Understanding the Issues 2008: Energy

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

Really? McCain seems best suited for that? To a great extent the candidates have to show their hand in terms of how they plan to deal with the current economic woes. That's all the voters really have to go; the candidate's promises. And while they are all privy to top secret information, if what they've revealed thus far is an indicator of how they plan to deal with the economy, I would simply beg to differ on your statement about John McCain.

Inherith lies the problem. Campaign promises are made on a hypothetical scale based on a lack of information (because as Senators, they aren't necessarily privy to the Top Secret level of information, stuff that could ultimately make or break any plan), and therefore are really not meant to be kept. I don't believe them to be an indicator of anything, and if they are, I would probably vote against all those plans.

The problem is that the voters aren't electing a set of issues, they are electing a man (or woman).

My personal intuition believes that McCain's experience and relatively bipartisan voting record gives him an advantage over the other two, but again, it's really just my intuition...and I of course have no facts to defend that with.

I think you did hit the problem on the head, is that, these Campaign Promises are all the voters have to work with when deciding who to align with, and that really isn't worth anything at all. Ultimately, when voting, we are pledging semi-blind alligence to our candidate. I know some Bush voters feel spurned by their allegiance to him, as is reflected in his approval rating, but that doesn't mean they voted stupid, it means they picked what seemed like the better candidate at the time--which in no way assures a positive result.

You can look at their voting record, but once a person is elected to the presidency, it seems like a lot of their beliefs change. Bush, for example, certainly adopted policies that were more to the left of traditional conservative once in office, and he beat McCain in the 2000 primaries because he ran as the more conservative of the two candidates.