Substance Over Emotion

To those who know me, it's no secret that I love politics and I love to analyze government. Time and time again I've said that if it weren't for my religious convictions, I'd be an elected official. Sure, you might label it as just being talk, but trust me, I've thought it through. In fact, in my years of service in the Student Senate of George Mason University, and my years in the Student Bar Association at the American University Washington College of Law, I treated those positions as I would any elected position within a "real" government.


To me, true elected officials must see themselves as public servants. They must recognize that the job they were elected to requires them to put aside partisan games and their own future aspirations and to, rather, focus all of their efforts onto that which will serve those who gave them their jobs. Furthermore, when they seek those jobs, these public servants must be upfront with the voters about what they will bring to the table if hired/elected.

And that brings me to this current presidential election in the United States of America. Note that I didn't capitalize "presidential election." First and foremost, none of the candidates have done anything to merit capitalization. Secondly, the presidential election is just another job application process ... except this one has a few hundred million evaluators. So, until I start capitalizing "job application" I ain't gonna capitalize "presidential election." Just my 2 pennies.

Okay, back to topic. This is the first time in a long while that both parties have highly contested primaries, and it makes for great excitement. It's also very interesting for me to look at the battles between the top two candidates on each side. In the republican race, it's very much a war between issues. One candidate is banking on the economy while another is banking on national security. In the meanwhile, each is trying to establish himself as competent with regard to the other's top issue. When they stop the mudslinging, the elephant boys have a decent debate going on, and I'm very curious which "issue" will win out this year. Although, my personal opinion has the better candidate backing the secondary issue...we'll see how that works.

In the much-hyped democratic nominating process, the stage has shifted quite a bit over just a couple of months. But anyone that didn't see this coming also probably didn't expect the dot.com bubble to burst. On the democratic side, issues aren't garnering the spotlight, as the top two candidates seemingly have similar stances, though one has given more insight into policies and ideas than the other. Rather, the vote is coming down to substance versus emotion. One candidate has an amazing voice which is used to rally supporters and wanna-be believers. The other candidate has put forth comprehensive plans on what can and should be done. In my experience, emotion without substance is all hype and substance without emotion is boring but effective. Here's to hoping that Americans focus on the substance in order to obtain the hope they so desperately seek.

I love politics :-)

State of the Union

Yes, it's again been a while since I've posted. But now Blogger seems to be more agreeable to me...so we'll see how it goes. Personal update to come later on, but now I wanted to take a few moments to comment on last night's State of the Union Address given by President Dubya.

Now, I'm not one to give Dubya props on a regular basis...in fact, I've gone from being a semi-supporter to being the guy with his face buried deep into his hands anytime the Prez opens his mouth. However, mad props to his speech writers and to the man himself for doing/saying exactly what he needed to last night.

The Pros:

1. He KISS-ed It. That's right, he Kept it Simple, Stupid. For the vast majority of the speech, Dubya spoke in generalities and stayed away from hard specifics. For example, he mentioned the need to keep Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid strong, but did not offer a specific plan. He mentioned the need to reduce gasoline consumption by 20%, and did offer some general solutions (ethanol, further technology, etc.) but did not offer a hard plan. The simplistic approach allowed Dub to positively address issues that are important for the first time in his administration (c'mon...who the hell thought he'd ever say something pro-environment??) before delving in the the Iraq equation.
2. The Pelosi Factor. Some may say that the compliments and discussion at the top of the speech about Pelosi being the first female speaker was over the top. I'm going to respectfully disagree with that. It's no secret that Bush and Pelosi get along as well as baking soda and vinegar. However, Bush took the opportunity and said he had "the high privilege and distinct honor of" being the first President in history to utter the words "Madame Speaker" at the start of the State of the Union Address. And for being a horrible public speaker, Dubya did one hell of a job in making it seem sincere and heartfelt. That's the stuff of my boy Bill Clinton there...it only took Dub 6 years to get that whole talking thing right, if only for a moment.
3. Breaking Down the Chaos in Iraq. Frankly, I think he addressed this issue damn near perfectly. He made his case for staying in Iraq clearly. He pointed out what was the initial problem, that the Sunni extremists were wreaking havoc and trying to bait the Shi'ites into sectarian violence, and it worked. He broke down the chaos in Iraq clearly, and explained that it would hardly be appropriate for the U.S. to retreat now. Bush showed his vision of the U.S. as a responsible entity/power in today's world. The forces of chaos are sending that region spiraling into a web of destruction...how can the U.S. leave the region hanging? Dubya hit the nail on the head, and I was disappointed to see the once foreign policy-wise Democrats remain seated and silent at this point.
4. It's the Environment, Stupid. He finally got it. He finally freakin' got it! I wonder if he's been reading Thomas Friedman articles, hmmmm. The "green movement" isn't just for hippies and Al Gore, it is an essential part of Dubya's "War on Terrah." For months I've been suggesting a new slogan for the Dept. of Homeland Security, "Fight Terrorism, Drive a Hybrid." Dubya must have received my memo, because that is essentially what he said last night. Now, whether he was sincere or not on this topic is moot ... this is the first time that he has taken such a strong position on this topic, and that is great. Let's hope the rest of America follows.
5. Miscellaneous. The special guests were spot on ... especially Dikembe Mutombo and the Subway Hero dude (not Jared). Also, the mention of battling AIDS in Africa was a step forward for this administration.
   

The Cons:

1. It's not "Mootoombo." If you're gonna bring an NBA star to the State of the Union, at least say his name right. This nullified Dubya actually referring to Africa as a continent (and not a country as he has in the past).
2. What about New Orleans???? For some completely unknown reason, there was no mention of the hurricane ravaged region. I'm not saying that he should have spent extensive time on it, but he should have made mention of the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless from Hurricane Katrina. He should have mentioned what, if anything, the federal government is doing for them. Instead, he left himself wide open for the hard shot laid out by Sen. Jim Webb in the Democrats' Response. In my opinion, Katrina was the biggest blunder of this administration. Dubya's ignoring of the topic only serves to further Kanye West's allegation.
3. Satan in VP's Clothing. Unfortunately, Richard Cheney was still sitting behind the President at yet another State of the Union. That's always going to be a con.

Okay, I'm done. I'll be back a bit more regularly these days. I'm sure I left some things out of this post, but it's just a basic analysis ... I'm no Thomas Friedman, or even Stephen Colbert.