A light reading of the newspaper has been my only real newsource for quite a while now, but today I decided to see what the presidential candidates were saying. Here are the videos they both released today. If their takes here were all I had to go on, which way would I go?
and
[powered by WordPress.]
jour·nal n. A personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary.
"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think." (Niels Bohr)
28 queries. 1.605 seconds
September 17th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Go McBama!
Based on the videos, I would pick Obama, mostly because he reminds me of Leonard Nimoy, and also because he was a little more specific about the problems. And, oh yes, he has a plan! Makes it seem like he is paying attention…
McCain’s video seemed loaded with assumptions and manipulative terms, and included a nice little jab at the “opposition”. Not very becoming, seems a little self-absorbed, and definitely does not give the impression that he is focused on the problem(s).
Will I vote for either of them? Probably not.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Gosh. The way they communicate is so different. Obama’s definitely appealed to me more than McCain’s. I think “Maverick” is a dangerous title to be labeled as.. in many ways Bush is a Maverick as well, and at this time, that’s not a very good thing. Obama certainly seems to be paying more attention (like Daniel said).
I’m looking forward to late November and at Thanksgiving will be thankful that the elections are over.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
You are so funny Daniel…McBama is pretty accurate. Hmmm…I wonder if we had co-Presidents, one from either side and they are actually forced to work together to best work for ALL people…I was thinking about this as I was brushing my teeth.
Thanks for posting these videos David- I know who I am voting for, but man this can be confusing for those that are in the middle!
September 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Heather and I have been watching the John Adams miniseries lately, and it\’s made me think about our current political process differently. If this election were happening at the turn of the 19th century, we might see Obama as POTUS and Palin as VP. Candidates ran as individuals and the VP was simply whoever got the second-greatest number of votes.
Adams was VP to Washington and while they were friends, he was not part of Washington\’s inner circle in the way that Jefferson and Hamilton were. It was interesting to watch him have to sit as sort of an outsider, only there in case Washington died… So there wasn\’t much cooperation/collaboration between POTUS and VP in that structure.
Something else I was thinking of after I watched the videos: there are two different questions worth asking, and the answers may be different for an individual person.
\”Who can cast MY/OUR vision?\”
and
\”Who can cast a vision for the nation?\”
It seems like a concern for the maturation, husbandry and healing of a nation would make the latter question more important, but it\’s not the operative question in many people\’s minds.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Just going by these adds Obama is way more specific about what the problems are and what he wants to do about them. McCain gives off more bravado and less info.
But…. because I’m not getting all of my information from this one add, I know that in general the Democratic party is pro- big government, pro- higher taxes, pro-abortion, anti-small business, and in my opinion anti-personal responsibility. Our country was built on “Biblical values”, hard work, neighbors helping neighbors, invention, ingenuity, and most importantly freedom.
I feel like conservitive values (not necessarily republicanism) promotes these values the the most closely. I want this kind of America. Not one that is a big brother (or benevolent uncle) that hands out welfare so freely, doesn’t honor the laws of citizenship, thinks it’s o.k. to terminate life and wants to socialize medicine (having lived in Canada I know that this is NOT the rosy answer that everyone wants and needs). None of these things coincide with what has made America great.
Yes, America is struggling. Yes, we need change. Yes, war is awful, especially this one. But what are we willing to give up?
September 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Unfortunately, it will not really matter who enters office for this election term; the nation will struggle no matter what, and moral issues may be pushed aside in favor of “survival”.
Gretchen: Those items you list as “Democratic” are mostly Republican propaganda (pro-bad-stuff, anti-good-stuff). In reality, both parties are mainstream, and do not drift very far from each other on actual policy. No one is pro-big government, higher taxes are not a problem when you feel they are used well (or at least appropriately), there is no pro-abortion, only pro-choice which claims that it is a personal decision (whether the decision is right or wrong), no one is anti-small business (only pro-big-business, and they all are), and everyone is anti-personal responsibility (also known as selfish). It does no good to demonize the perspective you don’t share or understand. There are reasons for all those stances (welfare, socialized medicine, pro-choice, higher taxes) which are not evil, and some would support them with verses from the Bible. I do not agree with all of them either, but there is no need for loaded phrases or vilification.
David: Good questions! I did notice that they both played to the “me!” audience.
Obama has more to prove, and that may inspire more decisive action (I would hope). With the powers that GWB has garnered for the executive branch, maybe the next guy in there could actually do something good, if he was so inclined (but it goes both ways). No matter who ends up in the White House, someone will have a lot of shit to shovel.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Obama spent more money on his message, it was way longer… but specifics were a boon.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Daniel, I appreciate your response about the realities of the labels we use for political issues (and those who oppose the ones we like best.) I think it is very true. I am seriously nauseated these days by the bile and mud running through the campaign, and the way most people love to demonize the other side– I wish it were that simple! I have serious concerns about what will happen in the next four years no matter who is in office– neither side is anywhere near being the best!
September 17th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Daniel, the things I listed are pretty much right on.
Pro-choice tends to mean pro-abortion (just ask the staff at any pregnancy care clinic if they have pro-choice support). Sorry that it sounds ugly but it is. Since Roe vs. Wade abortion has become extremely accepted and commonplace. I do believe that women should have the right to choose. But it has come to the point where any women who is pregnant now can easily abort a pregnancy because a test came back abnormal. Doctors are surprised when someone carries a baby with deformaties to full term. I have to say that a society that doesn’t value life won’t prosper.
The democratic party has a history of raising taxes, widening the umbrella of governmental control with programs like welfare that although seem like a good thing, aren’t so great in the long run because they are run by a large clumsy government. These programs should be and there are many such programs that are run privately and have better outcomes (surprise! The common folk, when given freedom choose to do good things!!)
