Honestly Curious

[jackofallgeeks]

I'm fairly certain that pretty much no one out there on my friends' list has much good to say about the Republican candidates, but I also know that most of you tend to be well-reasoned and intelligent, so: I'm curious what any of you might have to offer as far as thoughts on these presidential hopefuls. What sounds good, what sounds bad, that sort of thing. I'll accept commentary on the Democrat (or Independent) hopefuls as well, but a lot of what I do know about Them makes me rather uncomfortable as it is. Be that as it may, I'd be curious if you know of things I might particularly like (or dislike) about them.

Comments

[ofthelily.livejournal.com]

i wish i could find a candidate that i liked enough to argue about how cool they are with you. I am a very sad chu who doesn't know what the heck she is going to do next November O_o

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

::Shrug:: This probably isn't the most helpful, but I've got to say that, while in past years there have at least been viable Republican candidates that I could see some good in, this time around I wouldn't even consider voting for any of them. So far, all of them have been falling over themselves to be hawkish about Iraq and Iran and endorse the seizure of executive power. And they've been playing cute on torture.

If I had to pick one of the front-ish runners... McCain has at least stood a bit firmer on torture, and has a sensible stand on immigration policy. He's been very hawkish on Iran, which truly worries me.

Giuliani has pro-choice and pro-gay-rights stances, which is a plus for me but probably a minus for you. But despite that, he's got a stable of advisers who want to bomb Iran the moment he gets the presidency, he says torture isn't that bad, and he betrayed NYC emergency service workers after 9/11. So, I wouldn't consider voting for him even given his domestic policies.

I can see a lot of good in Ron Paul's positions. But he's got no chance. And, there's a reason for that - he does also have plenty of loopy views (yeah, we're not going to withdraw from all international organizations).

On the Democratic side... I'm fairly underwhelmed, too. I'm actually thinking of voting for Kucinich in the primary, largely out of frustration (again, with some things that may be minuses to you - he's the only one that isn't playing cute with gay rights, for instance). Obama says a lot of things I agree with, but I've been unimpressed with what he's actually done on issues he could affect while a senator. The Democrats, in general, aren't too far apart on most of the issues that affect my choice - and where I'm disappointed, it's largely on things (e.g., being serious about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of robotically repeating that we support Israel) that I'm not holding my breath for anyone to break ranks on.

Anyway, that's a bit of a rambling thumbnail. A good one-stop-shopping place at least for the issues *I* care about is the CFR candidate positions page: http://www.cfr.org/campaign2008/candidates.html

[ambereternal.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I have yet to see a viable candidate from either side who I feel could make a good president given the country's current needs. However, the republican candidate I dislike the least is McCain. He seems to have a viable (read actually possible despite it's pain in the arse to implement aspects) healthcare plan. He has a strong history of being economically responsible. He might be able to reach an agreement with the democrats regarding when to bring our boys home for good. He doesn't feel that we should wage war on Iran just because PapaBear feels like it. Finally, he at least has the basis of an immigration/immigrant plan that, once heavily adapted, might be plausible.

The rest are simply running on their religion (Baptist vs. Mormon...while I've been waiting to see that fight for years, I think it belongs in a pay-per-view arena, not a presidential race.) or they're not enough of a contender to matter.

Don't worry...I don't like the democratic candidates any more than I like the republicans. I'm strongly considering writing in Mickey Mouse for this election.

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

I havn't been following the Republican race very closely, but I am sure I'll have an opion after the Iowa debate this week. Will update you then.

On the democrat side, I lean strongly towards Obama. I favor him mostly because of his overall approach: hope politics, but more specifically for his stance on energy in the US. While energy isn't a big issue in this race, I feel it should be. Or at least, it should be higher up because of the similar stance all of the candidates have on other "issues" in the debates this year. I also like Obama because he has something other candidates don't: a fresh point of view. I think his "lack of experience" is actually a strength: he isn't jaded by the cold-war baby-boomer mantality of most politicians. I was thinking of writing a post about this, but figured it would be flamebait. I guess this response is flamebate right now.

If anyone wants to flame this comment, please wait for my post. Legit responses welcome.

Anyway, I'll let you know what I think later this week after the Iowa debates. In the meantime, vote Ron Paul!

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

I know I won't be much help, but I thought I'd pipe in with the "underwhelmed" crowd.

In general:

I disagree with more of the Republicans' policies than I'd have expected (a few years back, I'd have considered myself Republican. Ask me now? All I can say is "non-partisan". I've become jaded to politics).

Though I find a number of the Democrats to be very likable (particularly Obama and Kucinich), there are too many important (for me) issues which I can't, in good conscience, compromise with them on.

I know next to nothing about any of the "third" party or independent hopefuls ...