McCain, Romney
The Republican candidates that I think I could be more-or-less o.k. with as President if necessary.
Thomson doesn't seem all that bad, but it would just be too humiliating to have another actor as President. It was embarrassing enough the first time. Twice--and twice within 20 years--would be mortifying. The rest of the candidates look to be right out.
I'm not wild about either of these guys. I used to be pretty high on McCain...until he became Bush's lapdog--and did so even after the Bushies smeared him during the campaign! I mean, the business about his daughter...Christ! Before he rushed to lick the hand that shivved him, I liked him more than Gore, and might very well have voted for him had he gotten the Republican nomination in 2000. But not so much now.
Romney...meh. I'm hoping he turns out to be a fairly un-ideological technocrat like Gore or Clinton. Yeah, I know, his religion is even wackier than the standard-issue American religions...but it's a mere difference in degree and not in kind. No matter what, our president is going to accept a metaphysical view that is, so far as I can tell, way false. That's unavoidable. I'm at peace with that. So a it's not going to bother me that much if it's just slightly loopier than it has to be.
The Republican candidates that I think I could be more-or-less o.k. with as President if necessary.
Thomson doesn't seem all that bad, but it would just be too humiliating to have another actor as President. It was embarrassing enough the first time. Twice--and twice within 20 years--would be mortifying. The rest of the candidates look to be right out.
I'm not wild about either of these guys. I used to be pretty high on McCain...until he became Bush's lapdog--and did so even after the Bushies smeared him during the campaign! I mean, the business about his daughter...Christ! Before he rushed to lick the hand that shivved him, I liked him more than Gore, and might very well have voted for him had he gotten the Republican nomination in 2000. But not so much now.
Romney...meh. I'm hoping he turns out to be a fairly un-ideological technocrat like Gore or Clinton. Yeah, I know, his religion is even wackier than the standard-issue American religions...but it's a mere difference in degree and not in kind. No matter what, our president is going to accept a metaphysical view that is, so far as I can tell, way false. That's unavoidable. I'm at peace with that. So a it's not going to bother me that much if it's just slightly loopier than it has to be.
posted by Winston Smith at
10:19 PM
5 Comments:
Very interesting to me, and thank you for your analysis, WS. As you know, I hang around here for a glimpse of what the other side of the aisle is thinking.
Fred Thompson has stirred you neither one way or the other. Seems OK, not much more, and Republicans seem to feel the same way. Fred himself is probably OK with having got through the meatgrinder this far.
There remains the possibility that John McCain, after having supported the politically GOP-unpopular McCain-Feingold and Bush's illegal immigrant amnesty, that his support for the Iraq War, especially the "surge"--- which was an embrace of McCain's call all along for more troops on the ground---is a heartfelt support McCain's part, and not mere lapdogging.
Might be that, especially in this flip-flopping election, that John McCain is a solid guy.
Interesting that you might be OK with with Mitt Romney the Mormon---wait 'til they talk about his sacred Mormon underwear and that his God [and His wife] living on Planet Kolob.
Yeah, I know the Holy Eucharist might be equally wiggy in your mind. I'm impressed that your tolerance accommodates both.
Props, WS, and no sarcasm underlying. Such a view is downright goddam American, per Article VI, section 3 of our constitution.
Not sure I'm so understanding. I'm frankly uncomfortable with creationists, one of whom is also running.
As a biologist and general non-crazy person, I think creationism is stupid.
However, I wouldn't have a huge problem with a creationist president as long as 1) he didn't try to get that taught alongside evolution in high school Bio classes and 2) I guess I'd be a little wary of his all-around decision making skills if he believed in everything that kooky creationist museum endorsed.
I think most liberals don't really care what candidates' religious affiliations are as long as it doesn't affect their politics. I know I don't. But this is yet another reason I dislike George W. so much.
P.S. I sincerely hope that the term "flip-flopper" is not dragged out in this election.
Yeah, a good friend of mine in high school was a Mormon, so I know all about its intricate and outlandish wackiness--holy underwear, God on Kolob, Satan in the ocean...and my favorite, good Mormons becoming Gods and starting their own universes after death. Utterly mad. Also, it's about two scoops of kool-aid shy of a cult. So there's that...
I'm afraid creationism is a bridge too far for me, too, though.
I don't mind that McCain supported some of Bush's policies, and, of course, I was pro-surge. What dismayed me--and many others like me--was something else. As you know, I think the Bushies are very bad, very mean-spirited, very vicious, very dishonest folk. They gave McCain both barrels , and he seemed to come bounding back to Bush's side with unseemly enthusiasm. It seemed to indicate insufficient self-respect on McCain's part...but I was more concerned with the country. We very much needed him to stand up and say "these people are bad news." And he failed us. Perhaps out of political ambition or out of partisan commitment, or some kind of genuine conviction, I don't know. But he failed us.
If I remember correctly (do I?), seven of the then ten Republican candidates disclaimed belief in evolution. Did any of them distinguish between young earth creationism, older earth creationism, and ID?
By the way, Romney is not a man with no core convictions. You just won't be able to judge easily what those are, since he'll say anything he needs to say to get elected. Exhibit A is his utterly convenient conversion on abortion and even on stem cells. My guess: He planned it that way from the very beginning. But that's just a guess.
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