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

[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

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

I thought this was very helpful! Honestly I saw the length of your post and thought it might be a rant. But you laid it out there plane and simple! Well put, sir!

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

I join the chorus of underwhelmed voters when I look at both sides of the field.

Unfortunately, this includes my take on Mitt Romney, who I really wanted to like. He's been trying too hard to be like the other candidates and hasn't come out enough against things like, oh... torture. If we prosecuted the japanese for waterboarding in WWII as a war crime, we've got no place doing it ourselves to anybody. He's also not solid enough for my tastes.

I don't remotely like Giuliani, who seems to be a> just another politician fighting for a vote rather than his own real views, and b> pretty ethically bankrupt. I can't vote for him.

I used to quite like McCain (I voted for him in the republican primary against Bush II in the campaign that ended up being Al Gore vs. The State of Florida) but I think he's rather lost his touch, which is sad.

I'll be really unhappy if this goes Hillary versus Giuliani. I loathe loathe loathe her, and have nothing good to say about him either. While my political views are highly incompatible with Obama (other than being basically positive), if it's him versus Giuliani I may actually vote Democrat. Never thought I'd say that.

But then, the Republican Party and I have a pretty uneasy relationship anyhow. Most of its contemporary policymakers don't really value the things that I value, though they do pay them the occasional bit of lipservice (things like small government and protection of individual rights... that last being something that most of them seem to be assailing right now).