Presidential politics...

So while I'm home with the flu—I did get a flu shot this year—I've spent a lot of time reading. Since I haven't found a book that occupies my mind, I've been reading up on one of those subject with which I have a love—hate relationship... politics. More precisely, presidential politics.

My personal politics are fairly liberal. Whatever the the opposite of a 'bleeding heart' is, I'm that type of liberal. A cynical liberal maybe?

Anyways... here's my personal take...

I'm not really very strongly pro- any candidate... but I've got my reasons for being anti- a lot of them... which has left me with only one candidate left to support.

The easy stuff first... all of the candidates on the Republican side are either stupid, insane, or crazy, except for Arizona Senator John McCain... and McCain and I have some deep ideological differences when it comes to national security. I'm happy that it looks like he's going to win the Republican nomination.

Of all the Democratic candidates, I liked New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson the best. After him, I'm somewhat less enthusiastically willing to support either Illinois Senator Barack Obama or former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. If the Edwards who is running today ran in the 2004 primaries and election, I think the country would have been much better served.

The rest of the Democratic field would not be good for the country. Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd are intellectual policy wonks. They know their stuff and are good men, but their histories don't suggest that they have the personality to be an effective president. Both Representative Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Mike Gravel are a bit nuts... my kind of nuts, honestly speaking, but nuts non-the-less.

Of course I've left out the elephant in the room¹, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Hillary leaves me in a somewhat odd spot... I could make all sorts of arguments about her qualifications and temperament, but when you boil away all of my opinions about her, I still think there is one overriding reason why she would be bad for this country...

But before I get there, let me explain to you what I think the most important problem our political class faces. It is not the economy. It is not the war in Iraq, the War on Terror, or Islamic extremism. It isn't the sorry state of education system. It isn't our massive government debt. No, the most important problem facing our political class is the divisive polarization of politics, and our political processes. Unless you make some headway on solving this problem, you cannot and will not make any meaning full progress on any of the other issues facing our country.

... which brings me back to the junior Senator from New York. If you spend much time in the more conservative circles in our country, as I happen to², you may have noticed that simply mentioning the name Clinton causes many spines to stiffen and the hairs on the backs of necks to stand up. To be blunt, the name scares them and makes them angry and defensive, and so they go on the offensive. They hate, or at least dislike, Hillary even more than they do Bill. Now this doesn't strictly speak to Hillary's qualifications to be president, but it does draw into question the ability of many Americans to accept her as president. It speaks to her ability to overcome what I believe to be the most important task the next president must face.

When I brought this up with my sister recently, she suggested that I may have unconscious misogynistic tendencies. Possible, but I don't think so. I think I am, and enough of this country is, ready for a female president... but as Chris Rock said about Hillary,

I think America is ready for a woman president, but does it have to be that woman?

So if you've read through all that... with todays expected withdrawal of Senator Edwards from the campaign, that leaves me supporting Senator Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America in the upcoming election.

-vvk

[1] yes, I chose the 'elephant' phrase intentionally, instead of any number of other alternatives... sosumi...
[2] remember, I'm the brown guy who likes to hang out with white supremacists.