Ben’s Blog

Back during the campaign, I said I couldn’t support Obama because of his stance on gun control and his general economic philosophy, which extends into a wide range of issues. That hasn’t changed. However, since he was elected, Obama has gone to a lot of trouble, to the point of angering some of his supporters, to present himself as a centrist. Therefore, I don’t see him acting on his anti-gun views anytime real soon. That’s not to say he won’t eventually.

I’m not at all a fan of the bailouts. Obama’s latest plan calls for around one trillion dollars. Of course, I can’t complain too much, because I don’t believe McCain’s plan would look that different from Obama’s.

While I would rather be inaugurating someone other than Obama in two days, the beginning of his presidency will be interesting to watch. What executive orders will he sign in the first week? How will he handle the Israeli/Palestinian issue?

Also, it’ll be interesting to see how some of his less realistic supporters deal with the reality that he isn’t going to be able to fix everything in a short period of time.

As I mentioned a while back, I’m not a big fan of the two-party system we have in place in this country. I think we deserve better choices than we get year in and year out. As you know, I also have pretty severe libertarian tendencies. I think the government should get out of the way and let us run our own lives. Finally, Mississippi will almost certainly go Republican in the presidential election, and if we don’t, it means Obama has won in a landslide. Therefore, I have decided to vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for President.

For the record, I’m not a member of the Libertarian party. I’m just a generic libertarian. The Libertarians tend to be extreme on some issues, which is one reason they never get anyone elected. Looking at Barr’s web site, he’s managed to stay away from some of those extreme areas.

Barr himself is a flawed man, not unlike Obama and McCain. Also, until around 2004 he was the antithesis of a libertarian. You can read about all that on his Wikipedia article.

Here are a few of Barr’s stances I agree with:

• Drastically reduce government spending
• Quit trying to manage the free market
• Eliminate ethanol subsidies
• Reduce America’s foreign military presence
• Reduce foreign aid
• Reform the tax system
• Respect the Fourth Amendment
• Better schools through competition
• Respect the Second Amendment
• Immigration reform

If any of those things sound good to you, head over to Barr’s web site and consider voting for him.

I believe McCain is going to lose tomorrow. Polls are imperfect, but things are looking pretty bleek for McCain right now. Even if he had a chance to win, the media has convinced most people (including me) that the election is already over. That will probably suppress the McCain vote to some degree.

McCain was dealt a bad hand from the very beginning. Bush is one of the most hated presidents in a long time. The economy decided to take a dive around the time the election was really getting in gear. The Republicans are getting a lot of the blame for that, rightfully or not.

Even with all that though, I think McCain could have won. The old McCain (from the 2000 election) could have honestly said he disagreed with the mainstream Republicans on lots of issues. Instead, this time, McCain decided to pander to the right and made himself look more like a Bush Republican than he really is. Also, he ran a very negative campaign and harped on issues that most Americans didn’t seem to care about.

Yes, even with all that, I agree with him on far more issues than I agree with Obama.