Abulsme Presidential Endorsements

Not that anyone cares, and of course the only people who matter at this exact moment are in Iowa, and as far as I know my blog has no regular readers from Iowa, but on the eve of the first actual event in the presidential season, here are my thoughts as of TODAY. I of course expect that as events unfold over the next 10 months my opinions will most likely change several times.

In any case, Democratic side first. I am somewhat torn here because my head and my heart say different things. In terms of story and style and vision and raw appeal, there is only one candidate who completely captures the imagination for me, and that is Obama. But in terms of the candidate who has impressed me most during the debates and who generally when looking directly at what they have said about various issues and how I think they would actually perform as president… I am drawn to Joe Biden. I think he is grounded, he knows his stuff and he could walk in and perform well as president on Day 1. When he talks in debates or elsewhere I am always impressed by his thoughtfulness and directness. I have liked him in previous election cycles when he has run, and I like him this time as well. If I was in Iowa and was caucusing as a Democrat I would vote for Biden in the first round. But of course Biden will not make the needed 15% in the first round. My second choice vote would go to Obama.

On the Republican side… Four years ago I might have liked McCain. I liked him in 2003. Didn’t agree with him on everything, but I liked him. I liked his approach. I liked his attitude. I liked his “straight talk”. I liked his “maverick independent” reputation. In the last four years though he has destroyed all that, and for me at least, lost all remnants of the appeal he had during that time. Huckabee has a few good points (I actually really like the “FairTax” plan for instance). And he seems like a nice guy. But for the most part I disagree with him on most other things. Nope. Giuliani? No. Romney? No. Thompson? No. Of course any of you who have known me for awhile know I am drawn to the Libertarian point of view. Strongly so in most cases. So it is of course obvious I’ll go for Ron Paul here. If you go down a list issue by issue, I end up agreeing with him on most of them. Are there some where I disagree? Of course there are. But the level at which he matches my views is FAR greater than any other candidate in either party. And in many of the places where he does have a difference in opinion on something, it ends up not mattering, because both he and I agree that regardless of the right policy on the specific issue, it should not be the Federal government that decides, it should be a matter for state government, local government, the private sector, or individuals to decide. (Example: He apparently is a complete idiot on evolution, but it doesn’t matter, since neither of us think that the federal government should be setting policy or involved in any way on education matters.) There are of course some policy places that would be on a Federal level that I disagree with him on as well… for instance immigration. But again, the areas where we agree far outnumber those where we disagree. And there is nobody else on the Republican side that I could even come close to endorsing. So, on the Republican side… Ron Paul would be my choice if I was caucusing as a Republican in Iowa today.

And of the two… Biden and Paul… I would of course choose Ron Paul. In plain terms of how close the two candidates are to my own views on issues, Paul is simply closer to me by far.

In many areas of course Biden’s positions are far more realistic. If Biden became President, some of his adgenda might actually happen. If Paul would somehow become President, absolutely nothing would happen for four years, except the things Congress passed over his veto. Now, I think that would be a perfectly fine outcome, but… :-)

Of course, neither Biden or Paul have even the slightest chance of becoming their party’s nominees, let alone President. So what they might or might not do as President is actually somewhat irrelevant. But they would be my choices on principle.