March 4th. . .Predictions

I can’t believe how crazy this presidential election process has become.  I had not paid this much attention to the election process in previous years, and I completely regret it, because from what is happening now, I realize how intense and exciting it can be.  And of course, I believe it is so amazingly important to follow this closely, because, of course, the outcome will affect all of our futures.  ANYWAY! I can’t believe how close the democrat race has become in this presidential primary, March 4th, 2008.  I had hoped, being an Obama fan, that it would be a clean sweep for him, hopefully securing his place as the democrat nominee.  However, from what I have seen so far, it is a very close race.  Looking to the two big states which are present in this primary, Ohio and Texas, it seems as if firstly Clinton will take Ohio, and as for Texas, it is so very close.  I predict that Obama will come out on top as far as total delegates, however I am going to guess that it will be extremely close, and I personally feel that Clinton is not ready to give up this race, and the two will battle it out till the end.

As far as the Republican party goes, there isn’t even a prediction needed.  McCain has obviously secured his place as the republican nominee.  Considering that none of the other nominees have gained nearly enough delegates to compete with him, the race for the republican nomination is nowhere as excitingly close as what we see in the democratic race.

The United States…Cuba…and the Embargo…

With the recent resignation of Cuba’s ailing 81 year old leader Fidel Castro, there has been a question of what comes next for this country which has been involved for so long in the embargo placed upon it by the United States.  It is especially a question whether the situation will alter in any way, considering the next president has been officially appointed, and he happens to be Castro’s younger brother Raul Castro.  Already, with his new-found powers as president, Raul has taken the initiative to appoint the top army generals to important political posts within the government.  However, although it may seem as if these actions signify a harmful turn for the Cuban government, and the effects on their people, the effects of such officials in high political power may indeed create a positive impact.

“The army has over the last two decades moved from fighting wars in Africa to become Cuba’s most efficient institution with a big stake in the economy through a network of profitable businesses, and experts say it can serve as a model of reform.” —Anthony Boadle

Although it seemingly is “looking up” for the Cuban people, their government, and the role the government plays in their lives and in the lives of people around the world, I personally remain unchanged in my belief that Raul Castro will follow in the footsteps of his older brother.  Although he may speak about positive changes for the people, I don’t believe that all of these ideas he brings forward are going to move anywhere beyond just that, ideas.  I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but personally, I don’t feel that lifting the embargo on Cuba will change much for the better.  I think the WHOLE reason why Raul Castro happened to come in to power after Fidel Castro, is because he is going to continue that which his brother started.  I don’t feel as if Raul is planning on actually directing the country into a new direction, which could give the United States any reason to lift the embargo currently in place.

Popular Disillusionment of the 60’s and 70’s

Throughout the 60’s and 70’s, popular disillusionment progressively spread across Great Britain.  A fight for change began to arise among the youth, who yearned for social change.  The cause of this disillusionment can be stemmed to economically challenging times that the country faced proceeding WWII.  With the economy moving away from stability, Unions were beginning to form, and strikes for workers rights began to sweep the nation.  Looking to the youth who were shaping the world around them, it is seen that a new focus had been placed on social issues, and how addressing them could change everything they had known.  This change from the youth came in the form of new music, a music that had changed to way of speaking out for what this generation believed in, and indeed a newer, angrier way of looking at the world around them.  This music, of course is Punk Rock.  Such bands as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones were influential and played an important role in the popular disillusionment movement which marked one of the greatest periods of change in Britain’s history.

Super Tuesday…WOOO!

Considering each of the candidates, what they stand for, what they intend to bring to the people, and such forth, I believe that the two candidates that will come out on top this Tuesday will be Obama and McCain.  I believe that in this election, people are looking to more than the issues that the candidates wish to address, but the “presence” that the candidate posesses, and the way they use that presence to address the issues our country faces.  I personally believe that we need a leader who is going to bring to us what is currently lacking in the Bush Administration, unity.  Unity, I believe is attainable by electing a leader who address issues in a poised manner, and take into account what is truly best for our future.  This in mind, I feel that Obama will appeal most to the American people.  Thus far, he is projected to win, however, his race with Clinton has been extremely close, so it is deffinately difficult to basically guess who the people prefer.  Looking to the Republican candidates, I believe that all-in-all McCain has a stronger campaign.  With what the media has presented, it seems to me that it is very unlikely that the Republicans will vote for Romney, because of his religious views.  However terrible that sounds, I feel that he will not stand a chance if he were to face either Obama or Clinton.  I also believe, with McCain’s experience level, he will pull ahead of both Romney and Huckabee. BUT we’ll just have to wait and see….!

LOLcandidates

Where does Edwards stand??

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_01/012959.php

Honestly, I don’t feel it’s completely over for Sen. Edwards.  I believe that although he has not recieved as many votes as those recieved by Obama and Clinton, he continues to make as much of a stand as possible throughout the debates and as shown in the statistics in the above blog, he at least carries 11% of the votes, which in reality is a large enough number, that as this author stated, would be extremely beneficial for Obama or Clinton to gain.  Although I personally cannot see Edwards as our next president, I do feel that he is playing an important role in WHO IS the next president.  Looking to the percentages, by Edwards remaining in the race, and holding a percentage of voters, he is denying either Obama or Clinton votes that might be their’s if he were to drop from the race.  As the second piece of evidence this blogger presented showed, if Edwards were to drop from the race, the majority of his followers would at this point and time vote for Clinton.  However, throughout the debates, it seems as if Edwards shares equal agreement and dissagreement with both candidates.  Personally, if Edwards were to drop out, and his votes were to go to Clinton, I would hope for him to stay determined and keep those votes for himself rather than letting them fall onto that smelly betch Clinton…haha seriously

Obama’s Superior Addressing of the Iraq War

“I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.”

