Iowa Caucuses Today!

[A Black Falcon]

Alright, but why should a scientist decide what's best for me? Why can't all the scientists and experts come to me and compete for my hard-earned money? Why should the government just take my money and give it out to people to do research on things that I don't want?

Someone has to. The only real alternative is direct democracy, and that doesn't work anywhere larger than a small town... ballot initiatives are all well and good (and I think they're great), but you couldn't run a government with just them. You vote for people to do exactly that, and that's the only way things could possibly work in a country as big as ours and you know it... your real point here is "we shouldn't be spending money on these things", it seems clear to me, and I obviously couldn't disagree more. Nobody likes EVERYTHING the government is doing, but that's why we have things like primaries and elections -- so people can choose the candidates who best line up with their views.

To get back at the original topic, John McCain is doing well, and I like him quite a bit as well - he was actually my favorite at the start, but totally lost me when he started going on about religion some six months back, and then he just seemed to disappear over the summer... fingers crossed, he'll get the nomination. If it turns out to be Romney or Huckabee against Obama, then I'll go for Obama - on the other hand, if it comes down to either of those two against Hilary, I might as well just shut down the TV.

Views-wise, I'd vote for Kucinich first. I don't totally agree with him (I think his idea that if we get back in the UN's favor we can pretty much totally leave Iraq right now with no problem is a bit unrealistic, but it's a start anyway), but I agree with him more overall than anyone else, for sure. Of the major candidates, though, I guess issues-wise Edwards is best... he wasn't great on Iraq back in its first year (he wasn't opposed then), but none of the top three candidates really were, and on domestic policy he is clearly the most progressive. Between Hillary and Obama, though, I definitely prefer Hillary, though I'm sure Obama would be just as good. The Republicans... well, let's just say that I'm happy that the Democrats have clear leads in almost all of the polls. McCain does best, for some reason... in 2000 he could pretend to be a "maverick", but now, after he has spent seven years trying to be the best standard Bush-supporting Republican he possibly could? Ridiculous. He's also a warmonger (like Giuliani and Bush) and, like both of those others, runs his campaign based on fear -- "Vote for me because if you vote for anyone else horrible things will happen!" (I know, this is not totally absent on the Democratic side either, but it's nowhere NEAR as bad.) Okay, I can understand criticizing others for lack of experience in foreign policy (Obama, Huckabee, Romney...). But they could learn... Clinton came into office knowing very little about foreign policy, but turned out to be quite good at it. It all depends on the circumstances, the person, and the quality of their advisers... just because Bush turned out so horribly badly after coming in knowing little about foreign policy doesn't mean that the same thing would happen next time. Still... the Bush example should be a cautionary tale... so I'm not sure on the issue.

(Oh yeah, and that Romney victory in Nevada? Over 90% of the Mormons in Nevada who voted in the Republican primary voted for Romney. 25% of the Republicans there were Mormons, so they gave him almost half of his votes...)

Anyway, the one good thing I can say about McCain is that he's the only Republican saying anything at all about global warming, which is the greatest challenge of our time. Other than that, though, he's as bad as the others.

Oh yes, and how about this post of mine? http://www.tcforums.com/forums/showpost....stcount=74