Ogre’s Politics and Views

Hey, let’s compare candidates, side-by-side. Read the quotes, they’re from campaign web sites, and decide who you agree with more:

National Security:
Candidate A:

As president, I would make securing our borders against a possible terrorist threat the top defense priority. No one who seeks to do us harm should be allowed to cross the border into U.S. territory. After all, a defense policy should benefit those who actually pay for it: the American people.

Candidate B:

America requires a larger and more capable military to protect our country’s vital interests and deter challenges to our security. America confronts a range of serious security challenges: Protecting our homeland in an age of global terrorism and Islamist extremism; working with friends and partners overseas, from Africa to Southeast Asia, to help them combat terrorism and violent insurgencies in their own countries; defending against missile and nuclear attack; maintaining the credibility of our defense commitments to our allies; and waging difficult counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Immigration:
Candidate B:

A secure border will contribute to addressing our immigration problem most effectively if we also recognize the importance of building strong allies in Mexico and Latin America who reject the siren call of authoritarians like Hugo Chavez, support freedom and democracy, and seek strong domestic economies with abundant economic opportunities for their citizens.

Candidate A:

The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked. [We must] physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals.

Education:
Candidate A:

Returning control of education to parents is the centerpiece of my education agenda. As President I will advance tax credits through the Family Education Freedom Act, which reduces taxes to make it easier for parents to home school by allowing them to devote more of their own funds to their children’s education. I will veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or students. I also believe that, as long as No Child Left Behind remains law, it must include the protections for home schoolers

Candidate B:

No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the realities of how students perform against a common standard. We can no longer accept low standards for some students and high standards for others. In this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible. While that is progress all its own, it compels us to seek and find solutions to the dismal facts before us.

Taxes:
Candidate B:

Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent; Allow First-Year Deduction, Or “Expensing”, Of Equipment And Technology Investments; Establish Permanent Tax Credit Equal To 10 Percent Of Wages Spent On R&D; Cut Taxes On The Middle Class

Candidate A:

Working Americans like lower taxes. So do I. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives. Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother’s payroll taxes by $40 a month or allows a business owner to save thousands in capital gains taxes and hire more employees, that tax cut is a good thing. Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy — that means all of us. Working people know much better how to spend their money than government.

Health Care:
Candidate A:

The federal government decided long ago that it knew how to manage your health care better than you and replaced personal responsibility and accountability with a system that puts corporate interests first. Our free market health care system that was once the envy of the world became a federally-managed disaster. The federal government will not suddenly become efficient managers if universal health care is instituted. Government health care only means long waiting periods, lack of choice, poor quality, and frustration. Many Canadians, fed up with socialized medicine, come to the U.S. in order to obtain care. Socialized medicine will not magically work here. By removing federal regulations, encouraging competition, and presenting real choices, we can make our health care system the envy of the world once again.

Candidate B:

[Government] Bringing costs under control is the only way to stop the erosion of affordable health insurance, save Medicare and Medicaid, protect private health benefits for retirees, and allow our companies to effectively compete around the world. While we reform the system and maintain quality, we can and must provide access to health care for all our citizens - whether temporarily or chronically uninsured, whether living in rural areas with limited services, or whether residing in inner cities where access to physicians is often limited. Facilitate the development of national standards for measuring and recording treatments and outcomes. Dedicate federal research on the basis of sound science resulting in greater focus on care and cure of chronic disease.

So seriously go back and read those. Read each one. Given a choice between the two candidates (A and B), with which one do you agree more? Again, these are quotes from the candidates themselves, with no commentary by your host added (although it was quite tempting). Pick one that you agree with. You might be surprised with which one you chose (I guess I should have made a quiz, huh?)

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Tags: 2008 Elections, Freedom, Government //