@ncscswitch:
There is a growing effort in the United States to have a viable 3rd party. The most likely party to take that mantle is the Libertarian Party (the only other party besides the Democrats and Republicans to have candidates on the ballot in all 50 states).
And there is a massive thought that Ron Paul, currently in 5th place among the Republican field, will be the Libertarian nominee for President.
And while I am personally a Libertarian, with an outlook of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism, I think that the REVERSE of my beliefs is in the majority in this nation (social conservative, fiscal liberal). To support that claim I simply have to point to the back to back elections of Bush 43 to support my claims (he has increased federal spending faster than any previous president including FDR and LBJ while also being a Fundamentalist Christian Conservative).
With that in mind, I see NO candidate in the current field with a chance of victory from the majority of American thought. Instead I see only the opportunity for a victory from the candidate closest to the current political ideology. And for that I declare Hillary Rhodam Clinton to be the closest to what America voted for in 2004, and thus the probable winner in 2008.
so only one party-besides Dem and Rep has candidates in all 50 states
the others are more less individuals who candidate in their home state?!
Well, the Kennedy clan just endorsed Obama. I hear it was a rough decision, Obama or McCain. :P
Seriously though, I was surprised, then I remembered, that the Kennedy’s and Clinton’s don’t exactly have a buddy/buddy relationship with each trying to be the identity of the Democrat Party.
Still, with the Kennedy’s out there campaigning, not just endorsing, Obama, and Hillary’s speeches being seen as racist (whether they were intended to be or not) I don’t think Hillary has much of a chance anymore.
And in Florida, Romney has 33%, McCain 27%. Looks like Romney will get another win today. Hopefully Thompson will either tell his followers to vote Paul or Romney and so will Guilliani. Though, I suspect Guilliani being a pocket Republican will endorse McCain.
i can’t direct people to the speach (i wish i could and i will when i find it on the net) where Bill said something along the lines of “if McCain and Mrs Clinton are the two nominations it will be the nicest presidental race in history as they both get a long so well.” that is not a direct quote as i can’t remember the exact words.
now with that said, i did not get it off line, i was listening to the radio this mornning on my way to work and it was a sound bite played.
now my take on it is that if the Clintions and McCain’s are such good friends, then we have a seriouse problem if we have McCain as the Republican nomination. although it might be funny (if not so sad) to watch the debates. heck we may even get them both running with no VP as they would come to an agreement that the winner take the other as the VP.
Of course they are. They were both staunch supporters of the war. They were both advocates of amnesty. They were both advocates of the Dream Act. They both supported Campaign Finance Reform (though, I think McCain should be forced to comply, no negative comments within 30 days of an election, Mr. Candidate! mwuhahahah!). They both opposed Republicans appointing Constitutionalist Judges to the bench in 2000-2004 when the Republicans had the mandate and the majority to do so. They both blame Bush for Katrina (even though it was Louisiana who dropped the ball, not the feds.)
Honestly, they are almost the same person, it’s just one has her reproductive organs on the inside and the other has his reproductive organs on the outside.
@Amon:
so only one party-besides Dem and Rep has candidates in all 50 states
the others are more less individuals who candidate in their home state?!
There are other parties in some states, but there is only one National “3rd Party” in the United States.
That is part of why US politics are so polarized, there are only 2 real options when you go vote, and no system in place for coalition governments that Parliamentary systems have that help keep other nations a bit closer to their political center and the “majority moderates”
On the plus side, two parties in the United States has never lead to a Hitler like the 48 million party system did in Germany in the 1930s.
No but it also has not led to the thousands of Unity governments that have existed in various Parliamentary systems where even minority opinion gets some voice and some action on their issues.
Had we not become so polarized in this nation, we probably would not have the bloated budget that we do, States Rights would exist in a form other than in a Civics text book, and perhaps just a bit of the acid would be removed from our politics, since in order to lead, you would have to have friends in other political parties.
Any move toward unity in this nation is seen as a death sentence (look at the Conservative opinion of McCain because he dared to team up with Ted Kennedy).
Democrats were in the minority from 2000-2006 and got everything they wanted passed. I don’t think the minority not getting a voice is the problem. I’m thinking it’s the majority (now the minority) that doesn’t get heard.
@Cmdr:
Democrats were in the minority from 2000-2006 and got everything they wanted passed.
:?
Like increasing the minimum wage? universal coverage? timestables on iraq? tax increases? dont kid yourself- they already passed one of those. if they get the presidency, the other three will follow. the only thing stopping the dem agenda is the 60 vote margin in senate and Bushs veto pen.
Campaign Finance Reform
No Child Left Behind
Minimum Wage Increases
Colin Powell
Scooter Libby
Karl Rove
Denny Hastert
Albert Gonzalez
etc
Like those pieces of liberal legislation, and unwarranted attacks on persons to get them to retire instead of doing their job.
The only thing they didn’t get is surrender in Iraq and Amnesty. The former because Republicans knew that they would cease to be a party if they gave that to them; the latter because the people of this country flooded their offices with letters and phone calls threatening civil insurrection if they passed it.
