Well, I'm back now from a break following the buildup and climax of Super Tuesday.
I haven't been posting a lot, but I certainly have been thinking a lot since then.
It is really strange how my opinions on many things have changed since I started this blog - and even since my last post.
I now think, of the three remaining contenders, that Barack Obama is by far the most dangerous.
John McCain, in my opinion, is a loose cannon, and you never know what he is going to do - and may very well be more dangerous to the conservative movement than either of the other two.
Hillary Clinton, seems to me, scarily enough, to be the only one that only looks better and better the more you investigate.
Now, there are few big things there, several of which I never thought any conservative would ever say, let alone me, but here is my reasoning.
Barack Obama speaks in very vague terms, which makes it hard to pin anything specific on him.
The scary thing about him is that he is so believable. He is the Democratic version of Reagan - very believable to everyone, even those outside his own party.
The thing that makes them different is that Reagan spoke in specifics, Obama speaks in generalizations.
Obama has virtually no foreign affairs experience, except his travels, which are not foreign affairs in my opinion.
His version of foreign affairs seems to be that you learn everything you can from these other countries, and then emulate them here, instead of trying to negotiate with other countries to protect the way of life we have now.
He wants us out of Iraq right. now. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
He supports abortion fully.
He is pro gay marriage (in fact some have stated he has had gay relations, but a lot of people seem ro consider anyone who says this to be loony...)
Beyond that, all I can pin him on is that he is rated the "most liberal senator".
Which means he is probably pretty liberal, comparable to Dennis Kucinich?
John McCain has been described as a maverick - that is a perfect description.
How many people know where he really stands on gay marriage? He has proclaimed, in the course of 5 minutes, that his views are in line with both sides of the argument!
How about abortion? He thinks it should be acceptable with no limitations in the case of rape of incest, and doesn't think testing if there actually was a rape is needed. Beyond that, he says he is pro-life, but doesn't seem talk about it a lot.
The economy? He seems to always be saying it is bad, while offering very few solutions. Beyond that, I don't think he is very good on the subject despite his adamant statements that he is (and prior to that "that he is not...").
There seem to only be two things that are clear from his statements:
1: Stay in Iraq, and possibly extend into Iran, while at the same time annoying Russia and anyone else by interfering with them.
2: He contradicts himself way too often to be an effective communicator. I hope it is merely that he doesn't communicate his ideas well, and not that he really doesn't know where he stands on the issues.
Another thing that scares me is that it seems that his entire life since he returned form Vietnam has been all about trying to get into the White House. He went into the House of Representatives very quickly - then to the Senate. He involved himself in as many important issues as he could, trying to get as many bills passed as possible - whether they were liberal, moderate or conservative seems to have had little bearing.
He ran against Bush in 2000, after he lost threatened to leave the party - even meeting with important Democrats about becoming Independent.
In 2004 he offered to run with his close friend, John Kerry, against Bush.
And this election has been a zoo that seems to have been a well-orchestrated attempt at insuring he got the nomination - and I am not being a conspiracy theorist, I will explain.
I haven't been posting a lot, but I certainly have been thinking a lot since then.
It is really strange how my opinions on many things have changed since I started this blog - and even since my last post.
I now think, of the three remaining contenders, that Barack Obama is by far the most dangerous.
John McCain, in my opinion, is a loose cannon, and you never know what he is going to do - and may very well be more dangerous to the conservative movement than either of the other two.
Hillary Clinton, seems to me, scarily enough, to be the only one that only looks better and better the more you investigate.
Now, there are few big things there, several of which I never thought any conservative would ever say, let alone me, but here is my reasoning.
Barack Obama speaks in very vague terms, which makes it hard to pin anything specific on him.
The scary thing about him is that he is so believable. He is the Democratic version of Reagan - very believable to everyone, even those outside his own party.
The thing that makes them different is that Reagan spoke in specifics, Obama speaks in generalizations.
Obama has virtually no foreign affairs experience, except his travels, which are not foreign affairs in my opinion.
His version of foreign affairs seems to be that you learn everything you can from these other countries, and then emulate them here, instead of trying to negotiate with other countries to protect the way of life we have now.
He wants us out of Iraq right. now. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
He supports abortion fully.
He is pro gay marriage (in fact some have stated he has had gay relations, but a lot of people seem ro consider anyone who says this to be loony...)
Beyond that, all I can pin him on is that he is rated the "most liberal senator".
Which means he is probably pretty liberal, comparable to Dennis Kucinich?
John McCain has been described as a maverick - that is a perfect description.
How many people know where he really stands on gay marriage? He has proclaimed, in the course of 5 minutes, that his views are in line with both sides of the argument!
How about abortion? He thinks it should be acceptable with no limitations in the case of rape of incest, and doesn't think testing if there actually was a rape is needed. Beyond that, he says he is pro-life, but doesn't seem talk about it a lot.
The economy? He seems to always be saying it is bad, while offering very few solutions. Beyond that, I don't think he is very good on the subject despite his adamant statements that he is (and prior to that "that he is not...").
