Except that Romney flip-flops to align himself with targeted groups of voters. No one knows what he really believes.
Except that Romney flip-flops to align himself with targeted groups of voters. No one knows what he really believes.
vote for a balance of power. no one likes the two party system. don't give one party all the power. democratic congress, repub president.
Mitt has taken flip flopping to an entirely new level.
As a Democrat, I like Sen. Chris Dodd of CT. Too bad he'll never get out of the shadow cast by Hillary and Obama. And that's a result of this media circus created by tabloid TV.
Voting for any of the current candidates is the cowards vote. It carries us back to the classic 'best of the worst' argument -- even when we know that, damn well, we're just being fed a crock of lies (or, at best, unrealistic desires).
Don't we go through this every cycle? When will we learn?
Jefe in the CO wrote:
Here's the quick and dirty:
Hillary: Cons - She will have a hard time convincing older men to vote for her because she reminds them all of their first wives.
Thanks for making me spit my lunch all over my computer monitor. The funniest things are often most true. I knew there was a reason I want to smack HRC!!
I will be voting for Ron Paul
Everyone else in both parties can pack up their campaign headquarters once I annouce.
Libertarianism is the most idiotic political philosophy ever conceived. I can't understand how smart people are beguiled by it. It imagines that our nation is just a collection of individuals and that there is no such thing as the public good. Choices that have public ramifications have to be constrained from time to time.
savyrunner wrote:
I will be voting for Ron Paul
I will be voting for Ron Jeremy
Brian wrote:
Libertarianism is the most idiotic political philosophy ever conceived. I can't understand how smart people are beguiled by it. It imagines that our nation is just a collection of individuals and that there is no such thing as the public good. Choices that have public ramifications have to be constrained from time to time.
Either you don't know what libertarianism is or you're a hardcore communist.
How about this Obama geezer?
Watching 24 on this side of the Atlantic, you’ve already had 2 black presidents.
And what paragons of virtue, integrity and wisdom they were, or are.
By contrast, I notice the one white president turned out to be a lying, deceitful crook, now under house arrest.
Ah…Hollywood.
I don’t what sort of president Giuliani would make, but cecking out his pre-9-11 record, I wish he stand for mayor of London.
Through robust policing, Giuliani drove overall crime down 56.1%, while chopping homicides 66.6%, from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001.
Following national trends, abortions on Giuliani’s watch dropped 16.9%, while taxpayer-funded Medicaid abortions plunged 23%.
Gotham’s foster-care population fell 38% as Giuliani helped loving families adopt 17,804 boys and girls.
By fighting fraud and finding work for legitimate beneficiaries, Giuliani cut welfare rolls 58%, starting two years before federal welfare reform. Giuliani renamed welfare offices “Job Centers.”
Giuliani privatized 23,625 previously confiscated, city-owned dwellings, 78% of supply, benefiting family and individual homeowners and tenants.
Giuliani dumped Gotham’s 20% set-aside and 10% overbid bonus for minority and female contractors. “The whole idea of quotas to me perpetuates discrimination,” he explained. He initiated this on his 24th day in office, far exceeding any colorblindness legislation Congress even debated during the 12-year “Republican Revolution.”
Giuliani’s $10 million Charter School Improvement Fund helped 3,286 pupils in 17 new charter schools, up from $0 and zero campuses in 1997. He ended tenure for school principals, so slackers could be sacked. He also stopped social promotion; students needed to complete grade-level work to matriculate.
Ex-pornography mecca Times Square now welcomes families, tourists, and locals for fully clothed musicals like “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins.”
Beyond these socially conservative victories, Giuliani governed as a Reaganesque supply-sider:
Giuliani scrapped three taxes and slashed 20 others, lowering Gotham’s tax burden by 17% and saving individual and business taxpayers $9.8 billion.
While inflation averaged 3.9%, Giuliani’s average spending grew 2.9% annually. If the departed GOP Congress were that fiscally disciplined, the next federal budget would be $2.275 trillion -- $625 billion cheaper than proposed.
While hiring 12% more cops and 12.8% more teachers, Giuliani sliced other positions 17.2%. Overall, municipal headcount fell 3.1%.
He’d walk into any constituency over here.
"Either you don't know what libertarianism is or you're a hardcore communist."
This is the sort of statement that libertarians frequently make that reinforce my previous thought. The very notion that there is a public good that requires restraint of individual and corporate freedom and the very idea that unrestrained fredom without regulation might force folks to make individual decisions they would ratehr not make given a system that constrined the choice of their competitors is "communism" to libertarians.
I am not totally sure what you just said, Brian. But, most people who have beefs with Libertarianism believe that Libertarians are not interested in the public good. Would you agree?
Giuliani is far and away the best Republican candidate, and has some impressive credentials; if you can make it in NYC you can make it anywhere. However, I'm 100% sold on Obama. He brings people together to forge sound policy, his focus is in the right places, education and economic vitality, and he has the integrity and sense of accountability to the American people to make him the perfect head of the executive branch. People say that his list of accomplishments is short and that he might not be saavy with the international politics but when I read "The Audacity of Hope" I can't help but to think that criticism is unfounded. He is reaching across the aisle to create legislation to dismantle the massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet States, he is finding ways to encourage energy companies to implement biodiesel pumps and make biodiesel plants across the US and he wants to lay down IT infrastructure across the US. Both his biodiesel and IT plans would create jobs for the middle class. He makes sound economic policy, he has a great appreciation for the Constitution and he loves this country with a sincerity few can muster. Giuliani is great, but Obama wins.
Jasper Sneakham wrote:
How about this Obama geezer?
Watching 24 on this side of the Atlantic, you’ve already had 2 black presidents.
And what paragons of virtue, integrity and wisdom they were, or are.
By contrast, I notice the one white president turned out to be a lying, deceitful crook, now under house arrest.
Ah…Hollywood.
Actually, the white guy is dead, stabbed my his psychotic ex-wife (or is that a redundancy?).
As NYer I can assure you Rudy is WAAAAAAAAAAAY over rated.
And so many of the causes and effects you listed he had nothing to do with, or whose achievment is dubious.
The lower crime rate had a lot more to do with the good economy of the city than the things Chief Bratton did.
Times Square re-planning sarted years ago... etc.
And do you know the fire fighters hate him?
Jasper Sneakham wrote:
I don’t what sort of president Giuliani would make, but cecking out his pre-9-11 record, I wish he stand for mayor of London.
He’d walk into any constituency over here.
Ooops, are you guys for or against guns in your country? Because I'm pretty sure Giuliani is for them...
Rudy is not pro-gun.
Agreed! A Republican in the Reagan mold. Listened to him fill in for Paul Harvey on the radio last week, and the guy has it together. His take on the immigration debacle was refreshing and spot on.
I think libertarians are far too generous to the most minor of private rights even when they are tiny compared to the great effects on the public good and rely on slippery slope arguments and simplistic notions of why people make the choices they make. Libertarians are only narrowly interested in the public good and have a very limited view of what government (preferrably local governments) should do. If an aversion to government regulation doesn't characterize libertarians, what does? Why even use the word?
I don't believe in ideologies where I already have a framework in mind that dictates how I approach an issue. Show me the issue and I will tell you how I adjudicate between the public and private good.