Column for Jan. 19, 2012

So, we have the Iowa caucuses down, the New Hampshire primary election down, and we are about to have the South Carolina primary election. I know from experience that the Granite State residents are happy to have their state back from the political sharks, pundits, and media hacks. I grew up there, and every four years the little state was invaded. I got to meet some politicians, even when I was in elementary school. I remember talking to Ted Kennedy when he made his run for president. Thankfully, he never did get elected. Still, he had plenty of influence and inflicted plenty of damage on our country as a Senator from Massachusetts.

Four main players in the Republican race have now bowed out of the race. I suspect that more will follow soon. But with 1144 delegate votes needed to win the GOP nomination, New Hamster (as I affectionately call the state) and Iowa only account for about 38 total delegate votes. Mitt Romney (whose first name is really Willard, so I guess I understand going by the middle name of Mitt) only has 14 pledged votes so far with the other candidates not at all far behind. The race is still wide open.

I am truly weary of the press constantly touting Romney as the front runner and basically the most electable. Many in the Republican Party think the same. I am no fan of Romney. There have been way too many changes of position by Romney on important issues and he does not have a solid track record of conservatism for my taste. Still, if he does get the nomination, I may hold my nose this time around and vote for him.

This week, John Huntsman dropped out of the race. That does not surprise me, since he never really stood a chance of winning, anyway. Of course, he endorsed Mitt Romney for President. That is also not surprising, since Romney, like Huntsman, is a former governor, and more importantly, is a fellow Mormon. Even Mormons I know think that Romney is not conservative enough for them. Non-Mormons seem to either have a problem with the fact that Romney is a Mormon, or think that he is not Mormon enough. Personally, both are true for me. If he was a strong, conservative Mormon, I would feel more sanguine in his ability to govern according to my own values. On the other hand, I have some serious theological problems with Mormonism and some of their beliefs on government and the prevailing religious positions in our country, and that truly dissuades me from throwing support behind such a candidate. I realize that I am voting for a president, not for a savior of the human race, though I wonder if the current President knows that distinction.

I used to like Herman Cain, and as I predicted, the knives came out when he was perceived as a threat. Because Cain was a conservative, he was going to be accused of being an Uncle Tom, a sell out, or some other derogatory name. Just like with Clarence Thomas, I knew that the liberal establishment would attempt to impugn his character in one way or another. Sure enough, the stories of bimbo eruptions started to emerge. The opposition kept at it until he finally bowed out of the race. I don’t know if the last major allegation was true or not, but it took him out of the race. These tactics are not new. True or not, allegations and rumors can kill a candidacy. However, if Cain was a Democrat, the allegations would probably be a resume enhancement.

Michele Bachmann, though intelligent, attractive, conservative, and articulate, was never going to win. This country is just not ready for a female president. I liked many things about her, but as with every GOP candidate, there were a few things that made me scratch my head in bewilderment.

Yes, I mean that about every last GOP candidate. I left the GOP years ago. They were no longer the party of small government, thrifty spending, and freedom. There are few candidates that truly represent that except maybe Ron Paul. Even though I had a “Ron Paul for President 2008” sign in my yard last election (and may have one in my yard again), there are things on which I strongly disagree with Dr. Paul.

With this being possibly the most important election in decades for the soul of America and the opportunity to bring us back to sanity and core values, one would think that we would have a better crop of candidates from which to choose. If Mitt Romney is the best we have, God help us. Still, if he is the predicted nominee, I will vote for him just to help get the socialist, Marxist usurper out of the White House. The only great thing about the Obama presidency thus far has been that it makes Jimmy Carter’s tenure look good. I pray that both Obama and Carter have the same duration of tenure in office.

Column for May 8, 2008

I am so glad now that the primary election is finally over

The primary election has finally come and gone here in North Carolina and I, for one, am glad it is over. I do believe that this has been one of the most vacuous elections, totally devoid of any substance, that I can remember. The first election that I can remember as a youngster was Gerald Ford versus Jimmy Carter in 1976. I was all of eight years old and it was the first time I started to pay attention to any election. At that time, I remember simply thinking that Carter should be elected because Ford already had a turn at the helm. Though that is not the case in this election, since George W. Bush will be leaving office because of a term limitation, it might as well be the same mindset that elects the next President.

All week long, my telephone has been ringing with recorded messages for and by political figures. I got a call from North Carolina Governor, Michael Easley on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign. When getting a call on behalf of Hillary Clinton, I figured that the caller ID would show a number of (666)666-6666. I was surprised to find that the caller ID actually showed a South Carolina phone number. I also got calls from Leo Daughtry, from political pollsters, and some for the campaigns of candidates running for state senate, the Barack Hussein Obama campaign, and who knows who else. My answering machine has a cute female default voice with a generic message, so I hope that their machines had fun talking to my machine.

Since I work for a large media company, I have been able to hear some of our sales scuttlebutt. Normally, we do very little primary election advertising revenue. This year, we have a ton of such ad revenue. I have seen more newspaper, heard more radio, and seen more television ads for Governor, President, State Senator, Lt. Governor, and County Commissioner than I have ever heard, read, or seen in a while.

The crux of most ads have little to do with actual issues. The issues that are stated usually have zero Constitutional relevance or practicality. The promise of suspending the federal gas tax and funding this proposed tax cut by absconding profits from oil companies is one issue that I have heard on some ads. Wow. Does the promise to steal money to cut taxes really appeal to people? Keep in mind that if it is fine for government to steal from a company, it is also fine for them to steal from ordinary citizens, since a corporation is an artificial entity.

I have heard more negative ads this campaign season than I have heard in a long time. There were plenty of accusations about support of amnesty for illegal immigrants by one candidate and a direct response by the other. Many of the non "mud slinging" ads I have heard were rather generic, were pandering to particular classes of people, and totally vacuous.

What has been rather frustrating for me is that I wanted more information on some of the judicial, state, and county office candidates. I looked to some of the usual media outlets for candidate information. I was familiar with these outlets, having participated in and cooperated with them in the past myself. I found very little in the way of candidate information, especially about the issues. I do believe that I have been more frustrated in this election cycle than in any other in terms of searching for candidate information. I even went to the few web sites I could find for some of the candidates. Even those web sites published by the candidates themselves were lacking in content as to what the candidates stood for and why I should vote for them.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am an issues oriented guy. I do not rely on what party someone belongs to for a measuring stick, though it does tell me to which ideology someone subscribes. I could not care less what the color is of someone's skin or whether the person was born with XX or XY chromosomes. I do care about the character of the individual, the world view of the person, and the stances on the issues. It does not matter to me that Barack Hussein Obama is Black or that Hillary Clinton is a woman. It is their views on the issues that I find repugnant. It is his perspectives on the issues that repel me from voting for John McCain. It is his views on the issues that will cause me to vote against Bob Etheridge. Unfortunately, I could not find the views of some of our candidates and what they believe are the issues at hand.

For these reasons, I do believe that I have been the most unenthusiastic, the most resigned to mediocrity, and the most exasperated that I have been for any major election for which I have had the capacity for remembrance.

One thing I believe for a certainty is that the American public deserves a break when it comes to the exercise of a presidential primary election. We ought not stretch this process out any longer than we already do. This is the first time a North Carolina vote has had any real bearing on a Presidential election in a very long time. However, I would have much rather seen our election happen back on "Super Tuesday", along with the rest of the nation's states, all on the same day. If we can all manage to vote on one day in November, why can we not all manage to vote on one day in this primary process? It would spare us all the seemingly incessant, vacuous pablum with which we have been bombarded.