Ben’s Blog

Several days ago I mentioned that McCain’s campaign was trying to arrange an endorsement from Ron Paul, the candidate I really wanted to vote for. It’s fair to say those efforts failed, as last week Dr. Paul endorsed Cynthia McKinney (Green) (really???), Bob Barr (Libertarian), Ralph Nader (Independent), and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution). Apparently all four agreed to a policy statement “balancing budgets, bring troops home, personal liberties and investigating the Federal Reserve” (full statement). He also expressed his frustration with the current two-party system.

For the record, I agree with Dr. Paul completely on three of the four issues in the statement. We differ somewhat on the war in Iraq. I agree the we shouldn’t have gone there in the first place, but now that we’ve messed things up, I think we have an obligation to fix them the best we can.

I also completely agree with Dr. Paul that our current two-party system is broken beyond repair. We need a better system. The current system doesn’t give “third-party candidates” a fair shot. As the election gets closer, I’ll have to decide whether to vote for McCain, the better of the two choices we’ve been given, or one of the third-party candidates as a “protest vote.” Mississippi will almost certainly go Republican without my vote, so I better start investigating Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

I watched Palin’s and McCain’s speeches last week, just as I watched Biden’s and Obama’s the week before. I thought they did a good job. Yes, she might have been a little too sarcastic in places, but that’s how political races go these days, and the public doesn’t seem to mind. McCain has never been accused of being eloquent, but I was impressed with his speech.

This week several polls show McCain either tied with or ahead of Obama. However, this is likely a post-convention bump and will level out in the next couple of weeks. However, it’s likely once they do, McCain will still be ahead of where he was pre-convention.

The public seems to like Palin. I was beginning to question the pick after a few days of bad news on the Palin front, but she seems to have been the right pick, at least for now.

If you look at state-by-state polls and consider electoral votes (that is how we elect presidents) Obama still has a lead. CNN shows the count at 243-189 in Obama’s favor. You need 270 to win. They show Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire still up in the air. McCain would need most of those to win.

So, it’s not looking great for McCain, but a lot can happen in two months.

I’m voting for John McCain in November, but I wish I could vote for Ron Paul. He’s the first presidential candidate that’s ever really gotten me excited. I don’t agree with him on every issue, but I agree with his overall theme of limited government. He seems to be in public office for the good of the people, not for himself. He’s an interesting guy. If you don’t know much about him, check out his Wikipedia article (link above).

Obviously he didn’t win the Republican primary, but this week he has been hosting the “Rally for the Republic” in Minneapolis at the same time the Republicans are having their convention across the river in St. Paul. Some of the media are calling it a “counter convention.” CNN has a good article about what’s been going on.

Apparently McCain’s people are talking to Dr. Paul about backing him. So far it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. I can’t blame Dr. Paul for not wanting to endorse McCain. There are definitely some wide gaps in where they stand on the issues.

However, in my mind there is no doubt which candidate is closer to Ron Paul on the issues, and it’s John McCain. I don’t see how a Ron Paul supporter could even consider voting for Obama.