More Candidates Drop Out

Some of the bigger names in the presidential race are dropping out. First there was John Edwards. And now Rudy Giuliani has called it quits too. This has all happened before Super Tuesday when a lot of primary votes shall be cast.

There is some good news from all of this. Since Rudy Giuliani is now out, this enabled Arnold Schwarzenegger to endorse John McCain. Apparently Arnold was good friends with both Rudy and and John. So he previously would not endorse either. Now there is nothing holding back his endorsement. And Rudy Giuliani is also endorsing John McCain.

I might have to wait a while before making my final decision for my own vote in the primaries. Who knows? There might be even further drop outs from the race. At least Ron Paul is still in for the Republican nomination. This brings up a deeper and more important issue. For the actual election, who should I vote for? Somebody who I believe in? Or rather somebody that I think has a choice to win? This is the delemna.

Main Man Gone

I just heard the bad news. Dennis Kucinich has dropped out of the race. This is truly disappointing. Now I need to look at all the remaining candidates to figure out who I am going to vote for. Initially I thought I could wait until the primaries were over, and then start helping the Kucinich campaign. I guess that was too late. He needed my help now.

The other fear I have is that my next candidate may also drop out. Although I need to do some soul searching, my second bet may be Ron Paul. Given that he has not been doing well in the polls, I fear he may too drop out sooner rather than later. Perhaps it is time to go all out and support the candidate I want. And I need to do this immediately.

Let me gather my facts once again. And I will turn my blog towards supporting my candidates of choice. Stay tuned.

Goodbye Fred

Fred Thompson has thrown in the towel. It seems really early. Only a couple primaries are done. Maybe the writing was getting clear on the wall for Fred. My own experience with his web site was that he needed to fix his web site. If you are a guy that I have never heard of before, you better wow me with your web site for you to even have a chance to get my vote. This is the reality.

The real question on my mind now is whether Ron Paul will go the distance or not. I do not think he has done well in the Republican primaries. He was almost not allowed to participate in a Nevada debate due to his low numbers. I do not think I will be voting for Ron for president. But between all the other Republican candidates, he may get my nomination for the Republican ticket in the primary.

Hillary on Tyra

I was home from work today and tuned into the Tyra Banks show. Hillary Clinton was her guest and got a lot of air time. Tyra read a lot of questions for Hillary to answer.

The one question that stood out in my mind was what Hillary was going to do about same sex partners not being able to share health benefits. Hillary's response was that any relationship should be able to be used to use health care benefits for another.

I found Hillary's answer to be lacking on many levels. She used the typical politician maneuver of side stepping the issue, in that she did not directly comment on same sex partnerships. Then Hillary used examples that did not involve same sex partnerships to demonstrate her opinion that you should be able to extend your health coverage to whomever you want. Irresponsible.

Don't you know that you can't win votes with cheap parlour tricks like these? Guess not. Well at least Hillary gave me an excuse to post a picture of Tyra. Believe me I tried to get one of Hillary and Tyra together. Honestly. But all I could find was one of Beyonce and Tyra. Hillary's loss and your gain.

Kucinich Fading Fast

Given the research I have done so far, Dennis Kucinich will get my vote. But it appears he has no chance to win the Democratic nomination. Initially he was invited to the democratic debate in Nevada. However he got a little over 1% of the democratic vote in the New Hampshire primaries. So it looks like they are trying to "uninvite" him from the Nevada debate.

Kucinich might be able to participate in the Nevada debate, given that a judge is going to intervene. But he cannot seem to compete against the big 3 democratic candidates. I think Kucinich might have a chance if the election were to be decided strictly on the issues. The problem is that nobody knows who Kucinich is.

Is it time to throw in the towel and choose another candidate to vote for? I don't think so. I plan to vote for Dennis Kucinich even if I have to write his name in on the ballot. The real question is whether it is too late for me to try to help the Kucinich campaign. So far I have been telling people that I think he is the best candidate given the issues. But I feel like I could do more.

Ron Paul Redux

I watched a two part video on Ron Paul's Town Hall meeting. This gave me an opportunity to see him in action. It is one thing to read a candidate's web site. It is another to see them react in real time based on questions from the crowd.

The main surprise I got from the Town Hall meeting was that Ron Paul has a long term goal to abolish the IRS. This was not made clear in his web site. As I have mentioned many times before, I think elimination of income taxes is unfeasible. It is strange that many candidates endorse this corse of action.

In addition, Ron Paul also seemed to indicate that he has a long term goal to abolish the Federal Reserve. This troubles me. I know Ron has a lot ideas about economics. But eliminating the Federal Reserve sounds like another ill concieved notion. Having viewed the Town Hall meeting, my initial excitement about Ron Paul has waned. I guess I might be left with Dennis Kucinich to vote for.

Frontrunners

Having done the research on the two major political parties, I have concluded that I like only 2 candidates: Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. I still need to learn how to say and spell Kucinich. At this point I think it is time to dig deeper into what these two candidates stand for.

I already know that for the key issues I am interested in, these two candidates align with my views. But that does not mean they do not also support some other strange viewpoints. I guess what I want to do now is see whether they make sense to be a president looking at the big picture. In other words, given all the issues (not just my favorite ones), which one of these candidates fares the best.

Although I am not against a tie, I am sure there will be one clear winner in my mind. Once I find out who that is, they will get my vote. Join me in the journey. I feel as if I have come a long way already. Election 2008 - here we come.