–Barack Obama

This quote from one of Barack Obama’s speeches, addressing the war in Iraq, summarizes my personal views towards the United States’ involvement in Iraq.  I can honestly say that this war was one that holds no reasonable justification.  The Bush Administration seemed to believe that pressing their own ideological agenda on the nation in the face of the 9/11 attacks was “the answer” to finding those responsible for the death and destruction that our nation faced.  Although I agree that it was the Administrations duty to find those responsible, I do not believe that starting a war that would take so many innocent lives was the answer.  It seemed to me that the Bush Administration had not thought of what they truly were trying to accomplish in this war, besides some personal ideological agenda.  But, in any matter, the only results we have gotten are death and destruction, fallen soldiers, and grieving families.  Seeing as Obama has the same outlook on the war, since the beginning, he seems to understand the situation, and has presented a way to address the war, which in my opinion is superior to each and every other presidential candidate.  As I had stated in my previous blog entry addressing the presidential candidates, Sen. Obama was the only candidate to focus on the timeliness AND safety issue as far as withdrawing from Iraq.  Although I had received a comment on the issue of how specific Sen. Obama is as far as when we are to withdraw from Iraq, I have found this piece of information which is reassuring to how quickly he plans on addressing this issue if elected president:

“First, we need to immediately begin the responsible removal of our troops from Iraq’s civil war. Our troops have performed brilliantly. They brought Saddam Hussein to justice. They have fought for over four years to give Iraqis a chance for a better future. But they cannot – and should not – bear the responsibility for resolving the grievances at the heart of Iraq’s civil war. “—Barack Obama

Thus, Obama plans to immediately withdraw troops, but he is careful to say “responsible,” within this speech, as well as throughout the presidential debates.  This to me is especially key, because I feel that we need to be as careful as is necessary leaving Iraq, as to ensure the safety of not only members of the armed forces, but even the citizens living here in the homeland.  He has also been specific enough in his plan, as to provide a general goal that he will set, determinant on, of course safety.  He plans to remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.  Thus, from what Obama has presented as far as a plan for addressing the current war in Iraq, I feel his approach is very well thought out, addressing the key issues that i see within the current status in the war, and especially addressing them in a way that protects as many people as he can when leaving such a delicate situation as war.  It is most deffinately the most beneficial to our nation as a whole.

Insanity. . .

      

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”

—-John Lennon

Clinton, Obama Debate: Jan. 21, 2008

“Are there three people in this debate, not two?”

This quote coming from John Edwards, a trailing democratic presidential candidate, basically summarizes the heated debate that took place at last night’s debate.  In fact, this debate even went as far as trailing from important issues such as addressing the war in Iraq to discussing Bill Clinton’s role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.  The two candidates had an all out stare down, flinging accusation after accusation at each-other, hoping to paint for the voters a clear image of why they should be the next president. 

In my opinion this debate clearly showed the American people who stands in the race, as far as the democratic candidates.  It is obvious too that these two candidates are so confident in their strategies on the issues, that they feel the need to instead of strengthen their stands on those issues, bash other candidates, and even get personal.  But from what I saw, throughout this debate, the personal bashes and accusations are taking things way too far, because to me as just an every-day citizen, looking for a candidate that best represents me, the debates aren’t in place for the American people to see the candidates argue their personal issues.  They are especially ineffective when you consider that the personal issues addressed in this debate in no way would effect their potential presidency.  Thus, instead, I believe that all of the candidates are there for the people to better understand the direction each candidate sees the country taking if they were to be the future president of our nation.

However, looking past the personal attacks within the debate, there were several other key issues addressed, one of those of course being the United States’ presence in Iraq, and specifically, whether the candidates were looking to end the war or win it. Hillary Clinton’s response was this:

“I’m looking to bring our troops home, starting within 60 days of my becoming president,” she said. “There is no military solution, and our young men and women should not remain as the referees of their conflict.”

Edwards responded that within his first year as president he would have all combat troops out of Iraq and there would be no permanent military bases in Iraq.

Obama responded by saying, “I want to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in, but I want to make sure that we get all of our combat troops out as quickly as we can safely.”

It is easily seen that all three of these candidates have the same broad outlook for the solution in the Iraq war, and that is, obviously, troop withdrawal.  However, by listening to each of the candidates, I personally felt the manner in which Sen. Obama presented his views and plans for the future of our nation was much more reassuring to me than what the other candidates had to offer.  Each of the other two candidates talked about how quickly we needed to address the situation, and seemed very adamant about the time frame.  Although they might have provided that clearer time frame, unlike Sen. Obama, Obama gave the people something that the other candidates could not.  Sen. Obama presented a plan which created a solution on how to address the war in Iraq, as well as the safety of our men and women in the armed forces, and the safety of the American people.  That, to me, proves that Sen. Obama was not simply trying to gain the support of the non-supporters of the war, but he had truly thought through the pros and cons of withdrawal from Iraq, and determined a goal with which he could work with in time if he were to become president. Thus, on this particular issue, and other issues brought forward throughout the night, I observed Sen. Obama’s manner of addressing those issues, and came to the conclusion that he was most reassuring and persuasive, enough so, to gain my support throughout the debate.

Hello world!

YAY!!

This is Rachel. . .doy. . .aaaaand I’m basically psyched to see what everyone has to say about the politics we are going to be discussing on here. . .and especially to see where everyone stands on certain issues and their opinions of political figures…and i suppose whatever else we’re going to talk about haha…Umm, sooo I guess feel free to pick everything I say apart, because I’ll just prove you wrong . . .