The Woman Versus The Black...And The Evangelical Red Herring

The Democrat primary has heated up. With the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries now done & over with, the candidates have moved on to South Carolina, and the race between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama is becoming quite entertaining as both candidates fall back on their same-old liberal playbooks.

With Martin Luther King Day just a week away and the first southern primary coming up, Clinton and Obama have both attempted to inject race into the debate. When it comes to playing the race card, though, Hilary has one big factor going against her: the vast majority of South Carolinians can see. Let's face it: it doesn't matter that Hilary is married to "America's first Black president." No matter how much Hilary plays the race card, she's still white...and her commentary thus far hasn't helped her campaign any among black voters, especially since she has been crediting Lyndon B. Johnson with fulfilling Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream by signing the Civil Rights Act into law. Meanwhile, her husband has been touring black radio stations trying to do some damage control.

Personally, I couldn't care less about which candidate on the left is more racially sensitive - political correctness rarely (if ever) impresses me. It is fun, though, to watch the white woman try to out-PC the black man on racial issues.

What really bothers me about the Democrat campaign is that Obama has been doing quite well...and frankly, I believe that if Obama gets the nomination, our next president will definitely be a leftist wacko. Obama is young, charismatic, and presents a fresh, new face...everything Hilary is not. Put Hilary up against any of the Republican candidates, and the Republicans may actually have a fighting chance. Put Obama up as the candidate, and it's four years of excruciatingly PC news reports about America's first black president.



Meanwhile, the Republican side is turning into a two-man race...and unfortunately it's between the wrong two men. Huckabee has continued to be strong in the polls, with McCain close behind him. Personally, I wouldn't vote for either of them - I'd much rather have a conservative in office. However, if I had to choose, I think I'd rather have the war hero than someone as willing to use religion to get votes as Huckabee has shown himself to be.

Frankly, Huckabee's transparent use of his religious views to get votes is a bunch of bunk: Huckabee's record shows that he is not a part of the so-called "Religious Right," but is in fact a leftist in "Religious Right" clothing. The problem for Republican conservatives is that McCain isn't much better, what with McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, the so-called "gang of fourteen," and the recently defeated amnesty bill. McCain has shown himself to be on both sides of the aisle...about the only thing he has going for him is his stance on the war.

My candidate of choice is still Duncan Hunter...but unfortunately he doesn't have a prayer of winning the nomination. My second choice is Fred Thompson, and thankfully Thompson has been showing some passion (FINALLY). Thompson came out strong against Huckabee in the last Republican debate, and now his supporters are urging him to stay strong throughout the rest of the campaign.

Thompson has had a couple of things going against him from the beginning: first, he came into the campaign on time...about when presidential campaigns normally start. Everyone else started early and already had some momentum going. Second, Thompson has tried to run a rather laid-back campaign, which the media has taken the opportunity to either ignore or translate into a lack of passion. In times as partisanly-charged as these, candidates need to be recognized, and no one wants a dispassionate candidate, so these have been major stumbling blocks for Thompson's campaign.

I believe Fred Thompson could really make a comeback if he continues to address the issues strongly and call Huckabee out for what he is: a Republican liberal using religion to woo voters. So many on the right are looking for another "Reagan Revolution" - an injection of true conservatism into the debate, and Thompson is the candidate who could bring conservatism to the forefront...he just needs to get his face and his name out there as strongly as possible so that the true conservatives can know that he's serious, he's for-real, and he's the best candidate on the Republican ticket this primary season.

Leno Breaks The Strike...But Why Does Anyone Care?

Jay Leno has been a supporter of the Hollywood writers' strike since the beginning, and now he has won the distinction of being one of the first of the Hollywood elite to break the strike.  

I don't watch late night TV...I don't watch much of any TV for that matter, but apparently Leno had the audacity to write his own jokes for The Tonight Show.  Imagine, a comedian who actually writes his own jokes!

Personally, if I were Jay Leno, I would be ashamed that a writers' strike shut my show down - Leno is supposed to be an ace comedian, a really funny guy, but he has to have someone else write his jokes?  

I've never really cared much about the writers' strike from the beginning - these people aren't exactly hurting to begin with, and they haven't exactly been turning out quality products over the past few years - television these days is rarely much more than smut, filth, gore, and stupid PC messages (just like the movies).  I don't really see what all the stink is about - the only reason Leno can't write his own jokes is because the union keeps him from doing what should be his job in the first place.

Huckabee: Liberals' Dream, Conservatives' Worst Nightmare

Ann Coulter has written yet another fabulous column, this one about the dilemma presented to conservatives by the seeming popularity of Mike Huckabee. Personally, I've never been a fan of Huckabee - it's been quite obvious to me that there are other candidates on the Republican side who are both more qualified and more conservative. As Huckabee continues to stick his foot in his mouth, however, it amazes me that his popularity has yet to wane.

Huckabee has run largely on his image as a Christian conservative...but that's all it is: image. He may be a Christian; I'm not going to judge his religion (though it is worth pointing out that seemingly every time Huckabee opens his mouth on religious issues he promptly sticks his foot in it). However, conservative he definitely is not. Huckabee has come down on the side of liberalism on everything from taxes to big government to the Supreme Court's decision that sodomy is a Constitutionally protected right...and when it comes to illegal immigration, Huckabee is every Democrat's dream.

Personally, I'd rather vote for Hillary than Huckabee - at least Hillary is open and transparent about her desire to turn the US into a socialist state, and her feeble attempts at religiosity on the campaign trail fall flat enough to merit a chuckle or two...but if the election comes down to Hillary vs. Huckabee, I'm definitely going third-party.

Huckabee is not what the Republican party needs, and he definitely is not a conservative candidate. The Republicans need to get a clue: Giuliani is failing in Iowa for a reason: he isn't conservative enough. Huckabee has remained strong in the polls for a reason: the media is his friend (go figure: the lib media will befriend a lib Republican).

As the primary season edges ever closer, it is important for voters to stop listening to what the media is feeding them and start looking into what the candidates actually stand for. Huckabee is a liberal who is trying to use his religious views to mask himself as a conservative. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear should be able to see through Huckabee quite easily: he's the wrong choice for conservatives, the wrong choice for Republicans, and the wrong choice for America.

RIAA: Recording Industry Taking It Too Far

The RIAA has been aggressively trying to curtail the illegal downloading of music for some time now, and with the success of paid-download services such as iTunes, it seems that they have at least met with some measure of success in their pursuit. Personally, I see nothing wrong with that: there is such a thing as intellectual property, and recording artists should be paid for their work (even though the vast majority of today's music is produced by talentless "musicians" and isn't really worth all that much).

Now, however, the RIAA has taken it too far. The industry has filed suit against a Scotsdale, AZ man for transferring music from his CDs onto his computer. Personally, I think this is hogwash: the industry won their suits against people downloading music illegally, and now they're trying to double their money: get people to buy their CDs, and then force people to pay to download mp3s to use on their iPods or mp3 players.

Once I've paid for a CD, it is my property. I should be able to transfer it however I wish, be it to computer, tape, or even vinyl if I so desire. By taking this step, the RIAA has lost any modicum of support I may have given them in their pursuit to curtail illegal downloading, because now their true purpose has come through: it's all about greed.

I'm not all that familiar with copyright laws, but personally, I don't think the RIAA has a legal leg to stand on in this case...and if, by some bizarre chance of luck the RIAA wins its suit, I think a little civil disobedience is in order, and we should bring back the days of illegal file-sharing networks.

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.