Categories
politics

Caught Up

The 9th snuck up on me this month, but I consider myself to be caught up on candidate endorsements. Admittedly I did not do an endorsement for Fred Thompson, although I had him on my list. I consider myself caught up because Fred has not formally announced his candidacy and there’s an outside chance that he will not choose to run. I have been watching closely and he is very interested in running, but unless he is holding several aces up his sleeve he is not ready to run a presidential campaign yet.

As I indicated last month, I will be writing a post to clarify all the endorsements I have made. I will list who I think are the best candidates and why. I will discuss my perspective on what our nation needs in 2008 and how that differs from the current political rhetoric. I will also be seeking feedback on that post from any of my readers so that I can refine my thinking.

As we draw closer to the election season (primaries included) one of the things we most need is informed discussion from mainstream Americans which can hopefully influence parties and override the extreme viewpoints that often dominate party primaries. This informed discussion might also have the power to generate more participation from the electorate as people choose to vote who otherwise might feel unprepared to make an informed decision at the ballot.

Categories
politics

June Candidate List

It’s that time again when I review my current status on candidate endorsements. In the last month I manage to finish the whole list of candidates plus one who was not on the list a month ago. Despite all my work, the list this month is as long as the list last month:

  • Mike Huckabee
  • Alan Augustson
  • Wayne Root
  • Joe Schriner
  • Jon Greenspon
  • Charles Maxham
  • Bob Hargis
  • Fred Thompson
  • Daniel Imperato

The sad thing is that once you consider that two of the candidates on the list last month should not have been on the list (one was not running for president and I forgot that I had already covered the other one) you find that the list is actually longer at the end of the month than it was at the beginning. I have quickly glanced at all the candidates on the current list to make sure that they are all supposed to be on the list. Based on that quick review I am hoping that I can cover a large number of these candidates in a short period of time.

I’d like to get done with this soon so that I can review the endorsements and give some clarification on my positions with regard to the candidates. Not all my endorsements are equal and I want to get through all the candidates before I try to explain who I think are the best candidates and not just who is qualified enough to deserve votes.

Categories
politics

Candidate Catch-Up

For my latest installment of falling behind I will simply report that I have James McCall, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, and Tommy Thompson left from last month. In addition we have Steve Adams, John Bowles, Jim Gilmore, David Koch, Raymond McKinney, and Donald Allen to consider.

I swear this thing gets longer all the time. (Actually this is the same number I had a month ago – I’m just 6 people farther down the growing list 😉 )

UPDATE 5/29/2007: I had not looked at Raymond McKinney before I listed him, it turns out he is running for VP so he should not have been on the list. Somehow I also managed to list Donald Allen as an addition although I had already posted on his candidacy.

Categories
politics

Endorsement Update

It’s time for my monthly update on candidate endorsements. From my last list I still have Barak Obama and Mitt Romney to cover. I said that I thought that most of the candidates were in at that point – I was surprised to find that there are 8 more candidates to add to the list now. Being that far behind I give up on getting them in the right order. I’ll cover them alphabetically (when I get to this list):

  • Donald Allen
  • Bob Jackson
  • Mike Jingozian
  • John McCain
  • James Mccall
  • Ron Paul
  • Tom Tancredo
  • Tommy Thompson

In addition to the endorsements (if they ever end) I will be giving an update on the candidates I have endorsed and my take on the overall landscape of this election.

Categories
politics

Still Behind

It’s been a month since I noted how far I was from keeping up with the presidential candidates. In that time I have investigated four of the six that were then in my queue. I still have Joe Biden and Duncan Hunter from that list and since then I have to add four more. Virtually all the major candidates are officially in now so I should be able to catch up. I am not sure of the order of those four, but my best guess is Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barak Obama, and Mitt Romney – right or wrong that is the order I will cover them.