There seems to be a consensus out there that anything we get out of the upcoming presidential election will be a dramatic upgrade over who's running government right now.  I agree that Bush is an F- President, that Big Dick Cheney is likewise an F, as are most of the cabinet members.  I wouldn't give any of them a grade higher than a D, which stands for dumbass.  But what about the candidates now running for that office?  Could any of them be as bad?  Let's run down the list of issues and see what we get. 

This, of course, is  just my point of view . . . but it's a fairly well educated one.  I'm an old fart retired political science professor who was active in politics from time to time.  I've been a Republican and a Democrat, have gone from moderate conservative to left wing activist, and then back to the center on most things.  But I don't get to post grades these days, so I'll have a go at grading these politicians running for President.  We'll do that by going through the issues.  For a brief statement of each candidates stand on the issues, take a look at Moli's election central.

1) Abortion:                         McCain - D
                                              Huckabee - F
                                              Romney - F
                                              Paul - D
                                              Clinton - B
                                              Obama - B

2) Iraq                                   McCain - F
                                               Huckabee - F
                                               Romney - F
                                               Paul - A
                                               Clinton - C
                                               Obama - A

3) Environment                    McCain - D
                                                Huckabee - F
                                                Romney - F
                                                Paul - D
                                                Clinton - C
                                                 Obama - C

4) Same-Sex Marriage         McCain - D
                                                 Huckabee - F
                                                 Romney - F
                                                 Paul - D
                                                 Clinton - C
                                                 Obama - C

5) Health Care                       McCain - D
                                                 Huckabee - F
                                                 Romney - F

                                                 Paul - F

                                                 Clinton - C

                                                 Obama - D

 

6) Homeland Security           McCain - D

                                                 Huckabee - F

                                                 Romney - F

                                                 Paul - B

                                                 Clinton - C
                                                 Obama - B

7) Immigration                       McCain - F
                                                 Huckabee - F
                                                 Romney - F
                                                 Paul - F
                                                 Clinton - F
                                                 Obama - F

8) Taxes                                  McCain - D
                                                  Huckabee - D
                                                  Romney - F
                                                  Paul - C
                                                  Clinton - B
                                                  Obama - B

9) Economy                              McCain - C
                                                   Huckabee - F
                                                   Romney - F
                                                   Paul - D
                                                   Clinton - B
                                                   Obama - B

I'm a tough grader, and as you can see, none of the candidates thrill me at
this time.  Some of them really leave me flat, and a few strike me as complete retards.  And every time I go through another presidential election, the same thought comes to me:  Is this the best we can come up with?  Taking an average on the candidates we have above, my grading gives us McCain with a D average, Huckabee with an F average, Romney with an F average, Paul with a D average,
Clinton with a C+ average, and Obama with a B- average.  I would've given Edwards a B, had he stayed in the race.   I'll vote for either Clinton or Obama, but wouldn't even consider one of the others.

Perhaps I'm too critical.  Unless we pass laws in this country doing away with electronic (computer) voting altogether, we may never have a president really chosen by a true majority of voters.  Unless we do something about campaign expenditures, we'll still have office holders bought by corporate (vested) interests . . . and a tiny privileged class will continue to run this country.  And finally, voter themselves need to behave like level-headed adults, not junior high kids voting for class president.  In fact, the kids may do a better job.

In other words, folks, our electoral system is deeply flawed.  Until we make major changes, we've still got ample reasons to be suspicious of anything that comes out of it.

D. Paz, 1/31/08