Bob Barr 2008

I'm watching the latest the latest bloggingheads episode which features Libertarian candidate Bob Barr. I have to say that I think this is the year to finally support the Libertarian ticket for president. Both Obama and McCain have a record of increasing government regulation and power. If Barr can get a significant percentage of the vote and cause McCain to lose, maybe Libertarian ideas will start to be taken seriously.

You can't have him!

I had a similar reaction as Bill Kristol to MoveOn's latest ad in which a new mother holding her young son says to John McCain, regarding his statement about staying in Iraq for 100 years, that he can't have her son. Since we don't have a draft and no one is calling for one, no one will go to Iraq who doesn't volunteer for military service. When the baby in the ad is 18 he will decide himself if he wants to join up. Other critics of the Democrats have claimed that those who criticize McCain's statement should also oppose keeping troops in Germany, Japan and Korea since all he was saying was that we shouldn't worry about stationing troops if there is no fighting. However, I think this is precisely the debate that should be had. Why exactly do we have troops stationed around the world? I thought the reason for the bases in Europe and Asia was the cold war. Since that's over, what is the rationale for them? Germany and Japan are wealthy nations. I don't think we need to defend them. The only presidential candidate to even talk about this was Ron Paul. I think there should be a debate about our role in the world and whether we need to be involved everywhere.

The Witch is Dead!

Finally she's out of the race. I think Peggy Noonan said it best when she wrote that America dodged a bullet. Although Hillary showed a lot of improvement as a political candidate in the last few months of the race, her campaign overall was a disaster. She started out with all of the advantages in terms of expectations, money, name recognition and super delegate support. She blew it with bad strategy and incompetent management of the campaign's resources. Based on the way the campaign was run, I can only imagine the disaster her administration would have been. Unfortunately, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of her. If Obama doesn't win, she is sure to run in 2012. However, that's four years from now and probably someone else will surface by then. She'll be four years older and hopefully America will want someone new.