Theres a lot of content out there coming in droves with all the political activity. As such, I'm not giving any verbose write up on these. These links are various candidate responses I've found to Bush's State of the Union address.
Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/28/obama-response-to-bushs-_n_83732.html
Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=5562
McCain http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-28-2008/0004744550&EDATE=
Romney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iibMea7x51A
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Candidate: Hillary Rodham Clinton
My Primary Source: N/A
POV: N/A
Bias: N/A
Reason for Source: I'm choosing to omit reference, as I'm sure it won't be used and isn't worth the time I put into reading it.
Health Care: Sources: Health Care Costs Agenda and American Health Choices Plan (PDF)
There's a lot ton ingest with Clinton's health care plan, and I'm not expert on health care. Honestly I've had trouble understanding my own health plan. However, I've read the documents above and can give some outline to their content and in doing so provide a summary of what has been coined HiliaryCare.
One major reform HilliaryCare plans to initiate is enforce and help subsidize the implementation of a paperless electronic record system. This will bring patients medical history up to the modern age and provide saving over the paper version estimated at $77 billion (I assume this is after the cost of implementation have been spent, or before they are taken into account). HilliaryCare also plans on reducing the bloated Medicare costs given to HMOs which will reduce overall costs of health care making the costs much more manageable (by about $10 billion). HC also has plans to reduce the need for health care by investing in adding incentives (such as removing co-pays) for preventative measures (such as colorectal screening and getting doctor advice on weight, nutrition, or exercise). This might not only make economic sense, but will improve the wellbeing of America overall.
Individuals, or heads of the household will be able to choose from health plans that members of Congress enjoy. However, responsibility of choosing the health plan that best fits their situation is placed on the individual to figure that out. To help compensate that, tax breaks will be given to working individuals to better deal with the affordability of Health Care
One key advantages of national health care worth mentioning is that it gives stability in the form of a health plan not dependent on employment status or a change of employment.
Iraq War: Summarized from Clinton's website, her Iraq plan is as follows. Her plan has been broken down into three parts: Bring the troops home, within the first 60 days of her administration, then focus "redeployment on stabilizing Iraq, not propping up the Iraqi government" and lastly stabilize Iraq by asking Iraq's neighbors not to intervene, provide deplomatic mediation between factions, and also provide reconstruction funding. Also during a conversation over a cup of coffee with a group of Iowans, she states, "unless they do the political work, they are going to be on their own."
Economy & Budget: I certanly picked the right time to write this analysis. Four days ago Clinton released an economic stimulus plan. The plan focuses on assisting on the crisis in housing, energy assistance, and unemployment insurance as well as other things. A blogger for the Clinton team already as given a pretty good summary of the plan. I recommend checking that out.
Environment: Again, taken from her website, regarding Global Warming and Energy Independence, Clinton plans include:
"setting ambitious targets, the plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of global warming, and cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels, more than 10 million barrels per day.
"increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, but would help automakers retool their production facilities through $20 billion in "Green Vehicle Bonds.
"transition our economy toward renewable energy sources, with renewables generating 25 percent of electricity by 2025 and with 60 billion gallons of home-grown biofuels available for cars and trucks by 2030
"A requirement that all federal buildings designed after January 20, 2009 will be zero emissions buildings."
Globalization: I had a very difficult time roping this one and frankly I can't grab a good answer. Much of the internet's debate on Clinton and Globalization focuses on her opinion of President's Free Trade act. However, I found many sources that seemed to express their opinion on wither she would support or not support her husband's work. I just can NOT find a straight answer to this question though.
Abortion: Clinton has been statically pro-choice. A record of her voting since 2004 on the issue of abortion can be found here. One particular item of note from this page is "Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)"
Immigration: Clinton adds an interesting dimension of the immigration debate, family. Her otherwise fairly generic policy of identify who is in our country illegally, and securing our boarder (not badly generic in any way by any means) is offset by supporting families of legal immigrants to not be separated. Other points include: "strict penalties for those who exploit undocumented workers, and a path to earned legal status for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar."
Read more about Clinton's stance on Immigration here.