There seem to only be two things that are clear from his statements:
1: Stay in Iraq, and possibly extend into Iran, while at the same time annoying Russia and anyone else by interfering with them.
2: He contradicts himself way too often to be an effective communicator. I hope it is merely that he doesn't communicate his ideas well, and not that he really doesn't know where he stands on the issues.
Another thing that scares me is that it seems that his entire life since he returned form Vietnam has been all about trying to get into the White House. He went into the House of Representatives very quickly - then to the Senate. He involved himself in as many important issues as he could, trying to get as many bills passed as possible - whether they were liberal, moderate or conservative seems to have had little bearing.
He ran against Bush in 2000, after he lost threatened to leave the party - even meeting with important Democrats about becoming Independent.
In 2004 he offered to run with his close friend, John Kerry, against Bush.
And this election has been a zoo that seems to have been a well-orchestrated attempt at insuring he got the nomination - and I am not being a conspiracy theorist, I will explain.
- Rudy Giuliani stated throughout his campaign that "If I weren't in the race, I would be supporting McCain".
- Fred Thompson entered the race at the precise moment when it looked like McCain was done and Giuliani and Romney were the only two serious contenders.
- Previously, before entering, Thompson had been making phone calls on behalf of McCain, and supporting him.
- In 2000, Thompson endorsed McCain over Bush, and even became one of his campaign co-chairmen.
- Huckabee worked with McCain to attack Romney, and defend each other.
- Thompson and Giuliani seemed to slow there campaigns, and then quit, as soon as McCain began to take a lead.
- Once it was down to McCain, Huckabee and Romney, McCain and Huckabee began sharing delegates from states, to make sure that one of them would beat Romney. Such as in West Virginia where Romney had nearly 50% on his own (about 45-47%), McCain instructed all of his delegates to go to Huckabee, thus giving him the majority.
While I supported Thompson, that chain of events seems highly suspect, and at the very least rather coincidental.
Hillary Clinton is the Republicans worst nightmare, or so we've been told.
At least with Clinton, you know most of the bad stuff there is to know about her - and it isn't really that much worse than Obama or McCain, in fact, it is often better.
She is not as bad as Obama on most issues - she wants an ordered retreat from Iraq - even stating that we might need to be there until 2010.
She is wishy-washy on things, but no more than McCain who changes his mind mid-sentence more often than he says it right the first time, or Obama who rarely has an opinion at all, let alone a wishy-washy one.
While she is for abortions, she is also for parental notification and against late-term, partial birth abortions.
On immigration she is definitely no worse than the other two, if not better.
On foreign policy - she is not as bad as Obama, but also not so interested as McCain about getting into a world war.
She is indeed bad on gay marriage, but how much worse than the other two?
These issues have raised some interesting questions for me.
While I supported Thompson, I find his actions highly suspicious.
While I never thought I would say this, I'm not sure McCain is better than Hillary.
My views on Obama have gone from the "He seems to be saying good things" to "wow, how did I ever believe him, and not look deeper?"
So, at this point (though it seems my points never last more than a while ;) ) I will vote for McCain over Obama.
But if the Democrats pick Hillary I will need to think a bit more - but I am leaning towards Clinton.
Right now, it looks like Hillary will be both easier for McCain to beat and also better than Obama should McCain lose.
Hillary Clinton is the Republicans worst nightmare, or so we've been told.
At least with Clinton, you know most of the bad stuff there is to know about her - and it isn't really that much worse than Obama or McCain, in fact, it is often better.
She is not as bad as Obama on most issues - she wants an ordered retreat from Iraq - even stating that we might need to be there until 2010.
She is wishy-washy on things, but no more than McCain who changes his mind mid-sentence more often than he says it right the first time, or Obama who rarely has an opinion at all, let alone a wishy-washy one.
While she is for abortions, she is also for parental notification and against late-term, partial birth abortions.
On immigration she is definitely no worse than the other two, if not better.
On foreign policy - she is not as bad as Obama, but also not so interested as McCain about getting into a world war.
She is indeed bad on gay marriage, but how much worse than the other two?
These issues have raised some interesting questions for me.
While I supported Thompson, I find his actions highly suspicious.
While I never thought I would say this, I'm not sure McCain is better than Hillary.
My views on Obama have gone from the "He seems to be saying good things" to "wow, how did I ever believe him, and not look deeper?"
So, at this point (though it seems my points never last more than a while ;) ) I will vote for McCain over Obama.
But if the Democrats pick Hillary I will need to think a bit more - but I am leaning towards Clinton.
Right now, it looks like Hillary will be both easier for McCain to beat and also better than Obama should McCain lose.
I know that recent polls have shown Hillary shooting up past McCain - but McCain is also not attacking Hillary anymore - so I'm not sure how much I would trust those numbers.
If McCain picks Huckabee as his running mate - or any other moderate VP - I will not be voting Republican.
Whether I would go to Hillary, or vote third-party, I don't know, but McCain is scary enough as is, we don't need them together...
If McCain picks Huckabee as his running mate - or any other moderate VP - I will not be voting Republican.
Whether I would go to Hillary, or vote third-party, I don't know, but McCain is scary enough as is, we don't need them together...
