Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Brownback and Romney...

Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney are both running for President in 2008. I admit that I am presently leaning towards Romney, but I'm not as worried as others are about Brownback.

Brownback is a social conservative, but he is not the kind of social conservative I tend to dislike. He does have stands that I have disagreements with. I don't like his support of the PTC's approach to TV content regulation. I think his call for prison reform might be useful, but the issue is really small when compared to Social Security and the tax code.

But he has not made his opponents out to be villians, unlike others who have insinuated their opponents are traitors or who have labeled those who disagree with their pet issues as party hacks. That says a lot about him - all of it is good.

His stances on prison reform and on immigration reform seem to be based on the fact that everyone is equal. His general positions are worthy of respect, even if people disagree with them.

The same is largely true of Mitt Romney. He also has not villified his opponents, even though he has plenty of reason to return some fire at some people. He is a decent person, and has a good track record. Again, people could do a lot worse than him.

Contrast that to John McCain, who gave the impression that he viewed opponents to his signature campaign-finance reform bill as corrupt, or that opponents of his views on interrogation were in favor of torture. McCain's approach is not one designed to make friends. He is the media's favorite, but his support among the GOP primary voters is looking very thin.

The 2008 primary is going to be interesting, but all of the people running for that nomination look like people I could live with as President.

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