Wright and Wrong

The president that we are going to choose has to be a person of good judgment. We must pick the person who will protect our country and who will make the right decisions at the right time. All of the candidates have their good qualities, and also their bad ones. It's up to us to decide who is the right person for the job.

During the past couple of weeks, there has been one name that has monopolized air time on all of the major and minor news stations. That name? Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor and long time friend and mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama. Reverend Wright is the man who Obama said changed his life and introduced him to Christ. He has been his spiritual adviser, and until recently held a position in Obama's presidential campaign. Reverend Wright has been at the center of much controversy. In the past week videos of some of Reverend Wright's vitriolic sermons have been circulated and shown time after time on YouTube and other news stations. In many of these sermons, Wright made outrageous comments about America. He called the USA the US of KKK ... A . He also put a new twist on the common patriotic phrase of "God Bless America" when he said "... God bless America? no ... G** D*** America". He then went on in other sermons to blame the United States for the terrorist attacks of 911 saying that "the chickens have come home to roost" These comments are highly offensive and completely anti-American.

I understand completely that he is protected by the 1st amendment's freedom of speech, and he can say what he likes. He has a strong following in the black community and many people admire him. The person in question, though, is Senator Barack Obama. Obama has attended Wright's church for the past 20 years. He had his children baptized by him, and he was even married to his wife, Michelle, by Reverend Wright. Barack credits Wright as being the man who introduced him to Christ.

When Obama was questioned whether or not he had heard these comments in church, he responded that he had not. In a speech Obama gave last week he did admit that he had been in attendance when some comments that could have been considered controversial were said. Before that, he was asked if he would have stayed in the church if he had heard those comments, and he said that if he heard them repeated he would have left.

I want to continue by saying that I do not think that Senator Obama is un-American; nor will I say that I think that he is a dis-honest person. However, this story has caused me to doubt whether or not he has the correct judgment to be President of the United States. Many people ask what he can do in order to make up for this issue. Many people say that he just has to repudiate the comments that were made, and everything will be fine. In my opinion it will take more than that. He can not make up for 20 years of attending and receiving advice from someone like Reverend Wright, with a 30 minute speech. Whether or not Obama was in attendance when the worst of those comments were spoken is irrelevant. If he really is as close to the Reverend as he says he is, then he would be perfectly aware of the feelings that he held towards Americans, and in particular, white-Americans. It is understandable that Obama does not want to disassociate himself with Wright, because he truly has been an important figure in his life. However, a man running for president on the platform of Unity and Hope for a brighter future, should not have a man who pushes divisive policies and centuries old rhetoric as his spiritual adviser, nor should he play a part in his political campaigning.

I do not agree with Obama on many issues including Abortion, Health Care, Taxes, The War in Iraq, Immigration reform, and many others. Those are the main reasons why I can not vote for him. However, his apparent lack of judgment in this recent controversy has caused me to question even more his ability to lead and unite the country. Being President of the United States requires a keen sense of judgment and the ability to make correct decisions for the good of America. In my opinion, Obama's lack of good judgment should raise many red flags for anyone considering voting for him this election year.

Romney for VP?

Today Mitt Romney was interviewed for the first time since withdrawing from the race, and when he was asked whether he would take the VP spot if it was offered to him he said the following, "“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included, Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.” He also said that he thinks that it would be easier for McCain to beat Obama, because people are starting to recognize that he is inexperienced and McCain will look great in contrast with him.

One of Romney's best lines of the interviews was when he was talking about national security. He said that listening to Obama and Clinton discuss their national security credentials, Romney said, is akin to listening to two chihuahuas argue about which is the biggest dog.
He then said that when it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are the chihuahuas.

Romney said that there are no hard feelings between the campaigns, and some of Romney's top campaign officials have been in contact with McCain talking about fund raising. McCain will be in Boston tomorrow, but it is not known if Romney will be present at McCain's rally. We shall see.

Many people want Romney to be the VP, including many people within Bush's inner circle. I think Romney would be great and would help McCain to gain a lot more support. With Romney's grasp of the economy I think a lot of people will take another look, especially because of the current economic problems.

