Studying the Candidates (Part 1)

I've begun my assessment of the presidential candidates. I'm going to be reviewing their words and deeds, one by one. I admit that in the past, while I've voted, I've been pretty indifferent abut all this political stuff. Not anymore. Not with the changes undergoing our country and the consistent erosion of our personal freedoms.

And lest you're not familiar with my stance -- I'm an independent. I'll jump the fence and vote for whomever I think is the best candidate. So keep that in mind when I make my personal observations of the candidates, be they Republican or Democrat.

Some I know to be completely off my "possible" list, like Mr. Tancredo. He's the guy who suggested that we should bomb the Muslim holy sites "as a deterrent". Gee, I'm sure millions of moderate Muslims are going to let that one pass, Mr. T. It'd be the first step to global war. If someone bombed St. Peter's or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, would you be deterred? Nah. You'd be pissed. So will our Islamic neighbors. So Tancredo is easy to rule out as a complete nutter. There seems to be a fair number of them running for office this time.

I've been watching Giuliani and I've found the man to be an amazing piece of work (and not in the good sense). There's something mean spirited and evil about a guy who would announces to his wife he's getting a divorce at a press conference. This is a guy who loves to get even in very nasty ways.

But to put Giuliani and his "I'm the only guy who knows how to deal with terrorists" b.s. out of the way, read this article by Wayne Barrett co-author ( with Dan Collins) of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11.

This isn't the first time I've read accounts of Giuliani's work as NY mayor and frankly, I'm not impressed. He isn't what I want in a president. Believe it or not, I believe he'd be as bad as Bush, or worse. That's saying something.

I'll be hacking through some of the others as time passes. You can bet those candidates who put abortion and gay issues at the top of their agenda aren't going to make the cut with me. We've got a lot more important things to worry about, including the 40 million people in this country without health insurance, our crumpling infrastructure and how we fix 8 years' worth of damage from an Imperial Presidency.

Hope you are doing the same sort of weighing. We need to look for a candidate who has the intelligence to know how to accept differing opinions, the wisdom to know when to jump into the fray and when to stay out, and who understands that We, The People are his or her boss.

All the rest is just b.s.