Aanloop naar presidentsverkiezingen VS 2008 [Deel 3]

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While Clinton still leads on more personal attributes than any of her competitors, just half of Iowa Democrats in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll believe she's willing to say what she really thinks -- far fewer than say so of either Obama or John Edwards. Obama beats her by 2-1 as the most honest and trustworthy candidate. Her advantage on experience, while substantial, has softened since summer. She has notably less support in Iowa than nationally in trust to handle a variety of specific issues -- on Iraq, for example, Obama now runs evenly with her. And she's third in Iowa among men.

Overall, in current preferences, 30 percent in Iowa support Obama, 26 percent Clinton and 22 percent Edwards, with 11 percent for Bill Richardson. That's little changed since July (Edwards -4, Obama +3, both within sampling tolerances, and Clinton unchanged).

Among those who say they're "absolutely certain" to attend a caucus, Obama has 28 percent support, Clinton 26 percent -- again very close, and a contrast to Clinton's nearly 2-1 lead over

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Op maandag 26 november 2007 21:27 schreef maartena het volgende:
Maar ik heb liever Hillary dan iemand die de Bush-doctrine gewoon doorzet.

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 17:49 schreef Evil_Jur het volgende:
Paul is trouwens weer de geschiedenisboeken ingedoken, 16 december houdt hij zijn eigen Tea Party.

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 18:00 schreef HenriOsewoudt het volgende:

[..]

Niet Paul zelf. Het is weer de grassroots support die dit verzonnen heeft. He's catchin' on, I'm tellin' ya.

www.teaparty07.com

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 18:39 schreef Evil_Jur het volgende:
Waarom doet Romney het zo goed in Iowa?

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Op maandag 26 november 2007 21:27 schreef maartena het volgende:
Er is werkelijk geen enkele kandidaat waar ik me echt in kan vinden deze keer. Ik weet wel wie er afvallen voor me, maar de alternatieven blijven magertjes.....

Ik kijk de kat even uit de boom. Maar ik heb liever Hillary dan iemand die de Bush-doctrine gewoon doorzet.

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Why Clinton III wouldn't offer much change from Bush II

Then there is Hillary Clinton on the issues. Cato Institute President Ed Crane recently wrote a piece for the Financial Times pointing out that when you strip away the partisan coating, Mrs. Clinton's grandiose, big-government vision is really no different than that envisioned by the neoconservatives so loathed by the left. Clinton, remember, not only voted for the Iraq war, she still hasn't conceded she was wrong to do so, and has made no promise to end it any time soon.

In fact, the L.A. Times reported last week that Clinton has refused to commit even to pulling U.S. troops from Iraq by 2013, which, if elected, would be the end of her first term. TV journalist Ted Koppel recently told NPR that Clinton has admitted the U.S. would still have troops in Iraq at the end of her second term.

The 1990s, remember, weren't exactly a decade of peace. Bill Clinton ordered more U.S. military interventions than any other post-WWII administration, and there's no reason to think any of them were over Hillary's protestations. She supported the U.S. military campaigns in Haiti, Kosovo, and Bosnia. She once boasted that as the tension in Kosovo mounted, she called her husband from her trip to Africa and, "I urged him to bomb."

Hillary Clinton voted for both the Patriot Act and its reauthorization. She voted for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. She voted to loosen restrictions limiting the federal government's ability to wiretap cell phones. In the past, she has supported a robust role for the federal government in enforcing "decency" standards in television and music. She teamed up with former Sen. Rick Santorum on a bill calling for the federal government to restrict the sale of violent video games.

Leftists concerned about the entertainment industry's increasingly imperial stand on copyright might take a cue from copyright guru Lawrence Lessig, who wrote on his blog for Wired magazine: "Of all the Dems, I would have bet she was closest to the copyright extremists. So far, she's done nothing to suggest to the contrary."

What about secrecy and executive power? It's difficult to see Hillary Clinton voluntarily handing back all of those extra-constitutional executive powers claimed by President Bush. Her husband's administration, for example, copiously invoked dubious "executive privilege" claims to keep from complying with congressional subpoenas and open records requests—claims the left now (correctly, in my view) regularly criticizes the Bush administration for invoking.

Hillary Clinton herself went to court to keep meetings of her Health Care Task Force secret from the public, something conservatives were quick to point out when leftists criticize Vice President Cheney's similar efforts to keep meetings of his Energy Task Force secret.

"I'm a strong believer in executive authority," Clinton said in a 2003 speech, recently quoted in The New Republic. "I wish that, when my husband was president, people in Congress had been more willing to recognize presidential authority."

