Voting on the issues

Despite the fact that we won't elect a president for another nineteen months or so, the campaign has begun. A constitutional amendment limiting the length of campaigns might not be such a bad thing, although reconciling such an amendment with the First Amendment might not be easy.

So one is compelled to think about who one wishes to become the next president. Hillary Clinton is running as the first woman with a decent chance to win the presidency. Barack Obama is running as the first African American with a decent chance to win the presidency. Yet, if the Democratic primary were held today, I would vote for John Edwards. I am disappointed by the fact that my choice is the straight white Southern male, but on the issues Edwards is stronger than Obama, and far stronger than Clinton.

I remember remarking in 2000 that Al Sharpton was the only candidate I heard addressing the concerns of poor people. I wouldn't vote for Sharpton for dog catcher, but I respect his dedication to the issues that matter to average people. This time around, Dennis Kucinich is solid on the issues, but he is not, in the current parlance, electable. John Edwards is electable, and his positions on the issues are solid.

So let's consider this an early endorsement. Maybe I'll even volunteer to work on the Edwards campaign. Let's hope he doesn't disappoint.

There is no corporate tax in Dubai

So now that Halliburton is moving its headquarters to Dubai, does that mean the United States government will review all its contracts with this now-foreign corporation?

We did actually elect someone who would have been a decent president

For the record, I must repeat here that Al Gore did win the 2000 election for president of the United States. That he didn't fight hard enough to secure that victory is a tragedy for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in addition to people all over the world.

Joe Conason makes an excellent point in Salon about how the media used to savage Gore on a regular basis:

Historians will someday ask why the United States entered a century of enormous challenges under the stewardship of a man who was so manifestly unsuited to high office —and why he prevailed over a man whose judgment, experience and courage were so clearly superior. False images and phony stories created by the media will certainly figure in their answers.

Read the entire article here.