It is also interesting to note that after a few weeks of being down, Romney's website is back up and running. What that means we can only speculate, but if Romney is offered VP, we now know that he will accept it.

The Rise and Fall of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign

Well, there hasn't been much to write about lately, so I decided to make this random post. enjoy! Check out the link on the right of the page that says "My Helium Articles" It is a link to a website where I have written a few articles about other subjects as well as politics.

Every person who decides to run for President of the United States knows that there will be challenges along the way. That is part of the process. A great way to judge a candidate’s ability to be president is to observe how he or she reacts to opposition. Each candidate in this year’s presidential cycle faced unique challenges in their run. In the following paragraphs I will briefly describe and analyze the campaign of one of these candidates; his name is Mitt Romney.

Romney officially began his campaign for presidency February 13, 2007. At that point he was not very well known, and he had a long journey ahead. It was a journey that would require all of his time, and the help and support of his family and friends. Romney’s preliminary success was almost instant, as he won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, garnering 21% of the vote. Romney began holding fund-raisers and in the first quarter of his presidential run he raised over 23 million dollars in addition to just over 2 million dollars that he contributed from his own fortune. He began to spend this money on advertisements in two crucial states; Iowa and New Hampshire. These advertisements focused on his conservative credentials and he began to lead in the preliminary polls in those two states.

Things were looking good for Romney, and he began to receive better name recognition. However, along with his rise in the polls came an increase in the scrutiny that he received. This was the beginning of Mitt Romney’s downfall. One of the main issues that came up was Romney religion. Romney is an active and involved member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons). Many people were wary of his religion, because of his beliefs which differ in some parts from the “mainstream Christian” beliefs. From nearly the beginning of the campaign Romney had to try to prove to the voters that his religion would not affect his ability to lead the country. The religion issue came to a climax when Romney gave a speech entitled “Faith in America” in which he explained that authorities from his religion would not affect his presidential decisions. Although he was able to calm the fire slightly, it still burned brightly in the hearts of many people who didn’t feel comfortable supporting a “Mormon”.

Romney continued working hard and was poised to win the Iowa caucus. Those plans changed when another no-name candidate came into the spotlight. That candidate was named Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was a former Southern Baptist preacher, and was very popular among evangelicals in Iowa. His popularity soared through the roof in the weeks preceding the Iowa caucuses and that resulted in a victory in the first of many contests. This put a dent in Romney’s armor and forced him to change his strategy slightly.

At that point Romney began to run ads which some construed as negative, in which he compared his record with his opponents’. Romney’s competition took advantage of this to point the finger at him and labeling him as the first to go “negative”. His top two opponents took every chance that they could to point it out in their interviews, apparently not seeing the irony in what they were doing. Nevertheless, Romney made a comeback and won some key primary contests and caucuses, which put him in the delegate lead for the time being.

In the interim between the first rush of primaries, Romney’s opponents and the media threw everything that they had at him in debates and in other interviews. He was accused of “flip-flopping” on several key conservative issues. The major issue that he was questioned on was his switch from being pro-choice to being pro-life. He explained that he had been pro-choice in the first case because of a close family member who had died of an illegal abortion, and for that reason he thought that it abortions should be safe if they were going to be performed. Romney gave his reasoning for the change, explaining that he had learned more about the issue, and could not support the stem-cell research that was being performed as a result of abortions. Despite Romney’s explanation he had already been labeled a “flip-flopper”, and that is one of his main challenges in his presidential run.

Romney hung in there until Super Tuesday, hoping to come away with big wins which would keep him in the running. Unfortunately the states which he won did not give him the amount of delegates that he was hoping for. Within a week of realizing his chances of capturing the nomination were slim, Romney gracefully bowed out claiming that he didn’t want to deny the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, John McCain, the opportunity to begin his national campaign.

Romney’s run for president ended sooner than he, or many of his supporters, would have hoped, but it was far from a failure. Romney received the name recognition that he so desperately sought during his entire campaign, he engaged in many debates in which he looked very professional and presidential, and he set himself up for a potentially successful career in politics; which could possibly even include another presidential run in the years to come.