Education: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/education/
Civil Rights: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Much of Clinton's focus on Civil rights focuses on women. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/women/
Other Notables: Clinton has a strong focus on women's rights. Attending the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act are just a few of the things Clinton has done to benefit women in general. See a more comprehensive list here.
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can):
This review was a long time coming and its very much tied to why I didn't make a reference to a Primary Source this time. I did read a book on Clinton, called The Case for Hillary Clinton , which the first time I've ever considered burning a book. I'm only linking it because I'm mentioning it and I just can't not mention how bad this book was. The argument the author makes for Clinton is vote for her because she is a woman. She even takes it one step further to say, "I have always believed that there is a special place in hell for woman who turn their backs on other women." When I read that I was surprised my glare didn't set the book on fire alone. Damn my persistence though, I decided to give the author a fair shot to clarify her point to be made of something less ignorant, but that never happened. This is however purely my opinion, and if this opinion appeals to you, please feel free to pick up this book and give it a good read.
I want to stress though, that the author makes it clear that her opinion is her own, and NOT that of Senator Clinton.
That being said, what do I think about Clinton, reading as much as I can to recover from the monstrosity of that book? I like her, but I like her in a way that focuses more on not disliking her. First off, as much as I have tried to shrug off reading that book, it didn't work and I currently am trying to patch up this post having not completed the sections on Globalization, Educations and Civil Rights, while feeling very burned out on politics. From what I did research, I saw nothing I disliked and as such I think she'd do well as Commander in Chief.
POV: N/A
Bias: N/A
Reason for Source: I'm choosing to omit reference, as I'm sure it won't be used and isn't worth the time I put into reading it.
Health Care: Sources: Health Care Costs Agenda and American Health Choices Plan (PDF)
There's a lot ton ingest with Clinton's health care plan, and I'm not expert on health care. Honestly I've had trouble understanding my own health plan. However, I've read the documents above and can give some outline to their content and in doing so provide a summary of what has been coined HiliaryCare.
One major reform HilliaryCare plans to initiate is enforce and help subsidize the implementation of a paperless electronic record system. This will bring patients medical history up to the modern age and provide saving over the paper version estimated at $77 billion (I assume this is after the cost of implementation have been spent, or before they are taken into account). HilliaryCare also plans on reducing the bloated Medicare costs given to HMOs which will reduce overall costs of health care making the costs much more manageable (by about $10 billion). HC also has plans to reduce the need for health care by investing in adding incentives (such as removing co-pays) for preventative measures (such as colorectal screening and getting doctor advice on weight, nutrition, or exercise). This might not only make economic sense, but will improve the wellbeing of America overall.
Individuals, or heads of the household will be able to choose from health plans that members of Congress enjoy. However, responsibility of choosing the health plan that best fits their situation is placed on the individual to figure that out. To help compensate that, tax breaks will be given to working individuals to better deal with the affordability of Health Care
One key advantages of national health care worth mentioning is that it gives stability in the form of a health plan not dependent on employment status or a change of employment.
Iraq War: Summarized from Clinton's website, her Iraq plan is as follows. Her plan has been broken down into three parts: Bring the troops home, within the first 60 days of her administration, then focus "redeployment on stabilizing Iraq, not propping up the Iraqi government" and lastly stabilize Iraq by asking Iraq's neighbors not to intervene, provide deplomatic mediation between factions, and also provide reconstruction funding. Also during a conversation over a cup of coffee with a group of Iowans, she states, "unless they do the political work, they are going to be on their own."
Economy & Budget: I certanly picked the right time to write this analysis. Four days ago Clinton released an economic stimulus plan. The plan focuses on assisting on the crisis in housing, energy assistance, and unemployment insurance as well as other things. A blogger for the Clinton team already as given a pretty good summary of the plan. I recommend checking that out.
Environment: Again, taken from her website, regarding Global Warming and Energy Independence, Clinton plans include:
"setting ambitious targets, the plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of global warming, and cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels, more than 10 million barrels per day.
"increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, but would help automakers retool their production facilities through $20 billion in "Green Vehicle Bonds.
"transition our economy toward renewable energy sources, with renewables generating 25 percent of electricity by 2025 and with 60 billion gallons of home-grown biofuels available for cars and trucks by 2030
"A requirement that all federal buildings designed after January 20, 2009 will be zero emissions buildings."