The main problem (although many good people have been helped) with welfare is that there really is not much, or hasn’t been a lot of accountability and the system is taken advantage of more often than not. People aren’t truly getting the long term help they need to get them back on their feet. (this is a huge subject with many angles).
Because of higher taxes mostly brought on by the left party, small business suffer the most because they get the brunt of the taxation. The U.S. needs these small enterprising business and it does not help to tax them heavily.
I used the phrasing that I did not to vilify or “demonize” but to point out some major problems with a left leaning government. The bills that are passed, the decisions made no matter how small impact this country and steer it for the future. I believe in a government that stays out of the private sector as much as possible. We need government to guide, protect and delegate but not to crawl into bed with us. (sorry about the loaded phrase.)
September 17th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I realized after commenting that pointing out problems in policy is different than “vilifying” or “demonizing”. Here are a few examples of “demonizing”
-the bumper sticker, “Bush Lied People Died.” Actually that one is just an issue of ignorance.
- The recent doctored photos of McCain making him look, well… demonic.
- The recent mass e-mails about Obama being a radical muslim and anti-American.
- More mass e-mails accusing Palin of book burning and cutting the budget for special needs children in Alaska.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Based on the videos, Obama gets a thumbs up. After 8 years a presidency run by mindless ideologues, I would like to see a guy who is more thoughtful and deliberate in his attitude. Yes there are perils of “thinking too much,” and tough decisions will have to be made. But Gawd, enough of policy making driven by beliefs and ideologies and with nothing for contempt to facts.
On this big business thing, both parties are anti-small business to the core. One is pro-big government and the other pro-big business. The latter sounds better than the former? The 1 trillion dollar rescue package to save the financial market is a perfect marriage between big government and big business and we are left with the bill.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Shack, have you read The Shack?
Apparently it is taking the Evangelical community by storm. I have not, but I though you’d be all over it. I mean if there was a book out called “The Cho,” I’d be all over it regardless of what it was about. I am that narcissistic, but I guess you aren’t.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
David Cho, I was just thinking about how rotten the current system is seeming. Like the bail-out. I mean no one wants a depression but there just seems to be no accountability. It feeds into the culture of people expecting to get bailed out of bad choice/decisions. Then I wonder where is the money coming from? Yes, we do pay the price in the end. Of course I’m relieved that we aren’t losing our life insurance form AIG….
September 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
The money comes from loans from Japan, China, the UK, and foreign oil producing countries (and many more). A full list is here: http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt. In the end, our kids and grandkids pay, but it may not be in money.
One of the reasons for the rotten system we have is that both popular parties are reluctant/unable to reduce the government footprint, or the influence of corporations/capitalism on our alleged democracy. It is impossible for anyone who truly believes in small government to get elected to the office of POTUS. The corporations control public opinion via media channels, and it is in the best interest of all corporate share-holders to maintain the bureaucracy. For it is the existence of the bureaucracy that allows the control that they exercise. How can you form an independent view if the basis for all your views are controlled by money and power interests?
Does that sound extreme, or like conspiracy-theory? History says it is how things work. Not evil people, just corrupt systems, developed and run by corruptible people until the systems run themselves.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
That’s what I thought I had heard Daniel. How sickening to be in debt to other countries especially unstable/power hungry ones at that! This is a good discussion and has made me research quite a bit.
I like what Thomas Jefferson’s idea of being a healthy country the government needs to be overthrown about every 50 years or so. Hmmm maybe a revolution is needed?
September 20th, 2008 at 3:16 am
The wold has changed a lot since TJ’s days. This looming “thing” on which we teeter may be the harbinger of a revolution of sorts. The presence and effects of greed are becoming more and more overt, and I think that is what people will react to. This “crisis” is actually kind of an perspective adjustment for our young culture. There are already active movements to opt-out, downshift, localize, and DIY. Now we will see the value that those movements bring as they are more or less our cultural salvation. It might be a different kind of revolution (and hopefully not a violent one).
The system is hopeless in it’s current state, but I still see hope in people.
September 20th, 2008 at 7:10 am
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” Alexander Tyler
September 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am
My apologies; a relevant quote dump.
“…There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing.” - Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837
“The only secret is the history you don’t know.” - Harry S. Truman
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.” Lord John Maynard Keynes
“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” - Ernest Hemingway
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” - Ludwig von Mises, in Human Action, Regnery, 1966, p. 572.
“Government interventions always breed economic dislocations that “necessitate” more government interventions.” Ludwig von Mises
“It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Dr. Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
The one thing I appreciate about our government is balance. I think there are times when we need Republican reform and there are times we need democratic reform. I also believe now is the time for democratic reform. Our Liberties and our ecoonomy have been so seriously comprimised in the last 8 years, that I think it would be dangerous to put anyone with classic republican policies and methods in office, especially a “Maverick” whose is praised for his “shoot from the hip” method of problem solving. Values are important, but I doubt seriously that McCain would make any progress in that arena during the next 4 or even 8 years especially considering the ino progress has been made in the last 8 years on these very same issues, and considering that issues of economic survival will take precident.
More importantly, I believe that our current free market is crushing the “entrepenurial spirit” because the larger corporations are to powerful to compete with. Upward mobility and the spirit of competition, which iis the life blood of our economy, is becoming a myth because some have bbecome so successful, that there is no more room at the top. Small businesses are disapearing in more and more areas of the market because the just can’t compete with unregulated mega-companies. I think we need some simple common since regulations to preserve the independant spirit, and the spirit of opportunity that has characterized America for so long. Things change and the rules that worked 50 or 60 years ago, don’t necessarily work any more today. There is a time for preserving old values and tried and true methods, but I don’t believe this is that time. I know this election hads made the term almost cliche, but yes right now we need change.