My problem is that you have also said that he has absolutely no chance of winning. If he has no chance of winning why does it matter who he would put into different positions once he was President. Nobody will ever know who he would put into these positions because as you have said he has no chance of winning.

Because I won’t vote for someone I consider to be a poor candidate for the office just to register a protest vote, unless they’re pretty much the ideal candidate on every issue. I strongly disagree with Ron Paul about immigration (and even more strongly disagree with his rationale for voting that way), so I’d prefer that my protest vote not go in support of someone interested in further restricting immigration.

Just out of curiosity, would you have voted for George Washington, John Adams, or Thomas Jefferson?

Jefferson…although that would, of course, be contingent upon him being in vehement opposition to slavery today :)

There has always been one thing that has bothered me in your reasoning of why you are not voting for Ron Paul. You have basically given us as a reason of why you will not vote for him because of his mismanagement/selection of people and you are looking for someone who will be competent in this area when they are President.

My problem is that you have also said that he has absolutely no chance of winning. If he has no chance of winning why does it matter who he would put into different positions once he was President. Nobody will ever know who he would put into these positions because as you have said he has no chance of winning.

My bigger concern is we need to continue pushing him because of the ideas he is pushing. Those will continue after his run for President is over. The difference will be the degree by which they are followed by the media and other politicians. If Paul does poorly, by extension the ideas he is pushing will be seen as losing ideas as well. The more votes and the better he does the better light that these ideas will be seen in. Giving up on him now will be seen as giving up on the ideas behind his campaign as well, at least in the eyes of the media and political wonks.

but I still cannot bring myself to vote for McCain.

Completely understandable.

I do know this: RP has been elected to congress 10 times, therefore, he appeals to many. He is very smart, there is an off-chance that he may have taken all this into account when planning his strategy (wishful thinking here). But he has had the balls to call the GOP out on its’ losing its’ way w/ the neocons. Somebody needed to do that. He reminds me of a humble, old uncle that reprimands the youngsters for not having any manners or ethics. He’s full of answers, and they come from his years of observing the political game. To just blatantly disregard them is to do so at ones’ own risk. At some time or another, all bills become due. When are we going to pay back our debts?

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” ~ Unknown (by me, anyways)

Nope, I work in finance. Blogging’s just something I do in my spare time.

You seem pretty current on political affairs. But your link only leads to outdated posts. It seems we share a lot opinions on many matters. But differ only on a few. Do you have any recent work?

Only what I write here for the most part. My job just got too hectic for me to keep up with my own site and this one. I may pick it up again in the future but probably not anytime soon.

You seem pretty current on political affairs. But your link only leads to outdated posts. It seems we share a lot opinions on many matters. But differ only on a few. Do you have any recent work?

As I’m sure you’re quite aware, the major media outlets are all owned by only 5 companies, as opposed to hundreds during the Nixon Administration. If those 5 are bought and paid for (highly likely), then where is our supervision?

Nobody owns the bloggers, those five press companies are in competition with each other and if they all did act as a mouthpiece for the government (which is extremely unlikely) then it would only be a matter of time before alternative news sources arose to give consumers a viewpoint they’re interested in. Most people can actually recognize blatant propaganda after awhile and I don’t accept the idea that media opinion controls everything that people do.

As far as the Supreme Court…how many attempts to grab power did they stop when GW started assuming more powers unto himself?

They shot down his ability to strip detainees of their human rights and his desire to hold them indefinitely without trial. The court system has gone after his wiretapping, his destruction of public records, and his attempts to claim unchecked executive power. The courts do quite a lot to act against Bush.

If the American People were in a position to supervise the Presidency as well as a motor pool, I’d agree.

That’s what the press and bloggers are for. If two journalists working in a world without the Internet could catch Richard Nixon and get him booted from office, I don’t think John McCain stands much of a chance. Besides, the best bet for keeping a president in check is to make sure that you’re electing good Congressmen and Senators for your district. That’s where the balance comes in. Right now it’s bad because we’ve just got a terrible Congress. But that’ll eventually change if it stays as bad as it has under Bush.

McCain just help author and pass an article that limits what we can say about an incumbent 90 before an election for that seat.

That’s why we have a court system and a Supreme Court. And McCain-Feingold’s being taken apart by that.

Peloski has removed impeachment from the table when it was most desperately needed.

She’s botching the leadership job enough right now that I think she’ll be out of that spot sooner rather than later if the Dems lose the presidential election. I agree with you, though, she’s absolutely pathetic.