Some Political Food for Thought

Warning, this post ended up a bit longer than initially intended and might take some time to get through. Please take a moment to watch the clips! It might bring forth a new point of view, or at the very least, hopefully it will prompt those who read this to start examining the 2008 election for themselves...

I'm a little behind on my candidate research for the upcoming election year. It would just be too easy to choose a Democratic crowd favorite like Hillary or Obama. Unfortunately, regardless of how much I would love to see anyone other than another old, upper class white male take office, simply being a minority doesn't exactly qualify them to be president.

I caught Meet the Press with Tim Russert on Sunday. He interviewed Republican Ron Paul as part of a special series in which he meets with all presidential candidates. This interview was my first exposure to Ron Paul. He is a Representative from Texas... (and we ALL know how I feel about politicians who reign from that neck of the woods) I was almost yelling at the tv with comebacks on how unqualified and nonsensical this man was. Below is the excerpt which founded my first impression:





Needless to say, I had just about written this guy off as another crazy politician. Then, I happen to catch a couple blog posts from a good friend of mine who agreed with the platforms Rep. Paul is supporting. Because I completely respect this friend's judgement and am certain that he probably does more political research than anyone else I know, I was motivated to further my Ron Paul research.

Here is what I found with a little digging of my own:



My point here is not to start campaigning for Mr. Paul (although I do agree that there is really no reason for the U.S. the be the World Police or the #1 country in the World ...is no one aware that we don't actually get a gold medal for that?...) What I'd really like to focus on is there are candidates out there who may not be in "our" own party, but are very worthwhile candidates who deserve our attention. AND with all politics and political races, there are two ways to spin every quote and story.

It's so important for normal citizens to get involved. Each election outcome forecasts the years to come. Yet, the majority of Americans still don't vote. To those who are in the 18-35 demographic, this is OUR future! It's an opportunity to make the change we find so easy to talk about. Personally, I believe this is much more important than catching up on LOST season 3 or reading the latest on TMZ.

Finally, it's nice to find a candidate out there who is willing to stir the pot and be a bit controversial because of his ideas, not because of his race or sex.
(stepping off my soap box now ;)