POTUS roll call

Paul in Cannon Beach

Time for the roll call. If the election was held today, who would you dimple your chad for?

In case you aren't paying attention, the viable candidates include:

Dems - Hillary, Obama, Edwards

Repubs - Guiliani, Romney, Huckabee, McCain, Ron Paul

allsteaks

How about "None of the above" as an option??

hrdilemma

What no write in candidates allowed?

ray a

Pat Paulson

The national mood seems to be none of the above. I suspect many will be voting against a candidate, not for a candidate.

Paul in Cannon Beach

You can write in a candidate or vote against the candidates or do whatever you want I suppose.

Put a gun to my head today and tell me to vote and I roll Romney.

allsteaks

Put a beer in my hand today (since I'm not working) and I'd likely go with Romney also. Not into the gun to the head thing. No, that is not a statement on "Right to bear arms", although I've seen a lot of people who shouldn't bear their arms!!

NaeNae55

You know what I would really love to see? An election just once where I can vote for someone I think will do a good job instead of voting to prevent a different candidate from getting elected.

Just once. Is that too much to ask?

ACU Frank

Any Dem is fine with me, or Ron Paul.

ray a

Frank, you're the third liberal I've heard say they could support Ron Paul. Yes, he has been opposed to the war, but he also opposes abortion and is in favor of overturning Roe/Wade, and favors eliminating federal income tax and reducing govt spending. He has been dubbed, Dr No for his strong opposition to increased govt spending and waste. I'm not sure why he would appeal to dems.

I think the most important skill the next prez will need is international diplomacy. In some ways I like Huck, but I think he'd be perceived another Bush on the world stage and therefore would not be effective.

ACU Frank

The "tax-and-spend" mantle placed on Democratic presidents has become a meaningless relic. Bill Clinton proved that a Democrat in the White House can be more fiscally conservative than his GOP brethren. As far as the current Dems or Ron Paul go, ending the war would be the most fiscally-prudent move a president could make.

ray a

You're right about the tax and spend mantle. In many ways Clinton was very much a centrist further to the right actually than some liberal repubs.

Dems are especially fond of earmarks attached to bills and Paul has been a bulldog opposing them.

I agree that ending the war could do the most for our economy.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I am with Ray in that I think whoever is President needs to have a measure of global appeal and diplomatic skill. We can't pretend we live in a vacuum and we also can't pretend the US can do no wrong and every other country ought to fall at our feet. Ignorance and hubris is generally the undoing of any empire.

I have to rule out Huckabee for the same reason Ray listed. Hillary is too divisive. Guliani sometimes comes off as a strong man (not in the good sense of the word). He may have cleaned up New York but leading the a superpower nation in a global world is different. Obama has impressed me but he is very inexperienced. Edwards is a weasel.

That leaves me with Mccain and Romney. Mccain is too much of a hawk.

Thus, Romney.

ACU Frank

After hearing Romney's call for a return to Reaganism last night, I shudder at the thought of him.

cnghr

I haven't been following all the election stuff very closely lately so I didn't know about what Romney said last night but I watched him on the Today show this morning when they asked him about Pakistan in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's murder and the way he kind of blithered and dithered and brought up Ronald Reagan really put me off. It seemed as if he was using Reagan to cover up the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about.

NaeNae55

My hubby (a republican) caught the Today Show interview and came downstairs declaring he didn't care who was running; he would never vote for Romney. Hubby said Romney did everything but answer the questions. Hmmm. That sounds just like a politician to me. x:D

ray a

Never fear, Al Gore will come to the rescue at the last minute.