I intentionally avoided watching the Iowa caucus results yesterday, but I could not avoid hearing about them this morning. Truth be told, I am pleased with the surprising results. Hilary in 3rd place makes me happy. I was starting to feel like an outsider for finding her untrustworthy, unappealing, and utterly undesirable as President. What could she possibly hope to bring to the table? She can't even control her own house-hold, or her husband. How could she possibly hope to control the entire country?
I was thrilled that Obama did so well. His policies may not be completely what I am looking for, but then again, I have never been sure why people care so much about the empty promises presidential candidates make. Nothing a president wants to get done can happen without Congress and the Senate. The president writes no bills, and can't even go to war for two months without congress approving it. I hear all these big promises the candidates are making (like getting rid of the IRS. What a joke) and I ask myself: with what congress? Which senators are you going to kill off so that you can fill their seats with your puppets? In the end, it is all so much hot air. Politics in America is too complicated for any one person, even the President, to create change on their own.
What I like about Obama is his charisma. He is young, he is intelligent, he is well spoken. I would be proud to call him my President, and I think he is a person the world would respect. After having a mediocre bumpkin rancher in the Oval Office for 8 years, lord knows we need someone respectable in the office. At least someone who has a mastery of the English language. I can't tell you how often I have felt embarassed by Dubbya when I have been traveling abroad, especially in Europe. The Europeans have a history of not liking American politics much, but they have generally respected our President. They completely respected Clinton and Reagan, for example. Dubbya, however, they revile. He is an international laughing-stock and a liability for the country.
So hurray for Obama. I hope he pulls it off, and gets the Democratic nomination. At least he will present me with an attractive option.
I hope my other option is Mitt Romney. I really like the guy. I have met him. One of the smartest, most well-spoken, talented leaders I have ever seen. I worked as a volunteer for the Olympics in 2002, and he single-handedly turned that fiasco into one of the best olympics in modern history. He is also a man I would be proud to have as president. Again, people fault him for changing his official stance on abortion and gay rights, but he will not, as President, be able to change any of those things himself. Those changes are up to the senate and the Supreme Court. Even if the President appoints 5 new justices to the court in his term, those justices still are the ones who will decide the legality of abortion, not the president.
I was sad to see that Mitt got 10,000 less votes in Iowa. I hope that he has something else up his sleeve, since Huckabee threatens to just be more of the same in the Bush ilk. I read that his main supporters are gun clubs, home-school families, and Christian fundamentalists. In other words, the extreem right. The same people who refuse to allow Romney to be a Christian even though he ends his prayers with the words: in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. These are not the people I want chosing my next president. I don't want fundamental anything chosing my president. I want main-stream, popular America chosing my president. I want a president who can and will appeal to both sides of the nation.
We will see what New Hampshire brings. I hope Romney can rally more voters, and I also hope that Huckabee will be shown to be the light-weight dreamer that he seems to be. If all politicians are full of hot-air, then Huckabee could be the Re/Max balloon.
OK, I am gonna calm down, and get back into my own work-a-day life. No matter who wins the election, America will still be the best place on earth to live, still have the best people, still be my home. I just hope I won't have to be embarassed about my president for another 4 years.
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