US Elections 2008
 

First things first, I'm not even American myself, but I'm very interested in the whole issue, and it IS a worldly hot topic after all :)

Now my understanding is that most of you respected individuals are Japanese or have connections / ties to Japanese culture (through background, language, relatives, etc.), but as non-Americans, any thoughts about the US elections? It may not occur or matter to some of you guys, but the American President has a lot of POWA o_O. Anyways, I'll go first :).

I'm still undecided for sure, as the Democrats and Republicans do not have their one representative candidate chosen for the Presidential elections coming up in 2008. However, my vote is on Ron Paul, because I feel that his values and morals are along the lines of mine as well, and if I had to pick a Democrat, it would be Barack Obama, because I feel he has a lot of potential and can live up to his words.

What do YOU think? :)

Edit: I'm not actually voting, but I forgot the word used in this situation for *cheering on*...
But as I mentioned, I'm not even American, so :p.
Sorry if I threw anyone off :)

Edit 2: Respect each other's opinions, and please don't flame each other, everyone's different!!!

I don't have site statistics, but I'm fairly certain that the majority of users here are American, actually...

I'm rooting for Ron Paul and Obama, but the way things are looking, it's probably going to come down to McCain and and Obama or Hillary. If Obama makes it in, I'll vote for him, and he doesn't, I won't vote.

Well I am an American... But I am sick and tired of Republicans. I am a Democrat so no matter who is on the Republican side I will not vote for them. We need a Democratic President, we need to start slowly pulling out of this goddamn catastrophe of a war in Iraq and the Democrats will do that for us. Now I can talk about who I see fit for president on the Democrat side, but that isn't important in the political game right now. We need a Democrat who can win and not one with just good ideals. Hilarly Clinton is not very popular among the people I know so I might want to go with Obama. I don't know though. Not being racist myself, but I am not sure if the U.S. is ready for a colored president. Potentially a lot of states might vote him down for racial reasons. Maybe women would rally behind a women president so it could be Hilary that's better. The fact of the matter is I am rooting for the Democrat who can win, not so much the idealistic one alone.

I don't think that was very coherent, but I tried my best :)

Oh really?
I naturally assumed because in the anime talks and stuff, I often see the people talking about the Japanese airing and all those details, so I naturally assumed... Actually, Mods or Admins, do you have a listing of nationality backgrounds percentage-wise? I may have been prejudice when I assumed that most are Japanese :)

Sorry if I'm wrong, but back to the elections ! :)

It's understandable don't worry, everyone has their own views on things.

But I agree, America may not be prepared for a black President, or a woman president, but these two are extraordinary people of extraordinary circumstances. Hillary Clinton from what I hear and have read, is unsentimental, especially when it comes to politics I believe. Also, Barack Obama is a strong speaker, and I hear that he's done a lot of good things in Chicago or something, so there's that. But the war issue, it's not solely the fact that it's Republican, because there's Ron Paul, who is wanting Peace and Equality. Of course that doesn't come with ease, but the foundation of the principles is a start. Besides, Obama is ready to strike Pakistan if Binladen's presence @ Pakistan is confirmed. So that may begin a war.

In any case, everyone's idea differs :)

Take this online poll. It will line you up with the candidate that you best support. My mom emailed it to me, and I think it works fairly well. I voted both how I felt and the exact opposite of what I thought, and the candidates that showed up seemed to follow the views that I presented to the poll each time. Now, obviously this isn't an end-all-be-all thing, but it both gives you an idea of which way you lean and gives you plenty of links to finding more about the candidates out there.

On a completely different note, I urge people not to vote based solely on party lines (I know A LOT of people do that), but based upon what's best for the country, and what's best according to your own opinions about the important issues discussed.

i'm from europe, the "old europe" like Mr Bush would say, so i'm not that much into the hole thing, but i try to follow reporting via the net since our local media don't go much into detail, so my view isn't the best.. anyway

i would prefer a Democrat and Obama over Hilton, and those two look like very good candidates overall when it comes to winning potential; i'm afraid the Republicans lack such good candidates(Huckabee's religious stand could backfire, Ron Paul looks more like a Democrat to me lol, Romney with his mormon missionary work in france hmmm isn't that an instant knock-out? for Giuliani, it looks like the people from the east coast love him and that he is some sort of hero to them? i wonder if he has the potential to win nationwide, or is the eastcoast enough to slip through in bush-style?), but they could benefit from the Obama-Clinton struggle?