And yes, it will only get worse if they get the Congress and the White House. But it’s not like the majority has been heard in the past decade. Which is why we voted them out in 2006. (Democrats filled the vacuum we left because we didn’t elect anyone back. They did not win on their ideas, they won because they were not Republican incumbents. Now they face the same thing, they are the incumbents and we’re all mad at them.)
No Child Left Behind of all thouse is the only one i like. the reason for it is that it forces schools to have atleast a standard minumum. my oldest son is in school and i have found that teachers don’t like it around hear because they have to step up there teaching. we have schools apealing for more time to meet the critearia. i like it a lot because this is the first big step in holding teachers accountable to some standard instead of sitting back and collecting a pay cheak.
I have to deal with it and I dislike it, as a teacher, for the following reasons:
1) I am required to teach to the test. I cannot teach to the class. Whats the difference? When I teach to the class I can teach them at the pace for that class. When I teach to the test, I teach them how to pass those specific questions so that we can score high enough to get our government money.
2) I do not like the test because it requires us to conform to the federal government. Education is run by the states, not the feds.
3) I do not like the test because of all the paperwork I have to do instead of grading, preparing to lecture and working one on one with my students.
the problem though is that schools get fed money and yet the fed has no control untill now. i’m no fan of public schools, i would much rather put my kids in private schools but i can’t afford it. so if i’m stuck with public schools i want there to be a standard of some kind. i don’t think it’s right that teachers get the free pass they got. what makes a buissness good is compatition, but now schools don’t compeat, teachers don’t compeat to be the best ether. i know this is off topic but i can’t see how providing a standard for the teachers to shoot for is a bad thing. bad teachers brought this on them selfs by passing (going to sound bad hear) stupid kids. our Uni’s are having to remediate students at record levels to prepare them for entery lvl collage. you can’t say that the schools are doing there job if the uni’s are having to redo it for them.
The problem is that the fed supplies between 2 and 7% of a school district’s budget, depending on the poverty level in that district IF, and ONLY IF, they meet or exceed the minimum standards.
Another problem is that the fed standard has become the only standard and it is set so ridiculously low it isn’t even funny.
I think the solution to the problem is to cut federal funding period. Reimburse the money to the states and leave it up to each state to determine if a school district needs the money or not. This is a ridiculously small percentage of the over all budget and it would be very easy to curtail spending to compensate if it comes to that. (Don’t buy MLK Day decorations, don’t waste money on new flowers, etc.)
i would love the Fed to get out of it, the problem comes in though that we also have diffrent standards state to state. for example if in IL the students in 1st grade learn to count to 100 and can do spelling up to a few simple 4 letter words (not that kind get your mind out of the gutter ppl), well in say SC the standard is count to 50 and spell a lot of 3 letter words. then we perpetuate the problem so that in SC by the time they graduate collage the students can’t do some basic (by IL standards) math or have gooder English skills.
a standard should be set accross the board. if it’s a low standard then thats fine, good teachers should have no problem with it because they can teach the majority of there students to reach that standard with little trouble. this will cause poor teachers to ether step up or get out of the way for new teachers. as the teacher base increases in skill then so will the standard (or should).
now i do think schools need to cut the cr@p spending, with or with out the Fed invalved, there is no need to spend on things that don’t increase the learning.
the act may not be perfect but to me it is better then what was in place before.
Yes, but with different standards between the states, then the states can compete for students. It’s like universities. In Southern Illinois University at Carbondale you have to take College Algebra to get a Bachelor’s degree. At Yale you probably have to take Calculus II to get a Bachelor’s degree.
Which is the better school? If cost was not an object, which would you rather send your children too?
your compairing Unis, i’m talking about public schools, the kind that kids go to for free and must go to. there must be a standard that is unaversal at atleast the high school level. even if it is just 3 years Englash, 2 years math, and 2 years science with a test by the fed OR better then that an indapendent organization on these areas. give the states there room, but give a standard that makes it equal for all states. it’s not right that some schools (even with in the same state) are graduating students who turn around and go to uni and the first thing they have to do is take refresher courses, or after graduation they don’t have basic skills that there class’ on there transcript say they should have.
teachers pass students just to pass them and are not held accountable. a standard that holds them accountable is the only way to fix it. if that standard is a nation wide test that if failed out waighs the passing grade the teacher gave or if it is on open and free market for the schools where parants are given non cash value vouchers that are good for admission into schools that are reconized by the state so that the schools will compeat with other schools for the students by providing the best staff and learning experiance.
i’m done with this part, it’s off topic, i don’t want it to go further on my part off topic. my view is there. if we have a new topic on this subject i will continue though.
I can’t compare grade schools because even the private schools have been polluted with federal influence. The only realistic corellation I can think of is universities where you have some that are polluted and some that are pollution free.
That’s the problem.
Back on topic of CANDIDATES folks…
Florida Primary day, so I am sure you can talk about the people (on topic for the thread) :-)
Funny, I just tried to find some results for Florida, it’s gotta be 1800 hours in parts of Florida now, and nothing. /sigh.
Watch it turn out to be a hanging chad situation. :P
Ya know,if they could keep those blasted New Yorkers out of Florida, they might raise the state IQ a few dozen points, hehe.
