My $.02 on Presidential Politics

If there is a good reason to look forward to leap years, beside this years' summer olympics in smog smothered Bejing, it is the tradition of presidential campaigns. Although this cycle seems to have started just after the 2006 midterms, we now are entering the meat of the order...

My stance is that I was a big Romney supporter starting early on in his campaign. I donated a couple dollars and a little time to his primary campaign here in Georgia. He is (was) what I expect out of a president: proven in the public and the private sector, a problem solver as he fixed the 2002 winter olympics and the Massachussetts budget as governor of the Bay State. He looked presidential, he spoke presidential. For some reason his message never translated nationally. I am not sure why, and I do not want to blame it purley on being the "Mormon guy" running. He was painted as a flip-flopper from the get go, and it stuck. Romney was branded as a political opportunist. If one really studies his record of how he governed the state of Massachussetts, he ran on how he actually governed, not based on some comments that he made in 1994 when running against Teddy "the swimmer" Kennedy in their Senate race. Romney was a pro-life, fiscal conservative. All this being said, he is out of the race and the 'ole war horse is the GOP nominee (not officially, yet).

I was very skeptical at first of John McCain. The media hypes him as a "maverick", which in conservative circles is not a good thing. Sure, he came down on the wrong side of a couple issues, but were they CORE issues?? Maybe; take McCain-Feingold. Does anyone really care about campaign finance? Or is it just election year politics? McCain's immagration bill was not exactly what I think would be best, but now that he has had time to reflect on it. He has "finessed" his position and believes border security should come first. He is committed to prevent wasteful, ear-mark spending, keeping taxes low, and his staple is being very strong on national defense. McCain has a very high conservative ranking by the American Conservative Union. I don't think Republicans need to "hold their nose" and vote McCain or just vote agains the Democrat ticket. A McCain vote is one you can be proud of. We can't compare McCain to Romney or Huckabee anymore; we must look at him verse a Hillary or Obama.

The Democrat primary is delivering much more fireworks than the GOP primary did. I had found myseld rooting for Obama to give Hillary a run for her money for the same reason I found myself pulling for the Giants over the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Who in their right mind thought Hillary would be fighting for her political life 3 months ago? Now this contest is not so cure anymore. A candidate has emerged. The junior senator from Illinois has taken it to the junior senator from New York. Obamamania has caught fire...but why? What has he done to deserve to be President of the United States? The leader of the free world? Sure Obama is very accomplished comared to you and me, but one shouldn't compare their credentials to a candidate for president! He served 2 year in the US Senate before throwing his hat in the ring. Prior to that he was in the Illinois state senate with numerous "present" votes on his voting record. That does not sound like someone I want dictating the direction of this country, and his limited senate record shows he has the most liberal voting record of all 100 senators. What he does have going for him is his charisma, his speaking skills, and his "newness". The Democrat party has always likes the new kid. Bill Clinton is a great example. John Hawkins wrote a great column about this "Hallmark Candidate."

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/JohnHawkins/2008/02/15/barack_obama_a_human_hallmark_card_for_president

Obama is all style, no substance. He talks about change and hope; who in their right mind is against hope?!?! What sort of change does America want? Higher taxes? More intrusive federal government welfare programs? Pulling out of Iraq and negating all the progress that our men and women have made over the last year? That is not my type of change. What is scary about Obama is that the garbage that he sells, too many people are buying it. People are fainting at his rallies, comparisons to JFK and Roosevelt are everywhere, his poll numbers skyrocketing. Just because someone can deliver a speech well does not qualify them to be president; maybe Tony Robbins should run for president.

Although there is a lot of "Republican fatigue" out there; look at where an Obama administration would lead us vs. McCain. Say what you want about the 'ole Scott, but he is fighter. I fighter with an attitude, and I want a fighter...not a butterfly.