Candidates on the issues – links

It’s hard to still wrap my head around where all the candidates stand on the different issues, so I did some research and thought I would share what I found. Below is a list of links of sites that help summarize how the candidates stand on the issues. The first link is for a quiz to help determine who to vote for based on the issues, that seems to be pretty good.

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html

http://usinfo.state.gov/politics/elections/issues.html

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=index/issue=health

Hope this helps!

Hillary: The Book

In the June 11th & 18th issue of the New Yorker, Elizabeth Korbert reviews the two most recent books on Hillary, “A Woman in Charge” and ” Her Way: the Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton”. The article does a good job of summarizing some of the main points the books made. Hillary and Bill declined to speak with the authors stating that they didn’t want to choose some writers over others. The books therefore rely on third party’s thoughts and memories and the “largely ghostwritten, highly santized account of her life, ‘Living History,’ published in 2003.

Some highlights from the article (and therefore the books) are:

• Her name – an interesting look at something as basic as her name begins with the “fabrication” that she was named after the first climber to reach the top of Mt. Everest, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary (which is why she has two Ls in her first name), since Sir Edmund didn’t make that fateful climb until 1953. Her party now claims it was just a sweet tale her mom told her as a child. As for her last name – she didn’t take Clinton to be her surname until Bill was struggling to regain the Arkansas governorship (seven years after their marriage). Then stayed Hillary Clinton until Bill won the Presidential office, and soon after she was being called Hillary Rodham Clinton, the name she used until recently. In recent months, the Rodham has now disappeared off her campaign collateral. Hmmmmm….
• Health Care Debacle – after Bill refused to have a separate dept handle health care for his campaign, he gave the duty to his wife since she stood by him during the Gennifer Flowers ordeal. Hillary then divided 500 members into 34 committees and drove military type meetings – refusing photocopies and pens and pencils to enter the meetings. And when things were not working out (shocker), she “responded that the Administration was prepared to ‘demonize’ those who opposed the task force’s recommendations.” She refused to look at alternative plans when her plans weren’t panning out and have caused many to think that because of her actions, millions of Americans could be covered with health care who currently go uninsured.
• Iraq War – the thorn in just about everyone’s side. Ten days before the vote to go to war with Iraq, Hillary and all other members of congress were delivered a 90-page classified document, that mostly has not been seen by the public, which stated what the government knew about WMDs and what was not known about Saddam’s capabilities. However, the summary of this report, which was publicized, was mainly based on later proved to be false information. Senator Bob Graham of Florida read the entire report and determined the evidence of WMDs in Iraq was weak and urged his colleagues to also read the full report. Graham was one of only 23 senators to vote against the war). Hillary voted for the war, but claims now that her decision was not a mistake, but rather than she was not informed. The evidence shows that she probably didn’t read the full report before casting her vote. Had she read the report that was given to her, would she have voted differently?
• You Don’t Know Me – after announcing that Clinton was going to run for the White House, she went on many TV and radio programs and claimed to each of them, “I may be the most famous person you really don’t know.” So Hil, with just 8 months to the primaries, why don’t you tell us who you are.

The Democratic Debate

Disclaimer: The following information is what I have taken notes on while watching the debates on tv. Nothing I have written are complete direct quotes, but will give you the general idea of what went on during these debates. Please read on.

In my coverage of the debate, I will only be convering the statements made by who I see as the forerunners of this election, and the issues that I feel are the main issues for the 2008 election.

1) The first question of the night revolved around the Iraq war. Basically, all of the Democrats running are for pulling out of Iraq. But here are some of the responses from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.

Clinton: Congress has voted as of today to end this war. She proposes to fund the troops and limit the number of days that the troops serve in the war. She also mentioned that she wants to start to pull the troops out of Iraq, and to make the Iraqi government take on the sacrifices to get their own government to work. She also has taken responsibility of her own previous vote for the war, and that we should not concentrate on the past, but rather, “what do we do now.”

Obama: Obama feels that all of the troops need to have the proper equipment in order to perform at their best. He mentioned the American people and how “we” have said that it is time to end this war. He referred to a plan he created back in January that would begin to withdraw troops from Iraq, and there will be benchmarks that will need to be met, to slowly pull out of Iraq.

Edwards: Edwards believes that we need to regain our respect around the world, and in order to accomplish this, he feels we need to be a model. From his statements, it seems as if he feels that we have lost a lot of respect by starting this war with Iraq, and that in order to regain it, we will need to put an end to this war.

2) Abortion. Last week, the Supreme Court made a ruling to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. Due to time constraints, Hillary Clinton was not asked her opinion on this issue.

Obama: He thinks that most Americans realize that abortion is a difficult decision, and that we need to trust women to make their right decision for themselves with their doctors, and religious leaders. He feels that we should not be concentrating on what we as Americans should not discuss what we do not agree on (abortion) and that we should start talking about things we do agree on. And one of those issues is to try to lower the teen pregnancy rate.

Edwards: Believes in a women’s right to choose, and also thinks it is important for candidates to realize this is a difficult issue and that they should respect that.

3) In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, the issue of gun control is pushing towards the foreground of these elections. Hillary Clinton was asked if the Government failed the students at VT.

Clinton: “Yes.” Hillary feels that the government did fail the students at VT. She spoke of her memories of Columbine, and how after, the Clinton administration realized that they needed to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people and to limit the access to people who should not have guns. There needs to be a harsher background check and after the VT shootings, it is apparent that our current system does not work.

My own thought: What worries me is the fact that even the democratic candidates do not want to go against the 2nd amendment. I realize that being able to own a gun is supposed to be one of our rights as an American, but look at what owning guns has done recently. How can we determine one person is more sane than another. How do we know if someone who has not been committed to a mental institution, will not harm someone else. Were those kids from the Columbine shootings ever committed to a mental institution?

