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The Ideal Candidate

The last few days, Hillary Clinton and Obama have been pressing the public to really look at the candidates’ records. Personally, I kind of liked the way Senator Clinton has gone about it more than Senator Obama or even John Edwards. Just from what I’ve seen over the weekend, she seems to have gotten the message from Iowa about the public being tired of negative messages and political attack dogs. While Edwards and Obama still appear to be pointing fingers and making accusations, she seems to be much calmer, less defensive, less abrasive.

But one thing has been nagging me more and more the past week than it usually does about Presidential campaigning. Maybe it’s because I’m just so aware of how many sitting Senators are running this time around — and I can’t forget Governor Richardson who I’m inclined to like best amongst the Democrats but I think it’s simply because they don’t let him talk much.

I keep wondering when was the last time any of these public officials were actually doing the job they have now rather than campaigning for the job they want next? Running for President of the United States appears to be as much a full time job as President of the United States. How can they possibly have time to govern a state or sponsor the kind of bills they claim they support or even vote on the actual bills struggling to become law? More and more I think John Edwards and all those other “former” Senators, Governors, Mayors, and whatnots have the right idea. I just don’t think the ones that are still trying to hold onto their current neglected office, all the while claiming that they are all about serving the public and thinking about what’s best for Middle America, can possibly be doing any good for the public, Middle America or Poorest America while they are traipsing about the country slinging mud at their own party members and over-using the word “change”.

I guess I’d feel better about this whole Election 2008 business if I could find a candidate who really does have experience but plans to approach the presidency with reform in mind, a candidate who is speaks quietly but carries a big stick, a candidate who doesn’t need to stoop to petty tactics to try to make his career look shinier than the others’, a candidate who really does care about the Middle Class and everyone on down and intends to help make the American Dream reachable, a candidate who isn’t distracted by the next big thing in his or her life.

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You’re currently reading “The Ideal Candidate,” an entry on D³

Published:: 07.01.08 / 1pm

Category:: Publicizing

Social Tags:: 2008 Presidential election • Governor Bill Richardson • John Edwards • Senator Barack Obama • Senator Hillary Clinton

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How Are You Going To Vote? (PunditMom)

The pollsters and the media are trying to convince us that we’ve already made up our minds. Hillary and Rudy are “ahead.” Barack and Fred are in “second-place.” Edwards and McCain are “trailing.”

Doesn’t all this sort of make you feel that the process is a fait accompli? Not one vote has been cast, yet so many commentators and news analysts are already talking as if it’s a foregone conclusion who the nominees are going to be.

I actually heard Tim Russert say on the radio last week that the 2008 Presidential election was going to be over in two months! The implication being that once Iowa and New Hampshire are done voting, there’s no point in the rest of us showing up again until November!

So as you are considering WHO you are going to vote for (please promise me you’ll vote), I’m curious HOW you’re going to arrive at your decision.

Will you vote by consensus or by conscience?

Talk about talk (Third World County)

Many people exercise common sense when formulating their comments. I can appreciate that. Some exercise their sense of humor, and I can appreciate that, usually no matter how weird their sense of humor* may be. Others, and they are few indeed, actually learned in school or elsewhere how to make clear, reasoned arguments. Rare, and greatly appreciated. People I stand to learn much from.

But some just have no business even having an opinion, because they are both too ill-informed and are idiots (usually, as I have said elsewhere, self-made idiots), unable to recognize the value (or even the existence) of arguments from facts or reason, taking their preconceptual biases as fact and building a “reality-based” fantasyland of idiotarian unreason on that shaky foundation.

Sen. Leahy on the Mukasey Nomination (Buck Naked Politics)

Nothing is more fundamental to our constitutional democracy than our basic notion that no one is above the law. This Administration has undercut that precept time after time. They are now trying to do it again, with an issue as fundamental as whether the United States of America will join the ranks of those governments that approve of torture. This President and Vice President should not be allowed to violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions or disregard U.S. statutes such as our Detainee Treatment Act and War Crimes Act. They should not be allowed to overturn more than 200 years of our Nation’s human rights and moral leadership around the world.

Show me some smarts ( pesky’apostrophe)

See, if I were going to task a committee on finding out if abortion negatively impacts women…I probably wouldn’t start with the answer Blunt is hoping to get. Rather, I would start with this: what impacts women more negatively - having an abortion or giving birth to an unwanted child. And then you could also look at the impact on children of being born into a situation where they’re not wanted. Were they kept or put up for adoption? Did they get adopted or did they end up in the juvenile authority system? Regardless of where they ended up, how did they fare against kids who were planned and/or wanted in terms of school, social skills, etc.? You know, I’d try to make it focused on finding an answer to a question, rather than asking the questions to get a specific answer.

Thud 07.01.08 / 10pm

I kind of like watching the horse race, at least from afar — I read transcripts and watch the occasional speech and give the debates a miss as they’re all mostly fluff. I think the really important thing is not to look at the ads or the campaign but what people have actually done.

It’s kind of funny — maybe it’s because I don’t watch the performances — but I get a different opinion of Hillary Clinton. She may have tweaked her campaign style here or there, but she hasn’t tweaked what her stand is.

So far, though, I’ve been impressed at how substantive the discussions I’ve heard have been. (That’s comparatively substantive.) “Mud-slinging” I tend to think of not as criticizing your opponents but criticizing them for trivial and unfair reasons. I think it’s appropriate to hold our candidates responsible for their legislative affairs, but if, say, Obama started making snide remarks about Clinton’s marriage — that would be mud-slinging.

Thud’s last blog post..If you are new here?

J. Lynne 08.01.08 / 3pm

I don’t watch the ads. Can’t stand them. The closer it gets to an election, the more agitated I get and the more stuff I record so I can fast-forward through the commercials.

I tend to agree with you about the “mud-slinging”. To me, it’s useless bickering generally over things that don’t have to do with the campaign. Stuff like the attacks on John Kerry’s military career or his wife’s fortune or Chelsea Clinton’s awkward childhood appearance or how old Barbara Bush appears or Nancy Reagan’s astrologers. It’s also niggling nitpicking over so-called half-facts that aren’t the whole truth and only serve to call the other person into question and in a sense dishonor him or her.

I do think it’s appropriate to hold our candidates responsible for their legislative affairs and even to their promises, but I also think it’s important to hold our candidates to the standards they set for each other. For example, if Obama says Edwards is “unelectable” for some reason, then he better make certain that he doesn’t also fit the bill. I think it’s not only time for responsible legislators, but non-hypocritical ones.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve been listening to the all-politics/all-the-time that’s been on t.v. the last few days. I’m far more impressed with the candidates when they aren’t in the same room together. I kind of have to admit that while I still plan to vote for a Democrat who’s pretty much not even showing in the polls if he makes it to our primary, I no longer feel like I might be physically ill should Hillary Clinton or Obama get the nomination. In fact, I would prefer Hillary over Obama at the moment and I certainly would prefer either of them over Edwards (if he would just stop saying the same thing over and over…), but that’s if I had to pick a front-runner.

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