Thursday, March 8, 2012

Who I Want to Win the Republican Primary

Full disclosure, I plan to vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential race. My interest in the Republicans is mostly one of a rubbernecking gawker. Never before have so many people gotten onto a stage, intended to be serious, and ended up making me laugh.

That said, I see some outcomes that would be better than others in the Republican Primary.


Ron Paul wins: 
-it would prove the power of young voters and organizers
-it would shake things up
-the presidential debate would be about fact and evidence, not faith
-California's electoral college votes would actually be up for grabs making our state politically relevant

Newt Gingrich wins:
-we'd see the Portly Master Strategist and Wordsmith get the credit for his work (as opposed to having that role be behind the scenes a la Carl Rove)
-we could have an honest debate about how "faith based conservative concepts" like marriage fidelity are not actually important to a politician - just rational decision making
-the vocab and sentence structure of political discourse might be lifted about a 6th grade level. (Obama has worked hard to raise it from the 4th grade level it was at during the Bush term).

Santorum wins:
-we can see what REAL faith and its consequent political positions entail.
-we can see what its like for a scared, timid little boy grow into a confident speaker in the course of one election
-Dude is crazy enough that Obama can disagree with his faith views and still win. This will be a good time for the left to finally openly come out against religious craziness


But of course none of these will happen and Romney is bound to win the nomination. The debates will be about who smiles the biggest and recites the right soundbite at the right time. The only good I hope to come from this inevitable outcome is for him to fully come out of the closet and admit that he is filthy rich. Stop hiding it, America loves the quirky Jack Donaghy. 

At least Jack Donaghy is entertaining and to be honest, living in a state that has no political say at all, that's all I want of my trained monkeys - I mean politicians. 
  

Classy/Snobby

There is a very thin line between classy and snobby. One of the biggest problems with connoisseuris that they are quick to give the wine or the scotch or the sound system or car WAY to much credit for the enjoyment of the experience that have with it. It’s not the scotch, it is the people you are sharing it with (or alternatively, the solitude you share it with). Much pleasure comes to these people from spending a lot of money on the thing, but they should not consider cost an essential character of a thing. See through the cost and then maybe so called connoisseur can judge an a thing's worth more objectively.