Globalization: I had a very difficult time roping this one and frankly I can't grab a good answer. Much of the internet's debate on Clinton and Globalization focuses on her opinion of President's Free Trade act. However, I found many sources that seemed to express their opinion on wither she would support or not support her husband's work. I just can NOT find a straight answer to this question though.
Abortion: Clinton has been statically pro-choice. A record of her voting since 2004 on the issue of abortion can be found here. One particular item of note from this page is "Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)"
Immigration: Clinton adds an interesting dimension of the immigration debate, family. Her otherwise fairly generic policy of identify who is in our country illegally, and securing our boarder (not badly generic in any way by any means) is offset by supporting families of legal immigrants to not be separated. Other points include: "strict penalties for those who exploit undocumented workers, and a path to earned legal status for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar."
Read more about Clinton's stance on Immigration here.
Education: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/education/
Civil Rights: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Much of Clinton's focus on Civil rights focuses on women. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/women/
Other Notables: Clinton has a strong focus on women's rights. Attending the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act are just a few of the things Clinton has done to benefit women in general. See a more comprehensive list here.
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can):
This review was a long time coming and its very much tied to why I didn't make a reference to a Primary Source this time. I did read a book on Clinton, called The Case for Hillary Clinton , which the first time I've ever considered burning a book. I'm only linking it because I'm mentioning it and I just can't not mention how bad this book was. The argument the author makes for Clinton is vote for her because she is a woman. She even takes it one step further to say, "I have always believed that there is a special place in hell for woman who turn their backs on other women." When I read that I was surprised my glare didn't set the book on fire alone. Damn my persistence though, I decided to give the author a fair shot to clarify her point to be made of something less ignorant, but that never happened. This is however purely my opinion, and if this opinion appeals to you, please feel free to pick up this book and give it a good read.
I want to stress though, that the author makes it clear that her opinion is her own, and NOT that of Senator Clinton.
That being said, what do I think about Clinton, reading as much as I can to recover from the monstrosity of that book? I like her, but I like her in a way that focuses more on not disliking her. First off, as much as I have tried to shrug off reading that book, it didn't work and I currently am trying to patch up this post having not completed the sections on Globalization, Educations and Civil Rights, while feeling very burned out on politics. From what I did research, I saw nothing I disliked and as such I think she'd do well as Commander in Chief.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Super Tuesday is not going to be so super
I just came across this article by the Associated Press that states it is mathematically impossible for Super Tuesday to decide the winner of either primary because both GOP and DNC races are so close. So even if each party's front runner (Clinton and Romney) won every delegate up for grats on February 5th, neither would have actually won the election (although they would basically be in the bag at that point). It seems as though the real Super Tuesday could be March 4th where the second highest amount of delegates are up for grabs. My jokes about the Primaries being the new drama on CNN is actually turning out to be fairly accurate.
To see a list of delegates up for grabs throughout the primaries, check here.
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/index.html
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/republicanprimaries/index.html
To see a list of delegates up for grabs throughout the primaries, check here.
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/index.html
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/republicanprimaries/index.html
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Romney takes his turn in the winner's circle
First Huckabee, then McCain, and now Romney. It's almost as if the Republicans are taking turns in the spotlight. Not a one of these races seem telling in any way as to what the end result will be. As far as I can tell both Republicans and Democrats are too close to say that any victory is very telling or significant. I fully expect to see Giuliani or Thomson to pull a victory in South Carolina just to keep up the trend. Hell throw Edwards a win as well just to make everyone more confused. North and South Carolina are close enough anyways to give Edwards an advantage right?
Presidential Primary Schedule 2008
So far I've been having trouble keeping track of when all these primaries are actually taking place. I found a schedule and figured its worth sharing.
Alphebetical by State
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2008pdates.pdf
Alphebetical by State (with more info, from Ron Paul's website)
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/primary-and-caucus-information/
Chronological
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/index.html
Thats all for now, episode 3 of The Primaries (yeah I changed the name) is tonight. Hope I don't miss it!
