Polling Everyone Out There...

Where stand thou on the issues this election? I’ve put some of the candidates’ self-professed stances below, though please look up more details if you'd like additional info. In the end, the candidates quite willingly admit they have different philosophies about what will be the best for our country and our people. So...

Where do you fall on some of the most important issues this election?

• 
  HEALTH CARE: Provide $2500 tax credit to individuals & $5000 to families to purchase private insurance; & develop federally-supported “Guaranteed Access Plan” for those who can’t get coverage (McCain)


• 
  HEALTH CARE: Subsidies for those who can’t afford coverage; require insurance companies to charge the same for those w/pre-existing conditions; & offer govt health plan for those who want it (Obama)


• 
  TAXES: Continue large Bush tax cuts for wealthiest & offer tax cuts for middle class (significantly lower than Obama’s) (McCain)


• 
  TAXES: End Bush tax cuts for wealthiest; increase taxes for $250,000 plus wage-earners; & offer tax cuts for middle class (significantly higher than McCain’s) (Obama)


• 
  IRAQ: Continue the war & treat Iraq as central front for terrorism (McCain)


• 
  IRAQ: End the war & treat Afghanistan as central front for terrorism (Obama)


• 
  ECONOMY & JOBS: Less regulation of economy in general; across-the-board spending cuts; & create new jobs (green & otherwise) (McCain)


• 
  ECONOMY & JOBS: More regulation of economy in general; targeted spending cuts; & create new jobs (green & otherwise) (Obama)


• 
  ENVIRONMENT: Work to break our dependence on foreign oil, with most emphasis on drilling offshore, though he does discuss alternatives as well (McCain)


• 
  ENVIRONMENT: Work to break our dependence on foreign oil, with more focus on a mix of solutions than on drilling (Obama)

VIEW RESULTS

Past Candidate Posts

Click on any of the links below to see my past posts on these candidates who have now dropped out of the runnings:

• Clinton
  
• Biden
• Dodd
• Edwards
• Gravel
• Kucinich
• Paul

Other Past Topics

Click on any of the links below to see other topics I've written on or included in posts over the last year. Each link has the number of posts that include that topic in parentheses:

• Bill Clinton (3)
• Campaign finance (1)
  
• Debate exclusions (3)
• Delegate-dance (1)
  
• "Dream team" (1)
• Electability (5)
  
• Election results (3)
• Health Insurance Mandates (2)
• Hillary's Earned Opposition (2)
• Humility (1)
• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (2)

Do Obama and Clinton's Calls to "Include ALL in Debate" Ring Hollow?

If Obama and Clinton truly felt that Kucinich's exclusion from tonight's debate was an encroachment on the people's ability to choose, as they stated here, then it seems to me they could have refused to participate in tonight's debate (nevermind that Edwards did not call for this at all).

As a larger point, however, the basis for the ABC-WMUR exclusion of Kucinich, and any other candidate for that matter, is baseless. I say this because in a WMUR/CNN poll, conducted four days ago on Jan. 2nd, it stated:

"However, only 42% of likely Democratic primary voters say they have definitely decided who they will vote for, 27% say they are leaning toward a candidate and 32% said they are still trying to decide."

That statement, from one of WMUR's OWN polls, discredits their basis for excluding any candidate. I readily admit that ABC's reasoning is understandable: they want to, ostensibly, include the candidates whom voters are, according to polling, most demonstrably interested in--yet therein lies the question, do the voters know who they are interested in yet? And that question exactly is what, four days ago, WMUR, together with CNN, answered:

"...only 42% of likely Democratic primary voters say they have definitely decided who they will vote for, 27% say they are leaning toward a candidate and 32% said they are still trying to decide." (emphasis added)

Therefore, the question becomes, if only 42% of these New Hampshire Democratic primary voters have "definitely decided," how will the other 58% make up their mind? Well, one might think it reasonable that they would watch the final Democratic debates, held a short three days before the New Hampshire primary. Not only is that reasonable, but is it not likely that many were waiting for this final debate to make up their mind? And what conclusion might they draw after tuning into this highly publicized media frenzy? Might it slightly (read: almost entirely) make them think that the only real options are the four candidates participating?

