Does last night’s Caucus have any bearing on your stance? Have you been listening to NPR or any news groups this morning talking about Barack’s win? Interesting to me is that the independants and younger populations came out to vote for him those demographics are key in this election. To put a cherry on top, women voters and more specifically single moms went to his side instead of Hillary’s. Nice.
Well he appears to be more electable today than he did to me yesterday. So, yes, I guess that does help. I like the really detailed Issues page on his website. He is not using “political speak” and weasal words. I appreciate, even as I take it with a grain of salt, his attention to veteran issues.
His Energy and Environment plans are more detailed oriented than the other candidates. This is a very good sign. Hillary’s Energy Issue Page does seem as well crafted or detailed. It is much higher in Politicalese and not specifics.
I have never thought of the Clintons as being particularly Green, in fact, under their administration the non-profit local environmental group I belong to and several others we work with lost our leases on nearly abandoned military houses on Sandy Hook. This inattention on his part was pretty sad. The sad part is the houses are these historic are now decaying rapidly as no maintenance is being done since we, the girl scouts and several school districts were kicked out. A typical waste of a great resource.
Not really, Clinton’s fault, but the group got the house under the Reagan years and the policy for these houses was set under Carter’s administration. We made it through Bush the first with no problems and then loss our lease under Bill Clinton, shortly before he left office. Similar things apparently happened in many other federal parks.
Jim
We saw drastic reductions in the same way here in CT. I live near Groton which is the Submarine Capital of the world with it’s Naval Base, and General Dynamics within a few miles of one another. We saw similar happenings to federal sites near us. I happen to be the executive director for a large environmental advocacy group [non-profit] near here and I am keeping close tabs on what the Clinton camp is saying, and thus far like you say, it’s all politicalese. We need direct change, and we need it now. After last night I feel less like I am stepping out on a limb for Barack and more like a solid part of his political future by campaigning for him here in CT. For my company and for myself he is the best overall choice.
I’ve voted Republican in every presidential election since 1988; this year I will almost certainly be voting for Barack. Just another data point.
(I’ve always considered myself a Republican, until the last eight years I’ve considered myself Independent. I may have to just resign myself to being one of those rare birds, a pro-life Democrat).
Jeez, are you SURE you’re not my dad? It’s uncanny, I’m telling ya! 'Cept for never being in the navy, you have a doppleganger who also lives in New Jersey!
As for the race, hellifIknow. My views are most in line with Kucinich, but of course that will never happen. My main beef with Hillary is that she’s a supporter of that god-awful No Child Left Behind piece of garbage. That, and I worry that she’s too polarizing.
Until last night, I worried that Barack was simply too young. Not too inexperienced, exactly, just that he lacked the gravitas and gray hair I’ve come to expect in my president - it felt like going to a doctor who’s younger than me, y’know? It made me wonder if he could be powerful enough with other world leaders to get things done. But after watching his speech at the end of the Iowa caucases, I no longer feel that way. Man, I had truth bumps all over! His presence is just amazing. His policies, I’m pretty much okay with, as the things we disagree on (from the quiz linked upthread, we disagree on Assault Weapons Ban, Guns - Background Checks, Patriot Act, Border Fence and Same-Sex Marriage) aren’t deal-breakers for me - except that I don’t know where he stands on NCLB.
In all honesty, it doesn’t matter who I vote for at all. I live in Illinois. If we don’t go Democratic, I’ll eat my hat. Heck, I’ll eat your hat. And Barack is the Golden Child here - if he makes the nomination, there’s no way Illinois won’t be going to Barack Obama. I’m just glad that this year that thought doesn’t make me ill.
If that was the number one reason to vote against her, she’d win the election without breaking a sweat. The number one reason to vote against her is that it’s impossible to believe she means anything she says. She was for the war, but now thinks the war is wrong, but wouldn’t take back her vote, but might have done things differently if she had more information but AAAAAUGH!
Exactly! AARRGGHH!!
Mr. Dean? Is that you?
I actually missed Lemur’s post last night, I was running out to dinner at that point and he posted while I was already answering others.
I don’t think this is a major reason not to vote for Hillary, but it is a strike against her. I was joking with my wife this weekend, that it would be nice to have no Bushes, Clintons or Kennedys for a long time. I will accept another Roosevelt, but they were exceptional to start with and it has been a very long time now. 
So far Obama is the only candidate that any doper seems willing to argue impassioned for except for **Pochacco ** for Edwards. Apparently I have not moved far enough to the left for any of his arguments to be compelling to me.
Jim
It seems like you agree with Democrats on most policy issues, What Exit?. What is it about Republicans that makes you identify with them in the first place?
See the bottom of post #38 that **WhyNot ** responded to.
WhyNot, I might need to PM you about your Dad. Does he live in Central Jersey? (Monmouth, Middlesex or Ocean County)
Is he a member of any environmental groups that Pete Seeger might have founded?
