1/12/2008

Doug's Opening Thoughts, Election and Otherwise


Look! I finally figured this blogger thing out! For a while I was feeling completely inept, but hopefully I won't make any big mistakes for the time being.

Anyway, I'm quite excited to have this opportunity to write in a more informal manner than on the actual opinion page. Don't get me wrong, I love The Beacon, but mild rants and spur-of-the-moment outbursts seem more appropriate here (but don't worry, Phil, I'll definately keep it professional and, hopefully, thought-provoking) and I'm more likely to have a lot of those than ideas for full-blown articles.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the upcoming semester and I hope we can really move the section in a positive direction.

Introduction aside, this election has me worried. The stakes (as far as I'm concerned) have never been higher in economics, foreign policy, and domestic issues such as equal rights and education - yet none of the candidates seem to have a grip on reality; some even go as far as saying that there is no real problem with social security. Seriously? Get a reality check.

But my biggest concern is Hillary Clinton. Where did she come from? New York? No, she only moved there because she knew she could win a Senate seat. Her husband's shadow? More likely.

The recent remarks Bill made have me wondering what Hillary would be without him. It's gotten to the point where he can't even make a comment without having a major impact on her campaign.

But is he enough to win her the election? In AOL's latest straw poll, Hillary is leading with support from 51% of Democrats...so, maybe. But I don't understand where the support is coming from. It's not like she has the experience - oh, sorry, I forgot that none of the top three Democrats have any real experience...

I guess we'll wait and see.

5 comments:

Jeff Hudecek said...

Rudy Giuliani staffs his campaign with advocates for attacking Iran, Mitt Romney wants to double Guantánamo, Ron Paul wants us to go back to the gold standard (among other crazy ideas), Mike Huckabee openly admits he doesn't believe in evolution, the Democrats (as usual) overuse the words "hope" and "change" so much that they lose any semblence of actual meaning, and Hillary Clinton is your biggest concern?

Sure her financial pandering and overtly calculated political positions are unnerving, but she'd still make a better president than much of that lot.

Doug Paul Case said...

To be honest, none of the candidates really appeal to me. But Hillary just scares me most of all. While I can't put my finger on it, it's probably because of her connection to her husband. And while there obviously isn't anything anyone can do about that, it's unnerving to me.

I'll get to the qualms I have with the other candidates as Super Tuesday approaches.

Philip Primeau said...

Rudy staffs his campaign with national security wonks. Mitt Romney is concernced with information extraction. Ron Paul desires a well anchored currency. Huckabee sympathizes with the everyman's wisdom of ancient faith.

...Wow, luck, I can be super-reductionist too, Jeff.

Jeff Hudecek said...

Haha, I note you neglected to defend the Democrats againt my admittedly one dimensional assault. How sly, Phil.

That said, it doesn't affect my observation that Doug's placement of his distaste for Hillary at the top of the list seems unwarranted.

And "everyman's wisdom of ancient faith" seems like a stretch even by super-reductionist standards.

Michael Corcoran said...

Douglas,

I would like you to further elaborate about S.S.

If by problem you mean not enough money going into it, than we can solve that quite easily. We can eliminate the cap -- currently at 90,000 -- to which people can be taxed on it.

There is no S.S. crises. A problem? The problem is that people want to privatize one of our best, and most beloved social programs.