The Imperfect Community

[Jessica]

I put this in the debate forum, but honestly, I don't think a big argument will ensue this year because the candidates aren't as widely divided it seems (or maybe we'll debate about that!).

I guess I don't have a strong position this year because there just doesn't seem to be a huge disparity between the canidates that I like.

My picks are as follows:
1. Guiliani
2. Clinton
-----------
3. Obama

The first two are so similar in my eyes. Obama gets on my nerves, but honestly I can't tell the difference between the moderates in either party except their pandering to one side or another, but it seems like once they get in office, they'll be indistinguishable.

I like Ron Paul but he's just going to wind up screwing up the whole election if he runs as an independent.

I can't stand Huckabee, Romney or Thompson. The Republicans this year suck.

More importantly, who is going to get the nomination. There seem to be no favorites on either side.

[Jessica]

Ugh. I can't believe Huckabee and his stupid gopher teeth "won" the caucus. I know I'm talking to myself here as nobody is following this thread and probably doesn't care at this point, but I really hope this doesn't set the trend. I hope people aren't that stupid.

And Guiliani barely got a "vote".

The people in Iowa can kiss my ass.

[Petulant Pixie]

I like Obama. But, I think that Clinton is really good, too. I still like Edwards as well. I think that the democrats are in a no-lose situation with their candidates, all of the leaders are really GOOD, in my opinion.

I think Guliani is crazy. Like flat out insane. McCain is unreliable and too old. My dad pointed out that McCain is the same age as he is and asked, "Hey, you know me, you know how I walk into rooms all the time and can't remember what I went in there for, you'd trust me to be your president?" Good point.

[Jessica]

[mammaX3_MOD]

I'm disappointed Giulliani didn't make it. I really enjoyed following his work in his Governor days when I lived in NY and the progress he made to the City, no matter what people tried to say about him.

I said it before, I'd rather vote Nancy Grace in than Clinton. I will NEVER vote for her.

Obama irritates me. I won't vote for him. As far as Democrats go, I'd rather see John Edwards on the ballot.

But I'm sorry to say Jess, I do like Huckabee. I'm going to be following very closely in the next few weeks to see if he can 'get' my vote or not.

[Scout]

The fact that a single person in this country would vote for Huckabee terrifies me. The man is like one inch from believing the earth is flat. What the fuck??

I would love for Hillary to be president, but I just don't believe she can win. I remember too well the hatred of the Clintons, especially H., from when my beloved Bill led us through the golden era of the '90s. I think that if she gets the nomination, we will lose a lot of people who might be willing to vote for *a* Democrat, but not *that* Democrat.

I also don't have a lot of faith in the American people's willingness to vote for a black man whose middle name is Hussein. I just don't see it happening. I don't know enough about his politics to know if I like him or not, but he seems inexperienced from what I do know.

I like Edwards, mainly because I think he has the greatest potential to win, and goddammit, I need a Democrat to win! He's got Jimmy Carter-esque qualities, he's from a working class family, he seems solid to me and non-threatening enough to the moderates to get their votes. I think my party is getting all caught up in the excitement of having these "progressively" non-white-male candidates, and as Tina Fey said, I think we're just looking for fresh new ways to have our ass handed to us. There is not a cell in my body that wants to see another white male president just for the sake of the status quo. I would love to see a woman or a person of color in office. But let's face it, I am blacker than Obama, and too many people hate Hillary.

[prescott]

And then you have CNN speculating that Hillary might appoint Bill to the Supreme Court. I don't know how likely that really is, but I think many are just, "oh for chrissakes, let's MOVE ON! No more Bushes or Clintons, thank you very much!" I think we need a clean slate in the oval office, no matter who that is.

We have much more in depth coverage of Obama here in Illinois, and his whole line of "a new kind of politics" is complete bullshit. He claims he doesn't take money from lobbyists, when in fact it's just smoke and mirrors. That guy has been entrenched in the political machine since day one of entering public office.

Count me among the many gazillions not sad to see Bush go, but I won't be breathing a big sigh of relief come January, either -- there's *nobody* on either side that I have confidence in to do the job right... and given the current world climate that's a very uneasy feeling to have...

[Anthromomma]

I could have sworn I replied to this thread a few days ago. Strange.

The prospect of Mike Huckabee as President is terrifying to me. I just keep telling myself that there's no way he could win the general election, but I'm not entirely sure of that. He's got the same kind of grassroots support that Howard Dean had, though, and we saw how far that carried Dean in '04.

As far as who I like, I dunno. I have a fondness for Bill Richardson, but I don't think he's going to last much longer. I'm feeling very 'meh' about the whole field, and as Prescott said, that's not a very comforting feeling given the current state of the world.

Jessica, Guiliani seems to have a lot of support in my area. He's been campaigning pretty heavily here. I don't know if he's entirely out of it yet. What does everyone think of the likelihood of Ron Paul ultimately running as a Libertarian? I don't think he has a chance at the Republican nom, but I think he could skew the outcome of the election a lot if he chose the third party route.

[Jessica]

Huckabee makes Bush look like a secular Democrat. We cannot have a preacher in the white house. He'll never get the nomination. He's way too polarizing.

Kristy, I totally disagree with you about Edwards. He will never get the independent vote. Although he the most conservative Democrat on social issues, he's the most liberal on economics and independents tend to vote with their pocketbooks. JMHO. The only good thing about John Edwards, IMO, is that he's really good looking, but his socialistic economics is way too scary for the mainstream or independents.

[Scout]

Fuck. What is going to become of us? It's too fucking cold in Canada for me to live there!

[prescott]

How about a houseboat in Belize?

[Scout]

I'll take it!

[Anthromomma]

Belize I could do. What would a group of houseboats be? An armada?

[Scout]

A houseboat commune?

You know, my dh is obsessed with the liveaboard lifestyle. You can find blogs of people who do it and they are always meeting up with each other in groups and living a big party on the water. I'm in.

[Jessica]