Now this probably won’t come as much of a surprise, but my father is a politician, albeit a local one (a county legislator). He is a Democrat, but perhaps the most conservative one that you are going to meet. In fact, in most years (he runs for re-election every other year) he runs on the Conservative ticket as well. Speaking of which, when I turned 18 my father had me register with the Independence Party, so that I could go door to door with him and witness other members of the party sign petitions for him. The Independence Party, to my knowledge only exists in 3 states (New York, Minnesota, and Alaska), but it’s really quite brilliant. It was formed, in New York anyway, by a guy named Tom Golisano who ran for governor a handful of times and lost. The Independence Party is brilliant because a lot of people don’t want to affiliate themselves with the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. They want to be Independents. However they aren’t exactly the brightest and thinking that they are avoiding party affiliation they sign up for the Independence Party.
I can’t tell you what the Independence Party stood for, but when I moved to Connecticut I registered as an Independent. If I had to characterize my political views I would say that I’m a moderate that leans a little left (just like something else-kidding). I get my political news mainly from television. I regularly watch The O’Reilly Factor, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report and I occasionally watch Fox News Sunday with Christopher Wallace and Real Time with Bill Maher. These programs undoubtedly help shape my political views, but three of them are comedies and Bill Maher is a crazy liberal, so it’s hard to take much of what he says seriously. His show is still watchable though because it’s funny and there’s usually a lively debate (plus it’s only on once a week so it’s easy to catch the re-runs). Hannity or Glenn Beck (when he was still on), on the other hand, are wayyy too conservative for me to handle. Everyone likes to say that they are a centrist and I feel a little weird in claiming that I am as well, but I do think that I’m pretty close. In fact, I just took this quiz (who knows how accurate it is) and my results show that I am a center-right social moderate.
For example, I believe whole heartedly in the free market, but I think that better regulation of the financial industry may have prevented the subprime mortgage fiasco. Furthermore I believe in the sanctity of marriage, but I don‘t have a fundamental problem with the notion of gay marriage. Philosophically I’m pro-life, but realistically I’m pro-choice. If this doesn’t make any sense to you (and it might look like a blatant contradiction) let me explain. In a vacuum I would be pro-life because abortion is fundamentally wrong. However we don’t live in a vacuum, so it doesn’t make sense to take a moral stance on the issue. Even if Roe v. Wade was overturned women all across the country would still want to have abortions. Many of these, for lack of a better term, black market abortions would be unsafe and perhaps lead to illnesses and deaths that abortion’s legality currently prevents.
As far as the current political landscape, let’s start with the Anthony Weiner scandal. So the guy sent pictures of his junk to females all around the country, but claims that he never had a physical relationship with any of them. That’s about as hard to believe as his dong was hard in the most famous picture from the scandal.
What’s sad is that his wife is now pregnant. Talk about awkward timing. Surprisingly though, that’s not the most awkward part. His wife is a former aide to Hilary Clinton, so in the aftermath of the scandal Weiner had to call Bill Clinton to apologize. Again, Weiner had to call Bill Clinton, the man involved in the most famous political sex scandal of all time, and apologize.
Well now everyone from Nancy Pelosi to Obama is calling for Weiner to resign (Obama said he would resign if he was in Weiner's position), but I sort of respect his defiance.
**Update** Weiner caved under the mounting pressure of the Democractic Party and resigned a day aftet this post was first published.
Did sexting with females all across the country make him a bad law maker? Not really. In fact, I would argue that it had no impact on his ability to legislate whatsoever. Everyone’s sexual interactions, thoughts, etc. are bound to stray from the idea of normal from time to time. I mean seriously, what percentage of politicians just have regular sex with their wives? I would argue that the number is less than 40%. These are men in positions of power. Now this is not meant to absolve the congressman. Where he runs into a problem is that he initially lied about it. As we’ve learned countless times the cover up is worse than the crime (I’m looking at you Nixon). It's too bad because Weiner probably would have been the next mayor of New York City just like Eliot Spitzer would have been the first Jewish President of the United States.
By the way, one of the best jokes about the scandal that I heard (via Kyle Korver) was from Conan O’Brien, who said something to the effect of, "Congressman Weiner is in a lot of trouble since he tweeted those pictures. But good news for him, he just found out he'll be allowed to keep his porn name ... Anthony Weiner." Well guess what? Weiner isn’t the only member of Congress who’s surname would also work in the porn industry:
Billy Long
Robert Hurt
Ron H. Johnson (huge?)
Bob Corker (it’s a stretch, but use your imagination)
Norman D. Dicks
In other political news we have Sarah Palin’s “look at me” bus tour. Palin deserves credit for being a galvanizing force in the Republican Party, but I find her to be almost unbearable. She is both incredibly thin-skinned and narcissistic. I don’t care that she botched the Paul Revere story, but to place blame on the media for a “gotcha” question and then to deny botching the story altogether is ridiculous. Would I ever vote for her? Yes, but only if she was running against a whacko like Nancy Pelosi.
Lastly, the other night was the second GOP Presidential Debate. Let me quickly give my impressions of the candidates.
Mitt Romney- he certainly looks the part, but he feels a little sleazy to me. Ipso facto he’s my favorite of the group.
Newt Gingrich- he was the most vehement towards Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, while he was having an affair at the same time. If this was 1996 he might have a chance.
Rick Santorum- he has no chance and even if he did he wouldn’t. Just google his last name. I’ll wait…Like I said, no chance.
Tim Pawlenty- seems like a nice guy, but maybe too nice. Ultimately he’s just bland and not exciting.
Michelle Bachmann- eat your heart out Palin. Personally I think Bachmann is a whacko, but she's also rather cunning, so I could see her being a VP candidate
Ron Paul- one of the craziest men in Congress. So crazy that sometimes he makes sense, but he’s still out of his mind. His basic message is, “Let’s have the most limited government imaginable.”
Herman Cain- a black guy? That won’t work. No, but seriously, the former CEO of Godfather Pizza has no chance.
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