Yet the elephant in the room is the fact that the 58% of undecided Democratic New Hampshire voters could still choose Kucinich, or Mike Gravel, who was also excluded. Yes, they could also not choose them, but there's the rub: many will feel the all-knowing media has presented them with the only real choices. Yet, with 58% still not certain, are there not enough in New Hampshire, not even counting Independents, to give Kucinich a strong showing? I'll just end with part of a recent Kucinich endorsement by Sean Penn, in which he stated:

"I’ve been torn lately, I’ve been torn by the allure of electability…here’s how simple it is. If those of us who truly believe in the Constitution of the United States, all of us, vote for Dennis Kucinich, he’ll be elected. Could we call him electable then?"

Please consider going here and here to express your discontentment with ABC's decision (and vote in my poll below as well)--a protest in the streets would feel more refreshing, but a flood of their inbox may be a good option in the meantime. By the way, the numbers I quoted above from the WMUR/CNN poll are available at the bottom of page one in their survey, located here.

more at twiigs.com...

Update: Here's a few key links related to this, with a video of Kucinich's speech outside the ABC/WMUR debate below, a press release by the Kucinich campaign and a link to singer Melissa Etheridge speaking out to the New York Times about Kucinch's exclusion.

Update 2: Lots of comments on this issue here, on Bill Moyers' PBS blog.

Web stats thus far (continually updated)...

Thanks to Google Analytics--a great, free tool--here are some of the running stats for my site so far, dating back to the first visit on Dec. 3rd (thanks Christy!). I put them up here because I think readers like to know that they're not the only ones checking out a blog, and to know that others who are visiting are actually spending some time on the site. Every once in a while I'll throw some new stats up here.

From Dec. 3rd to Nov. 4th (election day!):

2.492 Visits
1,351 Absolute Unique Visitors
5,636 Pageviews
2.26 Average Pageviews
00:04:31 Average Time on Site
54.17% New Visits

Hola, and welcome.

Post numero uno. I've actually succumbed to the Facebook phenomenon and was placing a handful of comments/links there in hope that some of the research I had done might be of help to others who are trying to consider which candidate they may support; so, the first handful of posts here are the ones I already posted there (and I post-dated those so this intro comment would appear at the beginning). The posts will generally just be a short bit on my perspective with references out to useful articles/resources I’ve found. It may only last through the primaries, I'll see how it goes.

In terms of the overall scope of this blog though--at the risk of repeating a common idea--I would urge any out there to consider ways they might get involved in the primary season (and general election for that matter). I especially think this is incumbent upon us as citizens, period. Further though, it is the simple reality of life today that people are dying, whether one finds it justified or not, because of decisions the current President made (in conjunction with others); the Middle East in general is massively affected by various decisions related to the war and the Administration's approaches to diplomacy, etc. So it cannot be said that it does not matter who sits in the White House, because it does; again, regardless of one's view of the Administration and its approach to governance, I think we have an obligation to consider the full swath of candidates, else we undermine the characteristic that divides democratic nations such as us, from those where the people have zero to little say, such as North Korea or Saudia Arabia (for example, something like this from today's Washington Post is allowed to happen in Saudia Arabia, to reference one of the somewhat lesser, but no less disturbing qualities of life in non-democratic countries--although sadly, we have seen many signs that we are heading downhill as well, with allowances of torture, etc.).

This blog is part of my attempt to to consider ways I might get involved, so I am working through these considerations as I write. Here's a few ideas I'm looking at though, that I'd suggest that anyone considering some form of involvement might think about as well:

-doing research to come to some conclusion about one or two candidates you want to try to support;

-contributing financially (as unfortunate as the sway of money is in the current system, it has a direct effect on how many voters see and hear from a given candidate--e.g., ad money, travel money to various speaking events and debates, and so forth);

-finding an organizing group for that candidate in your state (most if not all candidates have a feature for this on their websites);

-contributing to candidate exposure (bumper stickers, signs, dialoguing with others, etc.).

Please feel free to add any comments and start a dialogue with any of my posts, if something comes to mind.

Update: Over the two months since I first wrote this introduction, I eventually decided to support Obama. This blog chronicles much of my thought process leading up to that decision, although I may keep it going up to the general election.

Update 2: Here's a great link I found with 12 suggested ways to get politically involved.

Update 3: As of November 11th when I wrote this, I probably won't go much beyond Obama's inauguration with these posts--just becomes too much to keep up; but man am I happy to be able to say that Obama's inauguration is coming, man do we need him in there!!