Famille Du Pentium

I want to look deeper into each candidates position; not just "Obama wants to bring the troops home", but - why? how?  When?

Clinton is on record: it's a muddle.  I want to end it.  But we can't back out now, it'll leave the middle east in chaos.  She has a point.  We started this, and we can't just run away from it.  We must leave Iraq stable enough that it can survive without falling into civil war.  We would be the true villains if we failed on that.

On the other hand, how much stability is America providing Iraq?  Sure our troops are there, toting weapons and ferriting out evil-doers.  One by one.  And getting blown up regularly in the process.  But, are we really providing stability?   

It's a question of strategy, and Obama says we're not.  In fact, he says our presence in Iraq is a destabilizing force in the middle east.  The argument is, more insurrection groups - note, these are groups that welcomed US troops to begin with, and welcomed the fall of Sadam - more of these groups are only interested in forcing the departure of US troops from Iraq.  They take their war beyond Iraq's borders, attacking stable governments elsewhere in the middle east.  Obama says our departure would be a stabilizing force there, because it would effectively neutralize the insurrection and leave only one issue: Shiite vs. Sunni.  And that issue is actually being politically resolved pretty well by Iraq's government, without our help.  21 months ago, that wasn't true.  But today, it is.

So Obama says: First step toward middle east stability: Get out of Iraq.  Then, we work diplomatically, as a third party country in a position of leadership should do, to ensure the ongoing stability of Iraq.  

Given the situation today, perhaps that's a better idea. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OK quick round-up:

• Guliani: Out.  He sez, vote for McCain
• Edwards: Out.  He's not saying who to vote for.

The latter leaves an interesting milestone in American history today:  One major party has virtually guaranteed that a white male will not be nominated to run for President.

This could get interesting.  A McCain / Obama or a McCain / Clinton fight after the primaries.  I look forward to it. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'll sum it up quick.

• Hope you didn't back Guliani.  He lost big in Florida, and will apparently drop out Wednesday and throw his support behind the winner, John McCain.
• Speaking of McCain, who would have thunk it?  The Republicans now have a clear front-runner, and he's older than Ronald Reagan was when he ran for President.  Is it too late to change my support?  Just kidding!
  
• On the Dem side, Clinton won but nobody got any delegates because of their little political tiff.  Now I remember why I wasn't a Democrat.  So Obama still leads, good for him, I guess it's up to Super Tuesday.
  

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that my initial picks for President have all dropped like flies, I've been checking out the remaining candidates.  I'm usually a fiscal Republican, which means I don't toe the line on the Republicans' social agenda but I (generally) vote Republican in hopes of a smaller, cheaper government that takes less of my hard-earned money to run.

One could not argue that George W Bush has accomplished at least the latter; unfortunately he didn't do anything about the former (making government smaller, that is, before he reduced taxes).  Whatever, my taxes are lower now and probably as low as they're ever going to get under any president.   Whatever, that's not my point.

My point is, that given the current political climate both inside and outside of the United States, perhaps it's time to invest in a candidate with some inspiration potential; a leader in the  most altruistic sense of the word in that he doesn't surround himself with yes men (or women) who execute his political plan, but who inspires Americans.  We need someone who makes us feel good about being us again. 

I'm talking about Camelot. 

I'm not really clear on Barack Obama's plans for health care, taxes, and the war in Iraq.  I know he wants to end our involvement in Iraq, along with probably 85% of America.  I'm sure he wants to help the poor, but I hope he doesn't intend to do that on the backs of working class Americans.   But what I do see about Barack Obama is inspiration.  I think we need some inspiration right now, and I think that Obama is the man to inspire us.

Given my track record of supporting inspiring, well-qualified candidates I'm sure I just thwarted any hope of the man being elected President, and for that I am genuinely sorry.   

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It appears that Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have noticed that both of their poll numbers have dropped in South Carolina since they started their immature little battle of words.  Both candidates have backed off a bit, Hillary said she'd get her big-mouthed husband to shut up a bit, and both pulled some negative ads.

Maybe they have learned that going negative doesn't do either of them any good.

Frankly I don't see what good can come from all of it.  Sure, you discredit your opponent, but at what cost?  Even if you succeed, you lower the standard for American politics even further, and cause resentment amongst your constituency, even those who vote for you, because there are frankly no other choices. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just learned about this, if nothing else it'll make you snicker.