I just wish you a President with some brain, someone who understands terrorism and it's origins instead of making it worse and worse and failing in fighting it with brute strength, and of course someone who knows how to treat his own people right so that Michael Moore ends up without material for his polemic movies haha, seriously, he's a clown and still looks less stupid than Bush & friends.

I'd love for Dennis Kucinich to win, but I doubt it will happen. If he doesn't get the Democratic ticket though (which is probably going to be the case) I'll probably vote 3rd party. The way I see it mainstream Democrat/Republican candidates just don't give a fuck about us, and no matter who wins between the two, little changes.

More party bias. If you just go for the "Democrat that can win", that doesn't make him or her a good person and competent leader. In my experience, Democrats have done a lot to explain what's wrong, but have they offered any solutions to the problem, namely the war in Iraq? No. They bitch and point fingers, but I have not seen any solutions from them that would actually work. If you've seen some, please point them out to me. But I am NOT voting for Hillary Clinton. You thought her husband was bad enough....

On the other hand, Republicans are too damn stubborn to be able to adapt to the will of the people, and/or admit fault. In Bush's case, he keeps pressing forward when more planning would be advisable. And enough of the Moody-esque "vigilance" routine. It's not working. Not that Congress was much help a few years back. After all, Congress approved of the action taken right after 9/11 without hesitation, lacking better judgement. We know that we acted too qickly, so now we have to clean up our mistakes, whether people like it or not.

As the situation goes, pulling out too quickly from Iraq would leave the country terribly destabilized, and open to who-knows-what. Terrorism, more dictators, you name it. I know people don't like it, but we have an obligation to that country to fix the mess we put them in. National Security aside, we can't just abandon them and say, "okay, we got rid of that guy we didn't like, now you're on your own". That's unacceptable conduct, to which I would agree with the opinion of "orderly and scheduled withdrawal, once the government is back on its feet and once again autonomous".

I doubt the republican will win this year, Bush has fudged everything since 2001.

I bet you anything that if a Democrat (any) had won the 2000/2001 elections, people would probably be saying the same thing about him right now. While Bush has his faults (like being stupid), I think the blame is not solely to be placed on him. As I stated before, Congress acted ridiculously quickly, with almost no deliberation at all, which under different circumstances would have perhaps allowed them to forsee future consequences.

And even if a Democrat hadn't decided to invade Afghanistan after 9/11, people would be saying he was spineless and that he/she wasn't committed to protecting the country. Either way, people won't be happy.

I took the poll and got a score of 57 with both Hilary and Obama. That helps :heh:.

I vote Democrat only though because I completely disagree with Republicans on issues. It's not that I'm alleged to a single party but rather they're the best thing out there at the moment.

I do disagree with Democrats on immigration though, but Iraq is more important right now than that so the Republicans can wait for their time.

I scored a 62 with Kucinich. Too bad he won't make it onto the Democratic ticket. Looks like my hopes are resting on Ron Paul's shoulders right now. If he doesn't get the Republican nomination, I won't even bother to register this year.

For a man with a lot of Net support, Ron Paul doesn't have much supporters, sadly. I love him though :)

The Libertarian party requested he run for them if he doesn't get the republican nomination, so there's still a little hope. Even though Paul hasn't layed out a gameplan for anything he's been talking about, I'd still be willing to vote for him just for the sole reason he's willing to make some damn changes.

Yeah, I think that it's a real shame how some of the better candidates don't make it onto their respective tickets. Damn campaign system.

I hoped I helped some people get an idea of where they stand or reinforce their convictions, whatever they are.

You should make this thread into a poll and see what results come about from the AS community :heh:

Either Hilary or McCain, not sure yet. Ron Paul, not bad man but his whole isloationist idea is a pipe dream at best. As for Iraq, all we can do is play police there. Maliki's government is real limp wristed, it'll be decades before it's truly back on it's feet.

Sorry I seemed to have skipped your post, but I think your information on democrats is warped. I was under the impression that most democrats supported an orderly withdrawal, not an instant one as that is just stupid, but one where we can call our boys home eventually and let the country stand on its own. If they are not I am horribly misinformed in my reading and conversations with others. :confused:

I can understand the Hilary hate, but why the Bill hate lol? I thought he was our most decent president in quite a while. He did have the white house scandal with the cheating, but that is utterly ridiculous to discredit a president based on that. Check the economy then, and the economy now. TY George, you're a great man...

Although I am party biased with Democrats, that doesn't mean I have no reason for it. The republicans have been doing quite a shitty job in my opinion. Especially with the disaster of our crap shoot supreme court justices picked out by Bush, we need a Democratic president.