Curses! Foiled again!

After months of saying, "This one ... no, that one ... no, the other one", I had finally come to a decision on who I would caucus for at the upcoming Republican shindig. I was honestly almost down to the "Eeeny, meeny, miney, moe" stage. Finally, last night, I decided that my choice had to be Mitt Romney.

Now comes news that Mr. Romney has dropped out of the Presidential campaign today.

Now what? My choices are down to Paul, Huckabee, and McCain ... unless I'm missing someone.

Paul is easy. I feel exactly like the editor of Go! Twenty-four/Seven who wrote, in this week's issue, "Ron Paul: Has some good ideas; is crazy as a loon."

I have some serious reservations about John McCain. And after reading what James Dobson had to say about him, my reservations are even stronger. But I'm not sure I can see myself caucusing for Mike Huckabee.

Well, back to the old "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe," I guess.

Another venerable institution loses it's luster

It was bad enough when Focus on the Family's Dr. Dobson announced that he's willing to let radical liberals like those supported by moveon.org run our country. My respect for the man and the institution he built has moved down from 100% for the first time ever.

Now, hard on the heels of that shocker comes word that Al Gore is one of the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. What Gore's work has to do with peace is beyond me. What his work has to do with truth is an even deeper mystery.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has made some stupid blunders in it's history, but this ranks right down there with the worst.

What is this world coming to?

Dr. Dobson heads down a dangerous path

I could hardly believe it when I first heard it, but now Dr. James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family has published his 2008 Presidential election plans in the New York Times.

Basically, he says that if the nominee from the Republican and Democrat parties are both not perfectly pro-life and pro-family, he'll vote for someone else. Can he not see that there are worse possibilities than having a President who doesn't line up squarely with one's position on a few issues? How about having one who lines up exactly opposite one's positions on a lot of issues?

Let's suppose that Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton are the nominees. So Rudy doesn't match Dr. Dobson point-for-point on abortion and family issues. He doesn't match me point-for-point, either. But refusing to vote for him simply gives her another vote. We must not allow her to become President, for that would be a far, far worse thing for this country than nearly any other alternative I can think of.

You can read Dr. Dobson's editorial here.

James Dobson and the value of life

In the news this morning, it says that Dr. James Dobson has announced that he will not vote for Rudy Giuliani should Giuliani become the Republican nominee. Giuliani's stance on abortion is apparently so abhorrent to Dobson that he would rather vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, it seems. Dobson says he will actually abstain from voting if Giuliani is the nominee, but make no mistake: that is almost equivalent to voting for the Democrat.
I'm far from being ultra-right-wing, but I'm pretty much a conservative when it comes to fiscal matters. I'm fairly conservative on moral matters, but most true conservatives would consider me a raving liberal in that area, so I guess I come down in the middle somewhere. But I have a quirky point where I'm so right-wing as to deserve the title Dick Snyder used to hand out: "wing nut". That point is on the value of human life. I value human life so highly that I'm even opposed to the death penalty. So you can imagine how I feel about abortion.
Consequently, you might assume I'd be right behind Dobson, shouting, "Way to go!". But I realize that there are worse things than having a president who can't seem to make up his mind on abortion. And those worse things have names like "Obama" and "Clinton".
Quite often, in the voting booth, I'm figuratively holding my nose, and voting for the lesser of two evils. It happened in 2004. I didn't care for Mr. Bush, and I still don't. But I REALLY didn't care for Mr. Kerry. I still shudder to think what might have happened to this country if he had been elected. So, I held my nose and voted for Bush, and I'd do it again, if I had to.
I haven't decided who I'll vote for in November 2008, of course. I have a list of some people I won't vote for: Obama, Clinton, Gore, McCain, Brownback, Gravel (more about him in another post, coming soon), to name a few. And I may not particularly like who I finally do choose, but I plan to be there to cast a vote ... if not for a candidate, then certainly against one.