In 1937, Lyndon B. Johnson ran for his first political office, Texas' 10th Congressional District.  He won and was soon a close ally of then-President Roosevelt, who appreciated his intelligence and information about Texas politicians.  As a reward, Roosevelt assigned the freshman congressman to the Naval Affairs Committee, which gave Johnson considerable power to steer large government projects toward his district.  

One of the beneficiaries of that considerable pork were two brothers, Herman and George Brown.  The Brown brothers benefitted greatly from their friend, Congressman Johnson, and formed a company - "Brown & Root Company".  

That company, Brown & Root, effectively put on the map by Democrat Congressman and future President Johnson, is today known as Halliburton. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Man, I hate being right.

Fred Thompson has officially dropped out of the nominating race for the Republican party today.

Guess we'll just have to be happy with Law and Order re-runs :). 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So once again I have done my preliminary tax return, which will turn out to be 98% accurate, for 2007.  And once again, my family of five - including three children - paid way north of 30% of our income in taxes.  Some of that, I'm quite sure, went to help pay the gang bangers down the street to live on Section VIII housing. 

So here's what President Bush can do to stimulate the economy in the Humphries-Dolnick household:  Give me back $5000.  That's right, send it strait here, in my name, now.  I'll spend half of it.  The other half will go toward paying off the debt we accrued helping the U.S. Economy stay solvent in 2007.

I bet I don't get any takers. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The impact of the John McCain win in New Hampshire and now South Carolina makes the race for the Republican nomination even more interesting.  Offset by Romney's win in Nevada, it still leaves the current leaderboard effectively a three-way tie.  Granted, Romney has nearly 30% more delegates than his nearest competitor, all still have far less than 100 each and need 1191 delegates in order to lock.  Thus when you see Romney has 59 to Huckabee's 39 or McCain's paltry 36, even that 59 pales in comparison to the 1191 that Romney needs in order to win it.  So, as they say, the race is wide open and it looks like Super Tuesday (and maybe Illinois???) have a chance to decide it.

Here's the leaderboard as of now:

Mitt Romney 59

Mike Huckabee 39

John McCain 36

Fred Thompson 5

Ron Paul 4

Duncan Hunter 2

Rudy Guliani 1

The remaining candidates have zero delegates. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well the Republicans were hoping for a little clarity, perhaps a front-runner to emerge from Michigan.  I guess that was too much to ask.  Mitt Romney, who has done poorly in other states so far, picked up Michigan's Republican primary delegates.

On the Democrat front, Hillary Clinton ran unopposed in Michigan and due to the Michigan Democratic Party moving their primary forward without the national party's approval, no delegates will be awarded in the Michigan democratic race.

Thanks, Michigan.  Jerks. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 09:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So some time ago, I endorsed two candidates: one Democrat (Joe Biden), and later one Republican (Fred Thompson).  I also said that Ron Paul was interesting, but I haven't actually said I like the guy for president.

Let's see how they're all doing.

OK.  Joe Biden, the foreign policy maven who could probably save the reputation of America globally, has dropped out due to a poor showing in Iowa.  Too bad, but he'll still do us a lot of good as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  

Fred Thompson is thinking about dropping out if he doesn't improve his position in South Carolina.  Right now he's got something like 1 or 2 delegates under his belt, up against McCain / Romney / Huckabee who have double digits each.  South Carolina is coming up soon, so we'll see, but I don't put much hope in it.

Ron Paul, for all his internet-based support and fundraising, isn't doing well on the delegate count either.  Maybe he overestimated the  willingness of Iowans and New Hampshirites to get all their information about a candidate from the web.  He'll probably stick with it, because he has a huge war chest and isn't spending like McCain / Romney / Huckabee on T.V. ads.  On the other hand, it'll probably not work.

So far my picks aren't doing so well.  Will I throw my support behind a McCain or Guliani?  Or Obama?  Certainly not Billary, sorry.   We'll see.  I'm starting to investigate these candidates as I may be forced to help choose between them in some way or another.

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I published a comment that my brother posted (4 days ago, tells you how often I check for new comments... sorry!) and MT rebuilt my blog as per normal.  Usually when it does this, it sort of re-jiggers the current front page posts so that they fit nicely within the borders of the webpage, while also dumping older posts.  This time, when it rebuilt, it left my webpage totally blank.  Weird.  So this is a post to jump-start it again.

Oh yea, the comment from Kelly - apparently he and I bought the EXACT SAME PLASMA TV this winter.  Once again, weird. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)