Jim
Mercer County, actually. Although he spends much of the year down in the Florida Keys on his boats.
I don’t know. Um…I know we had a lot of Pete Seeger records around when I was a kid! 
But I don’t know what his current memberships look like. I know he’s into “smart environmentalism” - i.e., solar panels to run a modern home and sell excess electricity back to the power company, as opposed to building a wooden shack in the woods and living off the grid. Although he *did *build his home in a wooded several acre lot, it’s only a few minutes drive into Princeton, and it has running water and everything. 
Really, like you, he’s almost a Democrat, except for the hawk thing and the fiscal conservative thing and the PATRIOT act supportin’ thing. Really, if it’s in the name of defense or security, he’ll all for it - that’s where our views divide. He sees no problem, for example, with national security cards or increased video surveillance. While I see those things an invasions of privacy and an affront to “innocent until proven guilty”, his view seems to be that anything that makes us “safer” is okay. If there was an environmentalist, gay and women rights supporting hawk Republican to vote for, he’d be happier than a pig in shit.
Sadly, I don’t really know him all that well. I love him lots, but I didn’t grow up with him, so a lot of the daily conversations that let you get to know your parents, their values and interests never happened. Now it’s mostly debates (and I CANNOT hold my own with him, the man is scary smart and way more well-informed than I) and small talk.
But reading your OP gave me a little thrill, in the sense that I thought, “Wow, if What Exit? is so disillusioned as to vote Democrat, maybe Dad is too!”
Cool, but Benjamin Franklin is another favorite of mine, and though he may not have said it, he at least used it at one point,
So, I strongly vary from him on the Patriot Act. I am also 100% against the use of torture as it endangers our own military personal in the future and removes our “White Hat”. This is one area where I really like McCain and distrust Rudy. I also feel, without sure knowledge that Obama is more likely to soften the worst aspects of the Patriot act than Hillary.
This is a most interesting and appropriate thread for me, as I also self-identify as a Republican/Independent (no, stop, put down the rotten fruit, hear me out here…)
An “old-school” repub, y’know, small government, low taxation, keep the gub’mint OUT of people’s private lives, have a strong DEFENSIVE Millitary, and support the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms is a Citizen right
Oh, and while I’m at it, get off my lawn
I’ve voted Republican almost my whole life so far (38 Yrs old), but in the last election, I could not stomach what the Moron-In Chief had done to my country, so I held my nose and voted Kerry, I wanted to send a message to Pubbie HQ that I was not happy with the job Dubya was doing and thought he should be fired
…fat lot of good that did…
anyway… I’ve been following the election proceedings halfheartedly, as no candidate resounds with me, Hillary will “nannystate” us to death, Obama I never really followed, the only candidate that even came close to my views is Ron Paul
I guess I’ll have to realize that we’ll never see an Athiest, small-government-liking, second-amendment-supporting, patriot-act-repealing-bring-the-troops-home-seperation-of-church-and-state candidate…
so, it comes back to the “lesser of two evils” which right now, to me seems to be Obama V. Paul
I know that multiple anecdotes do not equal data, but the two people that I know that have worked with Obama say exactly the same thing.
What Exit? Richardson’s experience as US Ambassador. He is the only candidate who has both executive experience at the state level and in Washington who has also sat down with people in Iraq, North Korea etc…
Bill would be wasted as Secretary of State I think. He’d do much better as a free agent. He can still do all that work in an unofficial capacity as he does now.
Your description of voting for the scoundrel Kerry matches my own. I like at least 5 current candidates better than Kerry. I voted for him, but I did not like it.
Two questions:
- How do you feel about Global warming and other Green issues?
- Doesn’t some of Paul isolationist and military policies scare you?
How is anyone “wasted” in a cabinet-level position?
Matter of fact, there were rumors in the wind yesterday of some sort of deal between Richardson and Obama, and I’m betting a cabinet position was part of the horse-trading.
ACS is a big unknown, are Humans the cause of it? no idea, but we’re certainly not helping matters any, and the benefits of doing someting to mitigate and lower the damage/impact of Human activity outweigh the “drawbacks” which are all financial anyway
put it another way, we can’t make matters worse by trying to solve the problem, so lets reduce our impact
Well, I have no problem with Immagration and Immigrants, as long as it’s done LEGALLY, unless you are Native American, there’s a good chance someone in your family was an Immigrant
if someone wants to Immigrate to the US, I’ll welcome them, as long as they do it legally, no sneaking through our incredibly porous, unsecured border
tighening up immigration policy and enforcing the rules already on the books is fine, i have a problem with creating more laws simply for the sake of creating more laws (political job security?)
I agree on the immigration, I mean he has actually talked about isolationist policies and reducing our military. The little I have heard from this guy actually scares me. I am not libertarian enough to stomach him as a candidate.