Update: I added the link to the New York Times posted schedule. This is the only one of the links I've found so far that goes in chronological order rather than alphabetical by state. I also added a link to Ron Paul's hosted list which has much more info about each Primary or Caucus. I'm leaving the original up there because if Ron Paul drops out his website may go down.
Alphebetical by State
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2008pdates.pdf
Alphebetical by State (with more info, from Ron Paul's website)
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/primary-and-caucus-information/
Chronological
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/index.html
Thats all for now, episode 3 of The Primaries (yeah I changed the name) is tonight. Hope I don't miss it!
Update: I added the link to the New York Times posted schedule. This is the only one of the links I've found so far that goes in chronological order rather than alphabetical by state. I also added a link to Ron Paul's hosted list which has much more info about each Primary or Caucus. I'm leaving the original up there because if Ron Paul drops out his website may go down.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Candidate Appearances or Events
This is a list of online resources where you can find events for your candidate of choice. The order is based on current standings as reported by CNN.
Democrats
Barack Obama
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple
Hilliary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/actioncenter/event/
John Edwards
http://www.johnedwards.com/events/
Republicans
Mitt Romney
http://www.mittromney.com/News/Events/index
Mike Huckabee
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=GetInvolved.Home
John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Calendar/
Rudy Giuliani
Seems to be nothing available
Democrats
Barack Obama
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple
Hilliary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/actioncenter/event/
John Edwards
http://www.johnedwards.com/events/
Republicans
Mitt Romney
http://www.mittromney.com/News/Events/index
Mike Huckabee
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=GetInvolved.Home
John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Calendar/
Rudy Giuliani
Seems to be nothing available
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
NH Caucus Predictions
So as it stands, as I write this, only 10% of the vote has been collected and I'm watching CNN, who paying very close attention on the Democrat's side, which I agree has been infinitely more interesting, and telling doomsday stories about how anything short of a win is game over for Clinton. I disagree with this opinion so I figured, well why not put it in writing with. As such I turned off my T.V. and decided I might as well put it in writing. Now this is the first time I've ever closely followed a presidential race so any accuracy will be pure awesome for my own self esteem, but probably nothing but chance, and up until this point I've seen myself as nothing but an attempted objective researcher. So here goes:
First off, Clinton does not need a win. A close second or even another ridiculously close third will keep her in the race. It would be a complete waste if she dropped out for any reason and I believe she should ever feel that its necessary. Obama will do well, first or second for sure as there is no chance any other candidate has any chance of beating him other than Clinton, which is probably why Edwards and Obama have seemingly stuck a deal as of late to focus fire on Clinton (can't find my reference but it was from Associated Press just after the Iowa caucus). I also Edwards will not finish as strongly in NH as he did in Iowa. I last saw he was last at 17% to Clinton and Obama's 37%. I believe this will be pretty much how it will be for Edwards.
On the Republican side, like many, I have no idea what the heck is going on. The man everyone thought would show the most star power, Giuliani has been a bomb shell diving straight to the bottom. Romney will probably do well to his neighboring state while governor. Whither he will do better than Huckabee is anyone's guess as most people still don't know where he came from and exactly how much political power does Chuck Norris actually have.
Ok thats all I have.
P.S. Woops, I forgot about McCain. I just saw he is projected to win NH, but honestly, how is that not expected. He won the NH caucus in 2000. However, like in 2000 I honestly don't believe McCain has more primary power than Edwards. Hope for a VP ticket or you're SOL.
P.P.S. Figured I'd include this interesting link on recent caucus history.
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/01/04/iowa-caucus-vs-new-hampshire-primary-which-is-the-better-predictor/
P.P.P.S. At 61% of the votes counted, I'm calling it. Obama sqeeks by Clinton and wins.
First off, Clinton does not need a win. A close second or even another ridiculously close third will keep her in the race. It would be a complete waste if she dropped out for any reason and I believe she should ever feel that its necessary. Obama will do well, first or second for sure as there is no chance any other candidate has any chance of beating him other than Clinton, which is probably why Edwards and Obama have seemingly stuck a deal as of late to focus fire on Clinton (can't find my reference but it was from Associated Press just after the Iowa caucus). I also Edwards will not finish as strongly in NH as he did in Iowa. I last saw he was last at 17% to Clinton and Obama's 37%. I believe this will be pretty much how it will be for Edwards.
