If voting for a Democrat:
First, I'd probably want to go with a front-runner, so as not to throw my vote away. That seems to put the choice (currently) between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. It has been demonstrated that most Americans (myself included) would rather not elect a senator as president (anybody remember the last time we did?), since being a senator doesn't really demonstrate how a person does in a leadership position. But with these three front-runners you can't get around that. They're either senators or former senators. So, we have their voting record as senators, their former lives, and how they manage their campaigns to judge from.
Senator Edwards' former life rules him out. He was a sleazebag trial lawyer who made fotunes out of chasing wheelchairs and bringing frivilous lawsuits against doctors. He has no ethics. And actions like these have driven healthcare costs up for all of us. So he's out.
Clinton has years and years of scandalous history. Her current campaign has an uncanny ability to draw in illegal money, mostly from the Chinese. Corruption seems to be her middle name. So, she's out.
So I guess my choice would be Senator Obama. Though he has no history of much that involves leadership, he does appear to be a decent man. He doesn't have that air of corruption about him. So if I were voting in the Democrat primaties, I guess he'd be my guy.
If voting for a Republican:
Again, let's stick with the front-runners. At this point that looks like it's Rudy, Romney, and Fred (unless you trust the non-scientific online polls, in which case Ron Paul beats them all). Huckabee seems like a very decent fellow, but he's not gonna win. McCain? The guy who authored that campaign finance reform bill that stabbed the 1st amendment in the heart? Not a chance. He cannot win me over. And let's rule out Ron Paul. Not in wartime at least. Not for me.
So, who has leadership experience? Romney and Rudy. Rudy did a pretty darn good job with New York when he was there and Romney did a remarkable job with Massachusettes as well as his business experience and his redeeming of the SLC olympics. Fred hasn't done a lot of leading (that I know of).
Rudy. If I'm a Republican a number of his positions are going to make me nervous. And I just get the feeling that he's got all these skeletons in the closet that the press is just sitting on... biding their time to see if he gets the nomination. If he does, they'll dump it all on the fan when they think the time is right. Just my impression. But it would definitely influence my primary vote.
Romney seems to be a decent guy. He has made a couple of little gaffes (like the "hunting all my life" thing), but has recovered well from them. He has a record of fine and competent leadership without scandal or corruption. I guess that poll was right. He would be my guy in the primaries.
Note: It's no secret on this board that I'm a "Mormon". Let me declare for the record that I would NOT vote for someone just because he's of the same faith as me. I've told Dawn that if I lived in Nevada, Harry Reid (a Mormon) would never ever get my vote for anything. Again, it's all about the issues and integrity.
How about you good people? Any of you gonna be primary voters? Who would your candidate if you were voting for either party? "Enquiring minds want to know". Or maybe it's just me that would like to know.
