2008 Endorsements

Well, I have to admit that I've been somewhat apathetic about the Presidential campaign, but since our primaries are next week I decided to read up on some things and make a decision. It's no surprise that I will be voting in the Republican primary, and in Tennessee we cannot have mixed votes in our primary. In the big, general election we can vote as mixed as we want though.

The Republicans

Okay, it seems pretty apparent that the main choices are McCain and Romney, but I do like Huckabee for his casual Southern style and personality. While McCain is a great hero with lots of service and sacrifice for our country I cannot in full conscience support him because he's on the global warming bandwagon. Romney seems to have a more reasonable approach to that issue. Most of the other issues seem not really too different between them, although they seem to want to separate themselves from each other. So, that means that, at this point in time, I am endorsing Romney.

I do want to say that this endorsement isn't without some hesitation, but the reasons for that aren't well-defined or easily justified. He's slick. He's a politician. But I guess we hire politicians to politic so we should probably want one that is politician-like. ;-)

Anyway, it looks like if McCain gets the nomination he'll choose Giuliani as his running mate. They are getting really chummy and seem close to making out or engaging in some other PDAs (public displays of affection). ;-) It's hard to imagine that if Romney gets the nomination McCain would agree to be his running mate, but stranger things have happened. I suspect that Romney might ask Thompson to be his running mate. But I'm just guessing.

The Democrats

I tend to think that Hillary and Obama will kissy-kiss and make up and ultimately join forces, but it's not too clear yet who will be the running mate. I could be wrong about that, though, and Obama might choose Edwards if he gets the nomination. They are about as chummy as McCain and Giuliani, but it's really hard to trust all that this soon. Probably my worst nightmare would be for Hillary to choose Al Gore as running mate if she gets the nomination. ;-)

Closing Thoughts

What bothers me most about all of the candidates, except for maybe Huckabee to some extent, is that they seem pretty clueless about how real life and the real world of the average person actually are. I'm not sure McCain really understands the actual basis of the subprime debacle and what really needs to happen about it, and he seems to think that some "stimulus package" will solve everyone's problems. Not that we taxpayers don't like the idea of getting money back, but some of us do realize that it's not quite 'free' money, like taking a deposit out of a savings account. And what in the world is up with giving "tax rebates" to people who don't even pay taxes? That's just pure communist feel-good garbage.

I might change my mind about things as we go along, but for now Romney seems like the least of the evils. ;-)