a literary president

"When I was watching Obama's acceptance speech (Tuesday night), I was convinced that he had written it himself, and therefore that he was saying things that he actually believed and had considered," says Jane Smiley, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Thousand Acres" and other fiction. "I find that more convincing in a politician than the usual thing of speaking the words of a raft of hack speechwriters. If he were to lie to us, he would really be betraying his deepest self."

Read the full article of writers on Barack Obama:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081106/ap_en_ot/writers_and_obama

hmm

Now... I'm all about women in positions of high power, and to have a woman in the white house would be outstanding. But did John McCain choose a woman for his VP candidate because she's the best woman for the job? Or because it's a political move to pull Hillary Clinton supporters to his side. Are we really seeing women, men, black men, etc as equals if we're voting based on the candidate who is most like ourselves? (ie. women voting for women not because of their stance but their gender, etc.)

Anyway... I was reading news articles online and found this which made me pause and go hmm.

"Elected in 2006 as the youngest and first female governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin has cleaned house in her own state by ridding it of corrupt politicians and taking on big oil interests. She is known to oppose same-sex marriage and abortion and to favour capital punishment." (CTV.ca)

What I want to know is - how can someone oppose abortion but support capital punishment? I get the obvious argument, unborn babies haven't done anything wrong and can't choose for themselves while criminals on death row have committed a crime, like killing another human being, which means they "deserve" to be there. I have a serious problem with that. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. No one deserves that kind of treatment. No one.

"There were 36 homicides last night. 480 sexual assaults. 3411 robberies. 3685 aggravated assaults, all at gun point. And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I only remind you that the President of the United States was shot last night while surrounded by the best-trained armed guards in the history of the world." -C.J. Cregg, The West Wing

with the approach of super tuesday, i pulled up an online sample of my ballots to see who the candidates are for my state and local categories. man there are alot of names on that thing! this is why i hate voting... i may be well informed on some people, but not others. and i don't want to arbitrarily select a name because i don't know one from the other. and i don't like the idea of voting all for one party. crazy election mess of a process.

anyway, i like taking these online political quizzes. so here's the latest. each category is out of 12.

Conservative vs. Progressive: 6 If you had a score from 4 to 8, you're a social moderate. You think the progressive movement is usually well intentioned, but is sometimes too extreme in its ways. You want to help minorities get ahead in life, but you also don't think its fair to give minorities an unfair advantage in life either.

Capitalist Purist vs. Social Capitalist: 9 If your score was from 9 to 12, you're a Social Capitalist, you think that, left to its own, Capitalism leaves a lot of people behind. You think that Health Care should be free to all, that the minimum wage should be raised, and that the government should provide jobs to all that are capable of having them. You likely hated the Bush tax cuts, and believe that the middle class has gotten poorer, and the rich have gotten richer over the past several years. The far extreme of social capitalism is socialism.

Libertarian vs. Authoritarian: 3 If your score was from 0 to 3, you're libertarian (socially). You think that the government is making way too many unnecessary laws that are taking away our innate rights. You believe that the government's job is primarily to protect people from harming other people, but after that they should mind their own business, and if we give the government too much power in controlling our lives, it can lead to fascism.

Pacifist vs. Militarist: 1 If your score was from 0 to 3, you're a Pacifist. You are angered that the United States thinks it should dominate the world through its military force. You think that the only time war is necessary is when we are in direct danger of being attacked. You also believe the US spends way too much of its money on defense, as we can practically cut it in half and still easily defend ourselves, and use that money to fix all our economic problems.


the combination of all these things apparently makes me a democrat. but oddly enough, unlike the last candidate quiz i took, this tells me i agree most with Edwards. the only difference between him and Obama is the first category. Edwards and i are in the middle, while Obama leans progressive. hm.

http://politicalquiz.net/

well what'd ya know...

80% Barack Obama
79% John Edwards
77% Hillary Clinton
77% Bill Richardson
73% Chris Dodd
68% Joe Biden
65% Dennis Kucinich
64% Mike Gravel
55% Rudy Giuliani
48% John McCain
43% Mitt Romney
41% Mike Huckabee
37% Tom Tancredo
30% Fred Thompson
28% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz