Tag: 2008

As with all of the major candidates, my evaluation of John McCain simmered in the back of my mind for a long time. The roller-coaster of my feelings about his candidacy was hardly unusual. I have long liked the fact that McCain seems to be functionally independent of his party affiliation. As the campaign season matured I was disappointed to see more positions which seemed calculated to appeal to the base rather than driven by independent common sense. I have come to the conclusion now that my disappointment was driven by personal disagreement with the positions.

I believe that McCain chooses his positions based on personal conviction even when they are unpopular. There is a consistency in his message between those things that appear to be party-driven and those things that appear more independent. I think that it is his party that has walked a crooked line while McCain was holding fast to his personal convictions.

Seeing that, it became easy for me to endorse John McCain for President.

Well, I decided to tackle a second endorsement today because some endorsements are very easy to go and find a candidate who should not be endorsed. I expected that to be the case again today. After looking into Bob Jackson again (a commenter pointed me towards him some time ago) I was looking for reasons not to endorse him. I don’t think his chances of winning are even worth considering. As I thought about it I realized that I had no substantial reason to not endorse him. He understands the system and knows what he would like to do. I finally went back to review the criteria I had made for giving endorsements and found that Bob qualifies for my endorsement.

I think he could do a good job if he were President and I think he deserves votes.

In search for a candidate who understands the need for smaller government? Mitt Romney fits that description. He is publicly committed to not raising taxes, and to finding ways to cut spending. He believes that we can solve some of the same issues that others have used to call for raising taxes, or rolling back tax cuts, without increasing spending. As governor of Massachusetts he used his veto power against excessive spending. The question is, if he were President would he be more effective with his vetoes than he was as Governor – where every spending issue he vetoed was overridden by the legislature.

That could be used to dampen my enthusiasm for Mitt, but I overlook that in the face of his track record of getting things done in business and government settings. He was successful in business before he was called upon to salvage the 2002 Olympic Games – which he did quite well. After the Olympics he served as Governor of Massachusetts where he was successful in implementing a statewide universal health care initiative, even if he was not able to make his veto stick to other spending items.

With core values that generally appeal to me and a record for getting things done in everything he has set his hand to, I find it easy to endorse Mitt Romney for President.

It’s been a long time in coming, but I have finally managed to finish my homework on Barack Obama. This is a man who is full of ideas. One of his challenges is that many wonder what he can really do in Washington DC as a relative outsider. That is a question that can never be fully answered about any candidate until they have taken the office they are seeking. Barring that sure answer, I like the ideas presented by Senator Obama. He is secure in his ideals, but he is not locked into a partisan mindset.

Two things from his website really excited me this week. First, his site gave the most fitting response to the events at Viginia Tech – the whole page was black with a simple statement of condolences from the senator. All the mainstream media should have been so sensitive. Second, very prominent in the issues section of his website is an invitation for anyone to submit ideas for discussion and policy consideration. I encourage everyone who has ideas about how this country should be run, whether you like Senator Obama or not, to go submit your ideas and discuss the other ideas that have been presented. Use pseudonyms if you want, but I think that any leader (of any party) who would honestly accept and use ideas generated through such a participatory process would make an effective leader for our nation.
I definitely endorse Barack Obama for President. I believe that he has the right qualities that we should be looking for in a president.

Another surprise in the endorsements. Before doing my homework I did not expect to find Rudy Giuliani to have good potential as a president. I knew that there were some positions he held which were not consistent with my own views though I do not expect to endorse only candidates whose views fully parallel mine. If I did, I would have to endorse nobody unless I was running – which I can’t quite yet and don’t dream of even when I can.

I found that Giuliani’s views are generally pragmatic which matches the mood of most voters despite any ideological views being espoused by some vocal people. He certainly has the experience of governing and facing tough problems. In short, I endorse Rudy Giuliani.

Before I started learning about Joe and his presidential run he was just a name to me. As I studied him and his positions I found a candidate who has lots of experience in our national government. In his own life he has gained sad experience of losing his wife and a child to an accident and subsequently living as a single parent for some time. This experience seems to have given him an appreciation of the hardships that many people face.

On the issues, Joe has a plan for Iraq that deserves to be implemented even before the presidential elections. I think it is the kind of plan we should have had all along because it appears to recognize the realities of that region. In other areas Joe sounds like a pragmatist who recognizes the challenges which we face and that easy answers are hard to come by. Indeed his position on health care, that it is a problem in which we can use the experience of individual states that have tried to tackle the issue, sounds like exactly the kinds of government that we need more of – rather than trying to tackle everything from the federal level only to discover that we are creating one monolithic disaster of bureaucracy after another.

I endorse Joe Biden for President

Sam Brownback is a candidate who leaves no confusion on where he stands. His positions are clear and basically independent of what is or is not popular. I believe that we need a person with strong convictions to lead our nation and in most cases I find that my convictions are compatible with his. My two concerns wtih his candidacy are:

1. His positions may be used by his opponents to create another divisive vote, which we do not need. He recognizes this, and I believe he sincerely hopes that it will not be the case.
2. He may turn out to be another Tom Visack – an excellent candidate who finds it impossible to raise money sufficient to compete in an expensive race against other candidates who are more widely known. I hope to be proven wrong, just as I hoped to be proven wrong with Tom.

Despite these drawbacks, I must endorse Brownback for President because he would be the kind of man who would lead with conviction in the direction of some much needed solutions to many of our current problems.