Friday, March 30, 2007

2008 Presidential Race: Setting Up the Field

As I have said before, I come from a family of political junkies, and whatever the problems with a US presidential campaign getting off to a ridiculously early start might be, for us it's wonderful! Watching the candidate cattle call at the AFL-CIO moot being broadcast on CSPAN last night, I realised I hadn't posted my comments on the first candidate forum that was held last month.

That one was held in Carson City, Nevada. You can watch the whole thing on CSPAN, of course. Or do it piecemeal on YouTube starting at:



It was held in the Carson City Community Center, with the candidates--all but Barack Obama--serially taking questions from George Stephanopulous, in the following order of appearance determined by lot: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), former Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA), former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DC), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), and former Sen. Miake Gravel (D-AK)

As things move along, we'll discuss who's doing what and who's winning and who's losing and so on. But in the beginning of this season, I think it might be a good time to step back and think of the big picture. And my take on the race right now is that what we really need is a US President that gets any ways towards having a clue about how the world sees the US. Or how the rest of the world sees the world. Or, more generally, how the rest of the world sees anything, period. And based only on what they said and how, without paying heed to who can win and who has the Big Mo, and so on, I'd vote for Richardson--and have him appoint Biden Secretary of State.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: -

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it a bit ridiculous that the presidential electoral race is occuring for 2 years! and that this is all we will hear for the next 16 odd months now is who is stabbing whom in the back and how? Am I the only one who has a problem with seeing this plastered on every US source of media?

gary said...

Here's a site any real political junkie will find of interest...

www.ExpertVoter.org

Normally I would agree with abbas that it's too early, but given the incredible impact on this election by the internet, I find that I can hardly wait!

gary

merjoem32 said...

It seems too early, but
political videos such as the controversial Hillary 1984 videos has sparked interest in the elections. The internet has really brought the election to the next level.