Tags candidates, endorsements, goals, roads, thoughts, work