Clinton, Obama, Edwards – oh my! (not to mention the rest of them!)

The Presidential Primaries continue unabated, Super Tuesday approaches, the Washington Caucuses are four days later and the country waits to see who the nominees will be. The Democrats are seeking endorsements, holding their hands out for cash donations and begging for votes. I suppose the Republicans are doing the same, they’re just not getting the press in Seattle that the top three Dems are getting. I’ve thought and thought about who I’ll stand up for at the caucus on the 9th and I’m still sticking to my vote for Edwards, as long as he’s still in the race. If he’s not in the race I’ll stand up for Clinton I suppose. (Here’s where I insert the required Democratic pledge “I’ll vote for the Democratic Candidate whomever that turns out to be.”) ***(So Edwards is out and I’ll be standing up for Clinton on the 9th.)***

I’ve read, taken quizzes, read some more, talked to friends and thought about the candidates. This year it’s harder than usual to pick a primary candidate, the top three on the Democratic side are relatively close in a lot of ways. I think that there’s a bigger difference on the Republican side which is interesting since there doesn’t seem to be a front runner at this point in time.

So without further preamble here’s my slightly (okay completely) biased look at the candidates. (by biased I mean that I’m looking at only the factors that I’m interested in and commenting on the things that matter to me, your biases will surely differ from mine.) I’ll start with the Democratic candidates and then move along to the Republicans. (this information was sourced from the candidate’s websites and On the Issues)

***(I started writing this on Tuesday, prior to Giuliani and Edwards dropping out of the race, so I’m leaving them in the chart as I post this.)***

	Social Issues	Energy/Environment	Government Reform	Healthcare	Immigration	Iraq / Iran
Hillary Clinton	Supports Roe vs Wade, sex education, contraceptive education and stem cell research. Opposes a federal ban on same-sex marriage, supports civil unions.	Supports the Kyoto treaty, more mass transit, reducing oil usage, increasing fuel efficiency and opposes ANWR drilling.	Supports public campaign financing and ending no-bid contracts. Proposed a Public Service Academy. Calls for verified paper ballots on all electronic voting machines and supports DC getting seats in Congress.	Plan allows for individuals to remain on current plan or receive coverage under the plan used by Congress.	For immigration reform, but supports a border fence.	Voted for war in Iraq. Voted to declare Iranian National Guard a terrorist organization. Start bringing troops home within 60 days of taking office.
Barack Obama	Supports Roe vs Wade and stem cell research. Favors strong civil unions and legalizing gay rights at the State level.	Supports reducing carbon emissions, moving to biofuels and increasing fuel economy. Supports the use of clean coal and nuclear power which I’m against.	Supports public campaign financing with free tv and radio time, limiting no-bid contracts, moving to end tax haven abuses, ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and restoring the PAYGO principle.	Calls for affordable, portable coverage for all citizens and lowering costs across the board.	He wants to improve the immigration system, crack down on employers who hire illegals and encourage economic development in Mexico to discourage immigration. On the downside he also supports the border fence.	He wasn’t there to vote on the Iraq war, but claims he would have voted no. He wants to begin an immediate troop withdrawal with all troops out in 16 months.
John Edwards	Supports Roe vs Wade and wants to reverse the damages done by Bush. Supports civil unions, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.	Wants to create a Green Corps within Americorps. Wants to make the Whitehouse carbon neutral. Against the building of new nuclear plants. Wants to cap carbon emissions, to invest in renewable energy and to raise fuel economy.	Want to strengthen labor laws, raise the minimum wage and provide college for everyone.	Plan will provide coverage for all, lower costs to the individual and to the business owner as well.	Wants to end immigrant raids that separate parents from children, provide a roadmap to citizenship and enforce the borders.	Against torture, wants to shutdown Guantanimo, wants to restore Habeus Corpus and to adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Would begin withdrawal from Iraq immediately, all troops out in 9-10 months. Opposes Iran resolution.
Mitt Romney	Would overturn Roe vs Wade and supports a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage.	Promote nuclear technology and open ANWR for drilling.	Restore super-majority for tax increases.	Deregulate State insurance markets, make all healthcare expenses tax deductible, cap damage awards for lawsuits.	Build a fence along the southern border, issue biometric cards to non-citizens and create a national database. Reject amnesty for illegals.	Leaves option to attack Iran militarily on the table.
John McCain	Overturn Roe vs. Wade. Supports banning same-sex marriage.	?	Wants to cut taxes on individuals and lower corporate tax rate. Stop pork barrel and reduce lobbying influence.	Promote competition; give families more control of their health care dollars.	Would build a fence along the border.	Would increase the size of the military. Send more troops, stay there as long as necessary – up to 100 years.
Mike Huckabee	Overturn Roe vs. Wade, against stem cell research. Supports banning same-sex marriage.	Wants to pursue avenues of alternative energy including nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel and biomass.	Supports a “Fair Tax” and wants a line item veto for the President.	No universal healthcare. Increase competition, give families more control.	Build a fence on the border and opposes amnesty.	No withdrawal from Iraq, believes that we are currently engaged in a world war. Expand the army and increase the defense budget.
Rudy Giuliani	Would probably not sign federal ban on all abortions. No change to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, supports domestic partnerships, but not same-sex marriage.	Opposes mandated 35mpg by 2020, wants to develop alternatives instead.	Okay with surveillance of Americans. Supports line-item veto.	Help low-income families secure health insurance. Expand health savings accounts.	Build the fence. Issue biometric cards and create national database of foreigners. Require all immigrants to read and speak English.	No withdrawal from Iraq. Keep military option open for Iran.
Ron Paul	Overturn Roe vs. Wade, no stem cell research, “save snowflake babies”. Against the federal ban of same-sex marriage.	Approves of offshore oil drilling and drilling in ANWR. Voted against the Kyoto protocol.	Supports term limits and state identification cards. Wants to close depts of Energy, Education and Homeland Security.	Opposes mandated health insurance and universal coverage.	Build the fence and deny amnesty. Reform immigration.	Against war in Iraq, no plan to leave.

