Resources to do the job

The talk in the news of late is about negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. Isn't it Congress who passed the bills for the expenditures and for the taxes? They're the ones who told the President he had to do these things, and now they won't give him the money to do it? It actually reminds me of my job -- we expect you to do these things, but we are not going to give you the resources to actually do them. You're on your own to achieve the impossible.

Clinton vs. Obama

I have favored Senator Clinton over Senator Obama. It's not because I'm an expert on policy and think that her policies are better. It is more instinctive. Perhaps it is just that it is easier for me to trust her because she matches me on gender and race. Perhaps I'm just as dumb as the people who don't like Senator Obama because they think he's secretly a Muslim, or the people who just hate Senator Clinton without being able to say why. I think that Obama is more liberal than Clinton, and I'm liberal, so one would think that I would like Obama better. However, I think I would make a terrible president. I think both of them have the right kind of ideals. However, I am more confident of Clinton's ability to do what it takes to get things done. We need a president who can make deals with people whose values are very different from mine, and that's why I favor Clinton. Obama seems to have good ideals, but I don't know if he can be an effective president.

I think that it's good for Clinton to stay in the race long enough for everyone to get a chance to vote. I don't think it's fair that people who live in states with later primaries don't get as many choices. I think everyone should have the opportunity to vote for the candidate that they prefer.

However, once that's done, I think that she should respect the will of the people, rather than trying to win through super-delegates and by counting Florida and Michigan. I think in general that everyone's vote should count, including Florida and Michigan, but it was already decided that Florida and Michigan wouldn't count, and if that's the rule that's already decided, one shouldn't tamper with it just for the sake of getting more votes on your side.

I supported Clinton, but Obama won the votes, so it's time to get behind Obama.

Primary election system

They were saying on the news that this is the first time in about 50 years that the Presidential primary mattered in West Virginia. This does not seem very fair to West Virginia. Even for me, I feel it's useless to pay attention to all the early candidates, because half of them will be gone by the time the election gets to me. But at least some are left when the election gets to me.

I think it's good to have different primaries at different times so that candidates can visit different locations campaigning. But I would suggest that they divide the country into six or eight regions, and have a primary in a different region each week. Also, the order of the regions could rotate from election to election.

Hillary Clinton on rich people

When Bill O'Reilly asked Hillary Clinton about raising taxes on the rich, she said, "And you know what, rich people -- God bless us -- we deserve all the opportunities to make sure our country and our blessings continue for the next generation." I thought that was nice. It was a clever way to put a positive spin on it, and it challenged the rich people's view of "We deserve to be rich, we deserve to keep our money, don't tax us." Too often people who have a lot of money seem to think the reason they have it is because they deserve it, because they are smarter or work harder than other people. While it may be true that they worked hard for their money, there are other people who work just as hard but end up not having much money. I don't really think that people like Donald Trump and Paris Hilton deserve to have more money than people who work long hours as janitors or waitresses. Senator Clinton's comment contains the expectation that rich people want to go beyond selfishness and make the world better, and in stating that expectation, she challenges people to live up to it.

Super Tuesday and the latest debate

Those of us who will be voting in the Democratic primary on Feb. 5 have two candidates to choose from. People in New Hampshire had more choices. There must be a better way to organize the primaries, so that people from all states have a range of choices. Maybe we could divide the country into 8 regions, and have a different primary day for each region. That way it would be more evenly divided. Also, the order of the regions could be different in different years.

The two candidates that I have to choose from aren't really that different from each other. They define their difference as being about experience vs. change. Obama says "I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards," while Clinton says we should need someone who can solve problems from day one. I think I prefer the experience over the change. The claims of change strike me as empty rhetoric. Politicians always like to claim they will bring change. I'd rather have someone who knows how to do the job.

So many people seem to think that being a good Christian means devoting your energy to condemning other people as sinful. In contrast, I think Christianity is about helping others. I liked what Hillary Clinton said tonight: that she opposed a law against providing any sort of assistance to undocumented immigrants because "that would have criminalized the good Samaritan and Jesus Christ himself."

Apparently there have been people concerned that Obama is secretly a Muslim. It seems like a strange worry to me. Anyhow, to address that concern, Obama gave a speech a while back saying how Christian he is. I didn't like the way he seemed to accept the premise that it's important to be Christian in order to be qualified to be President of the United States.

But I think both of them care about helping the downtrodden, getting people good health insurance, and ending the war in Iraq. Either way, it would be refreshing to have that kind of president.

President Bush

Yesterday President Bush said in regard to stem cells, "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical. And it is not the only option before us."

That does not seem to be his viewpoint when it comes to capital punishment or Iraq.