Half a year before the first caucus or primary, the presidential race seems like a football game. Sure, it’s fun to check the average poll numbers on Real Clear Politics’ homepage. “Oooh. Guiliani’s lead is down to 6.7%. But Romney is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire.” Exciting stuff. Following the race makes the summer go by more quickly when there’s no basketball or football on T.V. I even enjoyed the CNN Democratic YouTube debate immensely. Did you ever think you would see serious presidential contenders responding to a question on global warming from a snowman?
But even YouTube did little to force the candidates to articulate their policy positions in concrete terms. Obama is for change. Clinton is experienced. Fascinating. I was actually impressed by the speaking skills of both leading Democratic presidential candidates. But don’t you need more than a slick podium persona to be elected the chief executive of the United States of America? Why don’t we demand more than bumper sticker policy statements from people who want to be our leaders?
Sadly,
you have to go to the second tier of candidates and beyond to get clear policy statements supported by any semblance of conviction. So far, the most exciting second-tier GOP candidate has been Ron Paul. With “arguably the most loyal Internet following of all of the 2008 candidates,” Paul seems to have sparked the imaginations of at least some of those already following the presidential debate. Paul advocates a very limited government. He feels so strongly about that position that neither he nor any of his children have accepted federally subsidized loans for their college educations. Paul has never voted for a pay increase for Congress, and refuses to participate in the Congressional pension plan (to the dismay of his wife) because he thinks it is too advantageous and too much of a burden for tax payers. Ron Paul has a very poor chance of getting the Republican nomination, but at least he doesn’t seem to be treating the campaign like a football game.
2 comments:
Very interesting. Don't know much about any of it, but I still found it interesting to read.
Lol, Ron Paul? I cannot support a man who calls for immediately withdrwaing our troops from Iraq, or who advocates for the abolition of the Federal Reserve. Both ideas would be disastrous to our country and to the world. He does have a lot of good ideas besides those, but those 2 issues are more than enough for me to say "no" to "Dr. No".
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