About this Blog

I don’t have a candidate, I’m not going to lie. I will make excuses, however.

Our assignment is to write a blog about a candidate or issue that we are passionate about. I can’t do that. I am not passionate about a candidate, and I have the mindset kind of like that of our former President, Bill Clinton; I don’t really hae any “key” issue that is going to sway my opinion one way or the other. Clinton’s presidency succeeded because he was not personally biased about issues. He was a man of the majority, and led according to what the majority wanted, just as the president is supposed to do. He did not have any hidden agendas (cough, cough, GWB, cough), or at least he hid them really well.

Since I don’t have any particular issue that is going to steal my vote, I either need to pick a candidate based on the candidate themselves, or based on the combination of all of their issues, not just one issue, as many people do. Here is where the excuses start to come into play…

I was in Europe for the last six months. I missed candidacy announcements, I missed press conferences and YouTube debates. I missed what issues have been hot topics. What issues have been set on the back burner. The only American politics that I truly came across abroad was the occasional foreigner (I guess technically, I was the foreigner) berating me, telling me how bad of a president George W. Bush is, and how the world is ruined because of him. There was no American politics on television, and when I was paying £2 (that’s over $4) per half hour for internet access, my first stop when I logged on was not the political page of CNN.com. I came back to the States (January 2nd), and was thrown into the middle of Caucasus and primaries without having any real knowledge of anything that’s going on.

I’ve taken a few of the online “tests” hosted by CNN, MSNBC, and various other sites, where you tell them your opinion on certain debatable topics, and they tell you which candidate best fits your opinions. Unfortunately, the results told me that I should support someone I have never heard of, and then four other candidates which even being abroad for six months, I know have a 0% chance of actually winning their parties bid. Finally, coming in at number six on my list was Barack Obama. According to these tests, the candidates who are likely going to win the nominations are at least sixth on my list, and at best, I agree with only 43% of their opinions. That doesn’t seem too promising.So according to these tests, I will disagree with at least 57% of the candidates actions as a president.

I’m a registered voter in Colorado, but live in Arizona, and while I was in Europe, applying for a mail-in ballot was not too high on my list of things to do, so I can’t vote in the primaries, which is probably a good thing since I don’t know very much about anyone anyway.

So, for the next four months or so, I will find out as much information I can about the four candidates who actually have a chance to win their parties nominations – Obama, Clinton, Romney, and McCain. By the time the elections roll around in November, I’ll be an expert on the subject of politics, and have my candidate chosen.