At long last the phone has stopped ringing--no more pleading for my vote from desperate politicians.
Sour-faced Mitt Romney was on the Today show whining that McCain had made over 10 million robo-calls. My jaw dropped to hear Romney's complaint. He, his wife, and about 100 of their closest friends have called us non-stop for two weeks, vying for our vote.
Yesterday, after work, I went to our voting precinct and made my selection--John McCain.
Why McCain?
Well, while philosophically Huckabee might be closer to my opinions, I felt that he really had nothing of substance to offer on the national level. He was probably a great governor, but seemed to have no thorough plan for anything. His ideas were always vague generalities that never communicated any specific visions for the war in Iraq, immigration, or foreign policy.
Romney...he just bugs me. His authenticity carries a huge question mark for me.
Giuliani....too focused on his glory days of 9/11 and the islamo-terrorist issue. He seemed like a one-trick pony.
Two of the areas in which I identify strongly with McCain are his stance against the use of water-boarding and torture, and his views on immigration. He seems to be the only Republican willing to stand up and say that any use of torture is wrong and not right for our country. He also seems to recognize that America's relationship with immigrants is not easily solved by deporting everyone to Mexico. Let's face it, if that happened our economy would crumble within months. It's unrealistic and naive.
So, McCain got my vote despite his stance on stem-cell research and the war in Iraq. I, personally, would love to see our troops home. McCain is committed to staying until we win...whatever that means. My vote was not determined by the War simply because, regardless of what any of the politicians say, we're going to be there for a while. Neither Clinton nor Obama are going to be sworn into office and be able to pull the troops out right away. It's impossible to do and would only create a bigger problem in the long run, so I don't buy the whole "elect me and I'll get them home ASAP" line. Life isn't that simple and things have a way of developing beyond the control of a single political leader's wishes.
The political pundits have posited that if Huckabee drops out Romney will get all of his social conservative votes. It's not going to happen. I think that, as a whole, the evangelical voter doesn't buy into the idea that electing someone with the same religious beliefs is going to lead to a better America, or success on the social issues that concern them. Many have voted for Huckabee because he is the candidate that evangelicals wanted 10 years ago, when they still believed the Republican Party was God's Party. Some still stubbornly believe that, but those numbers are dwindling in the face of Republican scandals and dissatisfaction with the War.
Now that it's all over, I'll be happy to answer the phone when it rings.
1 comment:
I have to admit that I watched part of President Bush's last State of the Union address the other night on the TV -- something I never do. What can I say, writers go on strike and I'll watch just about anything... But back to my point, through all the rhetoric that I fully expected in the address, one startling honest and sober comment from Bush that surprised me was when he spoke about the immigration issue. He basically started off by saying that immigration is a complicated issue -- definitely more complicated than most politicians want to make it seem (my comment) -- and that we had a legal obligation with regard to the issue but also a moral one. Basically, he was saying, to me at least, that immigrants are flesh and blood people and our responsibility to them goes beyond our nationality and requires us to view them as the humans they are. Sounds like he and McCain may be reading from the same playbook on this issue.
Post a Comment