Noonan Sizes Up The Campaign

Peggy Noonan has written an excellent column this week sizing up the presidential primary this far, and offering some great insight into each candidate.  Noonan's slogan should ring true for each and every American who believes in their nation: Reasonable Person for President.

According to Noonan, the candidates who are both reasonable and experienced are: Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and Bill Richardson.  Noonan classifies Barack Obama as a reasonable candidate, but lacking in the experience needed to be a good president - too much potential for the young politician to treat the presidency as a stage for political theater.

Hillary Clinton won the distinction of being classified as unreasonable, and personally, I agree with her assessment.  During his presidency, Bill Clinton showed himself to be a political opportunist, triangulating on issues, playing on opinion polls to do whatever would make him most popular at time.  Hillary, during her time as First Lady, Senator from New York, and her current presidential campaign, has shown quite clearly that she is willing to do the same, playing both sides against whatever will be most advantageous for her quest for political power.  

The positive side to this is that as the campaign drags on, more and more Americans can see her opportunism for what it is.  

The drawback is that this seems to draw Democrats to Obama, whose youthful charisma makes him look like a very good choice.

As I see it, the problem with this campaign is twofold: it has drawn on way too long, to the point that many people are just sick and tired of it, and the campaign has largely become media-driven, with the news media choosing who will be the frontrunners and who will remain obsolete.  This still does not prevent any given candidate from surging in the polls or from shoving a foot down their throat, but giving the media this kind of power in a presidential campaign is inherently dangerous, especially considering how polarized the media is - even the supposedly conservative Fox News Channel has been found to be left-of-center, and the media's leftist bias definitely effects which candidates get reported on more often.

Of all of the candidates that are out there, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson still look like the best choices to me...and while conservative candidates don't seem to do very well in the polls, I'm still holding out hope that the voters will know better than to continue America's march to the left.  Many Republicans have grown tired of seeing their party become more and more liberal - the problem is that a conservative party has not yet risen far enough to effectively oppose the Democrats.  All is not lost, though: I have faith that the American people will not give in to the appeal of leftist bribery politics that feed the power-hungry but do little to advance our nation.