4) The last issue I will cover is Health-care. Universal Health-care has been a hot phrase among the Democratic candidates. All of them have been forced to come up with their own plans, which all remind me of Hillary Clinton’s plan (please refer to my last blog covering Hillary’s health-care).

Obama: He mentioned 3 steps that I was able to write down in my coverage. 1) that there will be a national pool that people can buy into similar to the way the health-care system is set up for federal employees. 2) The government will subsidize for those who cannot afford health insurance. 3) He will make sure that we will lower the cost of health-care, and provide preventative care. (All very similar to Hillary Clinton’s plan.)

Edwards: He wants to provide health-care with taxes. One of the things he will do, will be to take away the tax cuts for people who make 200 grand or more. He will also require the employer to cover all employees. He will also ban the pre-existing conditions rule that many insurance companies have. That is, if you have a pre existing condition, the new insurance you are on, will not cover that.

Final thoughts: I will have to admit, I have really been focusing all of my attention to Hillary Clinton during my coverage. Since I am the most familiar with her campaign and where she stands on most issues, I was not sure how the other candidates would compare. Barack Obama does have some clear cut ideas for some of the issues, but I do feel that he might be lacking on direct plans. I like how he is always referencing the American people. I believe he can possibly tie us all together. We have been split apart by this Bush Administration, and I believe that we do need to start to stand together. It would be beneficial for America to have a president that can bring us together, instead of pull us apart. I have to go out on a limb here, but I think that Barack Obama does have that quality. I also want to say that Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Congressmen in the U.S House of Representatives, made some very valid points. I think he could be a good president, but he is standing in the shadows of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards. I am not sure what he would have to do to get noticed. I will end with a statement made by Kucinich “This is not American Idol, we are voting for a President.” Well said Kucinich. Well said.

Ronald Reagan, Part Deux

I love Law & Order as much as the next guy (my favorites were the Orbach-Bratt years, ahhh the good ‘ol times), but Fred Dalton Thompson who currently plays Arthur Branch, District Attorney, on Law & Order (and in shortly lived Law & Order: Trial By Jury) is thinking of entering the race. Fred formerly filled Al Gore’s vacant spot as Tennessee’s Senator, and prior to that he was also in a number of movies including Days of Thunder, Die Hard 2, and my personal favorite Curly Sue.

ABC News also recently reported that Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel may also enter the race for the Republican ticket. Although following the news conference he held yesterday, he stated that he needed to focus on the war and other pressing issues before making a final decision, and that entering the race later this year is still possible. Chuck has opposed the Iraq war since the beginning and back in January he called President Bush’s plan to send an addition 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder carried out since Vietnam.”

Republicans: Dem might win in 2008

Very interesting new poll from the NY Times and CBS who found that 40% of Republicans believe a Democrat will win the 2008 election, while only 12% of Democrats believe that the GOP will be elected into office.

Republicans are also not satisfied with their current candidate offering – 6 in 10 want more options, while 6 in 10 of Democrats are happy with their selection.  Pollsters also stated that supporting Bush’s war policy could put the candidate at a disadvantage.

“Asked what was more important to them in a nominee, a commitment to stay in Iraq until the United States succeeds or flexibility about when to withdraw, 58 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters said flexibility versus 39 percent who said a commitment to stay. The three leading Republican candidates are strong supporters of the war and the increase in American troops there. ”

One Republican polled said that the front runner for the Republican ticket hasn’t come forward yet, and it seems as though his party is behind him.  If this is the case, what other possible Republicans will come forward?

Candidates’ positions on the Iraq War

From the New York Times, a handy guide to the presedential candidates’ positions on the Iraq War, then and now.

Hillary lays out a plan to end the war in Iraq in this weeks “Hillcast”

“Hillcast” will be a weekly featured broadcast from Hillary Clinton on her website www.hillaryclinton.com .  

This week’s “Hillcast” is titled “Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction Act.” Hillary recently went to
Iraq to meet with the Iraqi people as well as the men and women of our armed forces who are currently in Iraq.  She would like to stop the deployment of troops into
Iraq. 

In what she has called the “Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction Act,” she proposes 5 steps towards reducing the US troops in Iraq and to lay out a roadmap to end the war in
Iraq.

 

1)  We need to put a cap on the number of troops in Iraq at January 1 levels.

2)  This Bill will protect the troops by making sure they have the right equipment and training they need before being sent to Iraq.  She states that our troops still do not have all the equipment they need. She also briefly mentions how we have been in Iraq for almost 4 years which is LONGER than World War II!

3)  We need to put an end to the “Blank Check” for the Iraqi Government.   The Iraqi government needs to have real benchmarks with real consequences.  They need to take greater responsibility for their own security.

4)  We need to convene an international conference to bring other countries together to help forge a stable future for Iraq.

5) To begin a phased redeployment of our troops out of Iraq.  It is time to say the redeployment should start in 90 or Congress will revoke authorization for this war. 

My comments on this “Hillcast”: 

Hillary having a “Hillcast” feature on her website is a great idea.  If she really wants to speak to today’s youth, having her own version of a podcast is the way to go. I think this is smart, and if a “Hillcast” airs on a weekly basis, I think this can be a real effective way to win over voters, especially young voters.

In this “Hillcast”, she really is trying to show how President Bush has gone wrong and how there are simple ways to correct what he has done.

I have to say I agree with her.  Of course I would think most people would want to see an end to this war.  I really feel that we need to start to pass more responsibility to the Iraqis themselves.  I think this can be achieved by working directly with the Iraqi government to turn the control over to them.