Iowa

[nancylebov]

All I'm hoping for is a president who isn't absolutely awful. You have no idea how much I want to get back to ordinary levels of stupidity, viciousness, and incompetence.

In that spirit, I'm considerably relieved by the results in Iowa. Obama seems to be the most innocuous candidate[1], and while unless I've missed something I disagree with everything in Huckabee's platform, at least he isn't running on a "I'm cool because I'm mean" theme.

On the other hand, and not to indulge in conspiratorial libel, there are quite a few candidates who have a lot to gain from a terrorist attack on the US before the election.

[1] I strongly agree with Paul's stand on the war on drugs, and he's the only pre-candidate that stand, but he's too flakey otherwise for my taste. The Democratic candidate is going to have to be utterly superb pie crust to get me to vote for Paul.

Comments

Here from Friends-Friends List

[jennem.livejournal.com]

at least he isn't running on a "I'm cool because I'm mean" theme.

The cynic in me believes that this is because of the Wayne DuMond case. There is no way in hell Huckabee is going to open that can of worms because the evidence would be hell on his image.

(I'm assuming that the "I'm cool because I'm mean" is a references to the "tough on crime" agenda, etc.)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

According to Making Light, some Republicans who don't like him tried to smear Huckabee as a "Christian Socialist" which made me blink more than a little.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

It ain't a smear if it's the truth, and his record in Arkansas fits the label.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Terrific!

That's so wonderful. I thought there were no socialists in the US, let alone ones running for President. It's marvellous that he's got so far.

Elect him already.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Well, there probably aren't many (if any) Christian Socialists in the European or organized-party sense . . . but from time to time we do get evangelicals who actually appear to have read various relevant bits of the New Testament. (Most of them, of course, are the sort who would label the Virgin Mary a Communist on the basis of the Magnificat alone.)

[heron61.livejournal.com]

While I'm all for socialism, the fact that he's also a virulent homophobe with no respect for non-Christian faiths and an active interest in destroying access to abortion and birth control and rolling back women's rights makes him no better than any of the other Republicans. There haven't been any non-horrible Republican candidates since 1980 (perhaps earlier) the only difference is how horrible they are, and in Huckabee's case, the answer is fairly horrible.

[avram]

Do you mean he's a socialist as socialists understand the term, or he's a socialist as libertarians use the term?

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

All I'm hoping for is a president who isn't absolutely awful. You have no idea how much I want to get back to ordinary levels of stupidity, viciousness, and incompetence.

That's pretty much how I feel about the whole thing, as well.

[madfilkentist]

It was nice to see Giuliani whomped so thoroughly, and I was glad to see Obama top Clinton. But Huckabee is scary.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I hate to malign, by association, perfectly good flour products, but I think to get past RP on the flake list, you've moved past piecrust, and also past puff pastry, and into the world of phyllo dough.

[redbird]

The problem is, Huckabee seems to be running as "I'm a Christian, and I will protect you from those atheists and queers." As a non-Christian, I am nervous about any candidate who makes that much of a point of being Christian; one who makes it clear that his definition of Christianity is that I am a sinner and not part of his body politic makes me more than nervous. (The problem isn't that he's a Christian: there hasn't been a president in a long time who wasn't (if ever--no need to debate Jefferson's beliefs here).)

Ron Paul's war on women

[(Anonymous)]

I strongly disagree with Ron Paul's stand as given by his bill H. R. 1094 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.1094.IH:) Feb 2007. As I read it, it is a declaration of war on women: by defining person-hood as beginning at conception, it makes anyone who has an abortion guilty of murder and anyone who has a miscarriage guilty of manslaughter.