On the Republican side, like many, I have no idea what the heck is going on. The man everyone thought would show the most star power, Giuliani has been a bomb shell diving straight to the bottom. Romney will probably do well to his neighboring state while governor. Whither he will do better than Huckabee is anyone's guess as most people still don't know where he came from and exactly how much political power does Chuck Norris actually have.
Ok thats all I have.
P.S. Woops, I forgot about McCain. I just saw he is projected to win NH, but honestly, how is that not expected. He won the NH caucus in 2000. However, like in 2000 I honestly don't believe McCain has more primary power than Edwards. Hope for a VP ticket or you're SOL.
P.P.S. Figured I'd include this interesting link on recent caucus history.
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/01/04/iowa-caucus-vs-new-hampshire-primary-which-is-the-better-predictor/
P.P.P.S. At 61% of the votes counted, I'm calling it. Obama sqeeks by Clinton and wins.
Monday, January 7, 2008
New Show on CNN: The Caucuses
Man I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait for the second episode of The Caucuses tonight! Who knew Obama would come out as Democratic Tribal leader and Dodd and Biden would get voted off the island? Seeing as they are both also Democrats I guess the Republicans must have been awarded immunity.
I wonder if anyone will get voted off tonight?
So yeah, this isn't a serious post. It does kinda feel like they are covering the caucuses like reality television though. As such I've started thinking of it like watching Survivor or American Idol with speeches instead of singing. I can just see CNN stealing a page from TNT and adopting the slogan "We know drama!"
Anyways, enjoy the show tonight!
I wonder if anyone will get voted off tonight?
So yeah, this isn't a serious post. It does kinda feel like they are covering the caucuses like reality television though. As such I've started thinking of it like watching Survivor or American Idol with speeches instead of singing. I can just see CNN stealing a page from TNT and adopting the slogan "We know drama!"
Anyways, enjoy the show tonight!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Iowa Caucuses
Man who predicted that last night (well besides Chuck Norris who can probably predict the future or [Insert random Chuck Norris joke here])?
I'm honestly speechless. Two months ago I don't think I even knew who Mike Huckabee was, and now he has sealed his place as a contender for the GOP nomination. Romney bombing in Iowa was something no one could have predicted either. Hell, the only place he was probably suspected to do better in was Utah. I'm also more than shocked that Giuiliani wasn't even on the radar in Iowa. Coming into the race, he probably held the most star power of any of the candidates, now he's just one of those guys trailing in the back of the crowd asking the guy in the big hat in front of him whats going on up front.
There wasn't as many surprises on the Dem side though. I think Clinton is taking the right approach with the results. Coming in 3rd place, by a margin of 1% is nothing to feel discouraged about. On the other hand, Edwards should be jumping out of his skin right now. He has a lot of underdog momentum right now, but I would suspect it might not last as long as he might hope. One thing I'm not surprised about is Obama's success. It was either going to be him or Clinton, he just came up on top. It still is absolutely anyone's game on the blue side, but I'm surprised its anyone's game between 3 people as opposed to 2.
Here are the results of the Iowa caucus from the Associated Press
I'm honestly speechless. Two months ago I don't think I even knew who Mike Huckabee was, and now he has sealed his place as a contender for the GOP nomination. Romney bombing in Iowa was something no one could have predicted either. Hell, the only place he was probably suspected to do better in was Utah. I'm also more than shocked that Giuiliani wasn't even on the radar in Iowa. Coming into the race, he probably held the most star power of any of the candidates, now he's just one of those guys trailing in the back of the crowd asking the guy in the big hat in front of him whats going on up front.
There wasn't as many surprises on the Dem side though. I think Clinton is taking the right approach with the results. Coming in 3rd place, by a margin of 1% is nothing to feel discouraged about. On the other hand, Edwards should be jumping out of his skin right now. He has a lot of underdog momentum right now, but I would suspect it might not last as long as he might hope. One thing I'm not surprised about is Obama's success. It was either going to be him or Clinton, he just came up on top. It still is absolutely anyone's game on the blue side, but I'm surprised its anyone's game between 3 people as opposed to 2.
Here are the results of the Iowa caucus from the Associated Press
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