Audacity of Hope

"Dear Senator Obama:

As an immigrant from Kenya, your father found new hope in America’s noble principles and vast opportunities. The same promise brought my parents here from Egypt when I was still too young to thank them. Now you have inspired my generation with your vision of a country united around the same ideals of liberty and justice, “filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

But do you mean it?...

Can we provide every member of the human family equal protection under the law? Your record as a legislator gives a resounding answer: No, we can’t. That is the answer the Confederacy gave the Union, the answer segregationists gave young children, the answer a complacent bus driver once gave a defiant Rosa Parks. But a different answer brought your father from Kenya so many years ago; a different answer brought my family from Egypt some years later. Now is your chance, Senator Obama, to make good on the spontaneous slogan of your campaign, to adopt the more American and more humane answer to the question of whether we can secure liberty and justice for all: Yes, we can."

The above is written by a Princeton University student Sherif Girgis of Dover, Delware. You can read the short but powerful letter here.

Too Good to be True

Here is a story about my boy Mike Huckabee. Basically the gist of the story is Huck holds his hand out to Kenneth Copeland. There is probably, no there is definitely, more disgust in my heart towards him and his "ministry" than I have for diarrhea. There are more reasons than I have time to type or you have time to read about how he has lead untold numbers of followers down a path of destruction. And for Huck to hold his hand out to him makes me want to rage against his campaign. But I won't. Huck is not perfect. Nor is anyone else for that matter. Even if Huck does get a few dollars from Copeland and his minions I think he is still the best choice. But they way it is looking I wouldn't mind voting for a McCain/Huckabee combo.

"He raised taxes"

Here is a comment: Thats Joseph Smith, the great Mormon prophet whispering in is ear. Mitt is a moron and a Mormon, and he will never be president. Looney as Tom Cruise.
I had to share that comment since I almost laughed out loud when I read it. The more I watched this though the angrier I became. Yeah there are several people saying that it was Brian Williams whispering to Russert to basically explain what "The Reagan" did about Social Security. Then I have also read where it was an audio "flub." There was also a comment that perhaps it was McCain helping Mitt out. Give me a freaking break. It is more likely that Mitt has the ability to think out loud than any of these other explanations. I want to rage against the powers that be who think all Americans are lemmings who will follow the piper to the cliff and be happy to jump off. There is no mention of this on MSNBC about this. Oh wait... there was a mention of it but evidently it was removed from their site. Why? If it was really a glitch or a "flub" why not address it and put to death any confusion? I just hate to be jerked around like nothing happened. Though I guess with Romney's lead in Florida there may be more lemmings than I thought. Or maybe I am just paranoid and I feel the need to express my anti-Romney bias.

Vote for Satan

I came across this a few minutes ago and thought it was appropriate for the topic below.

Enjoy

Here is another. I love this guy. If you don't want to click the link and read the whole thing here is a snippet:

"Okay, what about the candidates?!

Clinton? She reminds me of a third grade teacher I didn’t like.
Edwards? Rich malpractice lawyers scare me when they want to help.
Giuliani? His next wife (before he marries her) may live in the White House.
Huckabee? I remember Jimmy Carter…he was born again and a Baptist too.
Kucinich? You’ve got to be kidding. Only his mother likes him and she’s not sure.
McCain? Good heavens! He’s older than I am and I’m older than dirt.
Obama? Kind of like “Time Magazine”…I wish they would get some adults.
Paul? He says what he means…but, then, so did Hitler.
Romney? I wish he would get drunk and drop some food on his tie.
Thompson? Someone should wake him up because he really doesn’t care.

Man! It’s a hard decision. They’re all flawed!

Um…me too!

You too!"

Politics

I have wanted to write on this subject for a few weeks now. I'm sure we have all at least seen a clip of recent debates. Whether you vote Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Indy, or not at all, (and no I'm not going to take the time to scold the non-voters) have you ever listened to some of the other candidates occasionally make a good point and thought to yourself "hmm...He's got a good point"? Well I did the other night while watching the Fox News South Carolina debate. Thompson went after Huckabee on several issues. I thought that if this happened all night Huck would need to call in Chuck Norris to drop kick someone. Then Huckabee responded as well as he could I guess.
It seems like in their best moments all the candidates have at least one point or one issue or one policy stance or one personality trait that would be in line with what I would want in a president. Then after the debate was over Hannity and Colmes had each nominee hopeful except Ron Paul sit down for about a 7 minute interview. So during the debate we see people attacking policies, votes, ideas with little time for rebuttal. Then during the interview with a little more time we see a response to those attacks in more details. So we get both sides to the story albeit an abbreviated one.

So basically I typed all that to get to this:
1. How do we pick a candidate because if we were really honest there is probably not a candidate that we will agree with about everything?

2. Which issues are more important? Why?

3. Is the religious faith of a candidate important in our decision? Why?

I know the audience of this blog is quite small so I don't expect a boat load of answers to these questions. And even if you decide not to answer them at least you will have thought about them for a brief moment.