Hillary Clinton ~ I liked Hillary as the first lady, I was impressed by the fact that she wasn’t shy about her positions and that she actually tried to accomplish something. She was a refreshing change from the quiet, “be seen and not heard” years of Barbara Bush. I like the idea of a woman president, it’s time and history proves that a woman can successfully run a country. Should I vote for Hillary because she’s a woman, because she’s a former first lady or because her husband was one of the best presidents of the 20th century? My answer is no to all of those questions. To earn my vote a candidate needs to have a voting record and policy positions that I can agree with. She doesn’t come to the party without baggage however. Her biggest liability right now is former President Clinton. He needs to shut the hell up and let her run her campaign, he’s actually doing more harm than good in my opinion. He needs to take a lesson from other former Presidents about how to behave during a campaign season. The other problem with Hillary is that there is no one else on the Democratic side that fires up the base on the Republican side more. People either hate her or love her and vote accordingly.

Barack Obama ~ there are a lot of good things that can be said about Barack Obama. He’s definitely firing up the youth vote which is great. Anyone that can inspire the youth to vote and get involved deserves a huge amount of credit. I also like the fact that we finally have a viable candidate of color in the presidential race. Barack also brings baggage to the table. He seems a bit young and inexperienced to me. He’s a great orator, but the ability to speak is not all that’s required for a president. There’s still a huge amount of racism in this country, how would he fare against an old white guy in the south? Should we look at the big picture or only at whom we have the best chance of getting elected against whichever Republican is up on the other side? He’s young, he’s inspiring (to a point) and he’s vibrant. He, however, is no Jack Kennedy.

John Edwards ~ I like Edwards. He strikes a chord with me as he did in 2004. I’m afraid he won’t get enough delegates to be the nominee, but I’m hopeful that we’ll see an Obama/Edwards or Clinton/Edwards ticket. About the only thing that would make me happier is a Gore/Edwards ticket and I don’t see that happening either. Across the board I agree more with Edwards than with Obama or Clinton and I think he has more vision than they do. Perhaps that has more to do with the fact that this is his second run at the White House. ***Update – Edwards is dropping out of the race. *** Hopefully he will be tapped for the Vice President slot or possibly appointed to the Attorney General position.

Mitt Romney ~ he and McCain will duke it out for the nomination, though I think McCain will pull ahead. Mainly because I don’t think that the majority of religious Republicans will support a Mormon. I expect that he’ll be done after Super Tuesday.

John McCain ~ in my opinion he’s batshit crazy, but he’ll be the Republican nominee most likely. Other than Huckabee he’s probably the best Republican for the Democrat to run against. Not to be ageist, but he’s old and it’s going to show as he runs against the much younger Democrats. He’s also completely out of step with the majority of the country- staying in Iraq for 100 years? That’s not going to go over well.

Mike Hukabee ~ this guy scares the bejeebus out of me. I don’t think he has a snowballs chance in hell of getting elected, but the idea of a conservative pastor in the White House gives me hives. Remember folks the separation of Church and State is a good thing. Legislating from the pulpit is not the American way and we shouldn’t start now.

Rudy Giuliani ~ he’s out which is no real surprise to me. Electing a mayor to the office of president seems a bit silly and his only campaign slogan was nine eleven, nine eleven, nine eleven. A presidential candidate needs to have more substance, hopefully Rudy will crawl back under whatever rock he came from.

Ron Paul ~ I’m actually amazed at the amount of support this guy is getting, especially here in Seattle. I don’t think he’ll get the nomination which is good. I think that the Libertarian platform is a bit crazy in many respects and Paul himself seems to be a racist pig. If you do a Google search on Ron Paul and Racist you’ll come up with a lot of articles where his real views are laid bare for us all to see. I’m shocked that a blatant racist like Paul could get so much support in Seattle, but I suppose that those type of people are everywhere.

Breaking it down in very general terms, the differences between Democrats and Republicans, in my opinion, come down to this:

• Democrats believe that a woman has the right to choose when and how to be reproductive while Republicans don’t.
• Democrats believe civil rights apply to everyone, including the rights conferred by marriage. Republicans believe that is only true if you’re heterosexual.
• Democrats support the Kyoto protocol, preserving the environment, sourcing alternative fuels and increasing fuel efficiency to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. Republicans don’t.
• Democrats support campaign finance reform, election reform and tax reform for the middle class. Republicans want to lower taxes for the richest of the rich and corporations.
• Democrats believe that every individual should have access to healthcare and medications. Republicans think the current system works fine and generally want to increase competition within the current system.
• Democrats want to reform the immigration process and work to create a lasting solution to the current problem. Republicans want to build a wall and then kick out all illegals, most don’t address any long term solutions.
• Democrats want to get out of Iraq, end torture, restore Habeus Corpus and close offshore prisons. Republicans think we’re doing the right thing in Iraq and want to stay there for up to 100 years. Democrats don’t think we should invade Iran, Republicans are foaming at the mouth to invade.