That jibes with a February 2007 New York Times article on Clinton explaining her refusal to back down from her vote for the Iraq war: "Mrs. Clinton's belief in executive power and authority is another factor weighing against an apology, advisers said... she believes that a president usually deserves the benefit of the doubt from Congress on matters of executive authority."

Such is why President Bush has recently had some nice things to say about Hillary Clinton, leading some to speculate that Bush sees her as the Eisenhower to his Truman—a candidate from the opposing party who criticizes his foreign policy during the campaign, but will likely pursue a very similar policy should she be elected.

As a libertarian, it will at least be entertaining to watch the left squirm while defending Hillary Clinton's "right" to employ the same executive powers and engage in the same foreign policy blunders they now argue that President Bush has superceded his authority in claiming. And it'll be equally fun to watch the right cry foul when President Hillary claims the same powers they have so vigorously fought to claim for President Bush. The problem, of course, is that entertaining as all that might be, an increasingly imperial presidency isn't good for our republic.

Neither is our overly interventionist foreign policy, or the continuing erosion of our civil liberties, be it in the name of "family values," government paternalism, the war on drugs, or the war on terror.

Activists on the left need to recognize that Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic primary is the GOP's last best hope to elect a Republican to continue pursuing President Bush's pursuit of these unfortunate policies. And judging by her political career and recent voting record, they should also realize that even if they succeed in electing Hillary Clinton to the White House, it's likely that the only real resulting change in Washington will be that come 2009, we'll merely have a Democrat pursuing the same misguided policies.

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 19:01 schreef Evil_Jur het volgende:
Maar Romney is toch minstens net zo liberaal als Giuliani? En nog Mormoon ook, ik had nooit gedacht dat hij meer kans zou gaan maken dan McCain of Giuliani...

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 12:22 schreef HenriOsewoudt het volgende:
En wat wijst erop dat Hillary dat niet zal doen?

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 18:51 schreef Monidique het volgende:
En in andere staten. Omdat, denk ik, McCains race al gelopen is, Guiliani niet geschikt is voor die hard-Republikeinen en Romney, een alternatief voor Giuiliani, veel geld heeft.

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Op dinsdag 27 november 2007 22:44 schreef Zwaardvisch het volgende:
Die Thompson vind ik ook vreselijk. Hij acht zich een soort tweede Reagan ofzo, maar ik vind hem er vooral eng uitzien.

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Op donderdag 29 november 2007 02:52 schreef popolon het volgende:

Ron Paul is leuk om te horen maar goed, 't is allemaal wat herkauwen. Ik kijk over een half jaar nog wel eens.

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Op donderdag 29 november 2007 13:30 schreef pberends het volgende:
Wat een doorgedraaide kleuter is die McCain zeg.

Gaat ie het buitenlandse beleid van Ron Paul, om niet Amerikaanse troepen overal ter wereld te legeren, vergeleken met WO2 en de opkomst van Hitler. Welke natie had Saddam ook alweer aangesteld .

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Op vrijdag 30 november 2007 11:37 schreef Terecht het volgende:
Ik word helemaal niet goed van die Ron Paul adoratie.

Eerste presidentiële zeppelin een feit

Wat een non-nieuws toch weer, gaan we in het vervolg nu ook melden wanneer het schoothondje van Hillary zijn eerste plasje heeft gedaan? De moeder van Obama lijdt aan hondsdolheid? Guiliani niet met mes en vork eet? (bij wijze van spreken dan he)

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Op donderdag 29 november 2007 21:59 schreef Parabol het volgende:
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Op vrijdag 30 november 2007 11:37 schreef Terecht het volgende:
Ik word helemaal niet goed van die Ron Paul adoratie.

Eerste presidentiële zeppelin een feit

Wat een non-nieuws toch weer, gaan we in het vervolg nu ook melden wanneer het schoothondje van Hillary zijn eerste plasje heeft gedaan? De moeder van Obama lijdt aan hondsdolheid? Guiliani niet met mes en vork eet? (bij wijze van spreken dan he)

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-- During the third quarter, Fred Thompson raised $9,750,821 to be used during the primary election cycle.

-- Not counting money that he loaned to his own campaign, Mitt Romney raised $9,896,719.

-- Rudy Giuliani finished with $10,258,019.

Ron Paul is currently at $9,708,791 for the fourth quarter.

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Op woensdag 28 november 2007 18:35 schreef Zwaardvisch het volgende:
Hij ligt dus voor in staten die traditioneel naar de Democraten gaan, zie ik het zo goed?

Zwakke basis.