I'm voting for Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary. I made that decision long ago, although I appreciate the vision presented by Barack Obama, the courage of John Edwards, the diverse experience of Bill Richardson, and the inventiveness of Dennis Kucinich. How's that for covering all the bases?
Actually, I believe it -- and I think those of us who are Democrats should be mighty happy with this year's crop of candidates. We all have to keep in mind that whichever of "our" candidates wins the New Hampshire Primary, there may well be more than half of us who voted for someone else so we should be humble in our victory, and find ways to unify behind our eventual nominee.
If I was a Republican, I'd have a tough choice. I like John McCain, but despise his endorsement of the Iraq War. It's scary. Ron Paul makes some sense, but the guy is off-base in so many important ways. The rest of them, well -- I'm glad I'm a Democrat
But with John McCain's recent surge (not as in Iraq), I thought it might be worth repeating parts of my Blog post of this past April, with my observations of his announcement speech. I've expressed my concerns about Hillary Clinton's campaign these past couple of months, and taken a few hits for that although it bears out that something was wrong, but I'm hoping she has recovered enough to win.
But at least it seems clear John McCain did "reinvent" his campaign as he campaigned here, and may well be on track for a victory. On the campaign trail he has re-established his "straight-talk," and really hung in there and had REAL interactive "town hall" meetings. There's something to be said for that. It shows intelligence, character, and guts.
By the way -- those of us who are Democrats should look carefully at this guy. He may well be the candidate we'll be running against in November.
Blog Post From Wednesday, April 25, 2007:
"There are many types of heroes, and Senator John McCain is one. He was a prisoner during the Vietnam War, and has done some great things in the United States Senate. On the campaign trail when he ran for President in 2000, he offered the Republican Party a leader who I my judgment obviously would have been far more intelligent and visionary than the one eventually nominated."
"Come to think of it, I've got to write a 'What If...' commentary sometime about what if Al Gore had won in 2000."
"Anyway, John McCain 2008 seems off-message and off-key, and seems to be an inferior clone to his 2000 self. His campaign seems badly-exhausted rather than well-tested. He sounds like he's reaching for a message rather than on message."
"I watched his announcement speech in Portsmouth on Wednesday, April 25th. I was expecting the straight talk and clear idealism of McCain 2000 which motivated thousands and thousands in New Hampshire and elsewhere to get excited about this man."
"Instead, I saw someone stumbling over his words. Worse, he couldn't seem to go through a sentence without reading it almost word by word. One would expect if you're giving about the most important speech of your campaign -- an announcement speech -- you'd know it fairly well before walking up to the podium. But he didn't."
"Whether he was prepared by his campaign consultants or not isn't the point, although it tells us something about the state of his campaign if he wasn't."
"His apparent thematic approach, if he had one, was something like "...that's not good enough for America and when I'm President it won't be good enough for me." Those words followed a few statements of things that aren't going well."
"I also found that he raced through much of his speech, not waiting for expected applause at appropriate places. Yes, it was overcast but rain was a long time off, so I don't know why he suddenly became the Hurried-Up Express."
"And I didn't hear 'the vision thing.' Maybe he's been talking too much with his friend George W. Bush?"
"But, this man is an American hero. A genuine one. He fought for us. He defended us. I wasn't a fan of the Vietnam War no more than I am of the Iraq War, but when a man or woman goes to war in answer to a decision of our government -- right or wrong -- he or she deserves respect and appreciation. He went. He fought. He suffered. Many other heroes went, and didn't come back. Fortunately, John McCain did."
"One speech does not make a candidate or a campaign -- although one given by Barack Obama in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention certainly got some attention. So, here's hoping we'll see John McCain catch his breath and become a star again in the Republican Party."
"Let's hope his campaign reinvigorates and reinvents itself. His party needs him in the debate. And the Democratic candidates need to be challenged by quality opposition as well. The election season of 2007-2008 will be all the better with John McCain as an important player, whether or not he goes all the way."
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