As I’ve previously mentioned, the GraniteGrok bunker is located at a secret location deep in the mountains of Central New Hampshire. Given that our fine state is the home of the "almost first in the nation" presidential nominating vote, residents get a front row seat to the machinations of the various presidential campaigns as they gear up for the run. While other states are just shaking off the last vestiges of the just passed campaign, NH is already warming up for the next.
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Up until this week, most of the action has been on the Republican side. While we have heard much here in NH about McCain, Giuliani, Romney, and Newt, there hasn’t a whole lot of noise coming from the Democrat side til now- other than the antics of Sen. "Loathesome" Kerry (full disclosure: Kerry’s my pick for the Dem nominee), the ongoing Edwards/WalMart spat, and, of course, Hillary.
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Now we find several Democrat wannabees either starting to test the waters right here in NH or in the news nationally : Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, and Senator Joe Biden. Let’s review…
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Vilsack- This past Thursday, he became the first Democrat to officially announce his presidential ambitions. He followed his announcement with an almost immediate trip here to New Hampshire. While he’s not very well known outside of Iowa, he believes his midwestern "heartland" roots will give him a leg up as being a Washington outsider. His key issue is energy independence, upon which he has a good track record. Iowa has a good amount of ethanol, biodiesel, and windfarm projects throughout the state. This issue will undoubtably find wide appeal.
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Following his announcement, the NH Union Leader’s Senior Political Reporter John DiStaso reported in Saturday’s paper that Vilsack wasted no time attacking the perceived Republican frontrunner, John McCain:
Concord – In his second day as an official 2008 presidential candidate, self-described longshot Democrat Tom Vilsack yesterday bore down on well-known likely Republican contender John McCain over the Iraq war..In an apparent effort to get noticed quickly in the first-primary state and to attract the attention of independent voters who strongly backed McCain’s 2000 presidential run, Vilsack said the Arizona senator’s call for increasing troop levels in Iraq would "make a big mistake bigger."
So, what is Vilsack’s plan for the war, to many, the most important issue we face? Again, DiStaso reports:
Vilsack would withdraw an unspecified number of troops from Iraq and redeploy others from the southern and central regions to the north. He said such a move would be a hedge against region-wide instability, ensure that Turkey will not meddle in the area and would back up diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Or what? Will we really show them and "redeploy" again?
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I watched part of Gov. Vilsack’s announcement speach on C-Span. He looks and sounds like a serious candidate. He has a plan for Iraq. While I disagree with it, I give credit to him for having one and revealing it. Commander-In-Chief? I don’t really see it. Still, he is a governor, not a long-time Senator- and he’s from the heartland. He might attract a fair amount of "independent" voters. I place him in the "longshot" category.
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Barack Obama– (rhymes with "Osama") The first thing that comes to mind is, "WHY?" I really don’t get it. While I’m sure he’s a great guy with a compelling story to tell, I see very little to qualify him a president. He was a STATE senator in Illinois just two years ago. And, as I reported in this post, he joined Jonathan Edwards in his assault on one of the greatest American success stories oof all time: WalMart.
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Commander-in-Chief? Please. No, I think Barack Obama is just a fad at the moment- like a teen pop-star. While he’s seemingly making a play for the religious voter, at the end of the day his views on abortion (pro-choice 100%) will turn them away.
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Obama is an absolute media creation- like some modern-day one-man "Monkees" or "Partridge Family." Made for TV. Packaged and presented for enjoyment at the moment. Why, if you’re not planning to see Obama here in NH on the 10th, you’re just not with it… No thanks. I’ll pass.
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Evan Bayh- Indiana senator who looks good on TV and is often described as a centrist. His most important reason for running, he told George Stephanopolis on ABC’s This Week:
"I have a deep appreciation for how broken this city is, how desperately we need someone who will unite the American people for the common purpose of building this country."
About a year or so ago, I was watching Evan Bayh on some talking-head show and thought that perhaps, if I had to swallow a Democratic president, this guy would pass the test. If he keeps issuing meaningless platitudes like that above, he will rapidly decline in my order of preference. Next thing he’ll join the other anti-freemarketeers and attack WalMart. It remains to be seen if the Indiana senator is ready for prime time or not. He’ll be here in NH next weekend. We’ll be watching…
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Joe Biden– This long-time senator brings a long and credible foreign-policy resume to the table. I can believe that he would adequately prosecute the ongoing war in a manner at least minimally acceptable to a conservative like me. Additionally, he favors fence construction along the Mexican border and openly fingers a large part of the contributing causes of illegal immigration from that country in this WMUR Newsnine report:
Joe Biden– This long-time senator brings a long and credible foreign-policy resume to the table. I can believe that he would adequately prosecute the ongoing war in a manner at least minimally acceptable to a conservative like me. Additionally, he favors fence construction along the Mexican border and openly fingers a large part of the contributing causes of illegal immigration from that country in this WMUR Newsnine report:
"Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the greatest disparity of wealth," Biden said. "It is one of the wealthiest countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in Mexico, there is the 1 percent of the population at the top, a very small middle class and the rest is abject poverty.".Unless the political dynamics change in Mexico and U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants are punished, illegal immigration won’t stop. "All the rest is window dressing," he said.
Hear! Hear! He’s singin’ my song with that one. His plan for Iraq is certainly an option if we get to the point of failure:
"The best way to get a sustainable political settlement is through federalism: maintaining a unified Iraq, but decentralizing the country and giving its groups breathing room in their own regions. A central government would still be responsible for the distribution of oil and border security. We would get Sunni buy-in by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of the oil revenues and we’d bring the neighbors in to support the political settlement. If we do all these things, we can withdraw most of our troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, with a residual force to focus on counter-terrorism. And we can achieve the two objectives most Americans share: to leave Iraq without leaving chaos behind.”
This is where he loses me. Oh, say it ain’t so, Joe…
"I warn all of you, all of you making more than a million bucks — I hope you all are — I’m taking away your tax cut," Biden said. "I’m not joking."
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Hillary-She’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room. She could be the Democrat Party’s sainted saviour of ’08- or its greatest millstone. Anybody that is recognized across the country, and around the world for that matter, by their first name, must have an enormous amount of built-in appeal. And yet, she might not even win the nomination. Her comrades on the left haven’t been overjoyed with Hillary’s recent triangulations. What worked for hubby Bill might turn out to be her bane. Winning the Democratic nomination is not a given. Consider this statement from the king of all the lefties, Michael Moore:
The responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats. Congress controls the purse strings and the Constitution says only Congress can declare war. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi now hold the power to put an end to this madness. Failure to do so will bring the wrath of the voters. We aren’t kidding around, Democrats, and if you don’t believe us, just go ahead and continue this war another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans.
A Hillary candidacy will be as complicated as any campaign has ever been. Political junkies are already salivating…
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Of course there are other oft-mentioned Democrat candidates that are always in the news. John Edwards gets extensively covered here at GraniteGrok, as he is a three-time winner of our prestigious "Dope of the Week" award. Dittoes for John "Loathesome" Kerry, who I hope never goes away from the public arena because he gives us so much material to blog about. And then there’s Al Gore– could he be the real wildcard entrant in ’08? Stay tuned…