Texas matters

What a unique experience during the presidential primary cycle. Texas matters. I received two phone calls over the weekend asking me to vote for their candidate, one for Obama and one for Ron Paul. I've already "thrown my vote away," for Ron Paul, but every time I can push the school of thought that many of Ron Paul's views represent I'll continue to vote outside of the frontrunners or the major parties.

Obama is going to win the Democratic primary and the election. There's too much of a groundswell surrounding him for there to be any other outcome. I think he'll do well to restore the US in the eyes of the rest of the world. His largely globalist view of world politics could push us more to the forefront in the various organizations we participate in, but he's an unknown quantity in economic matters. He's pro-consumer in his legislative rhetoric, but not damning enough towards big business to stifle. If he looked like he would cut corporate subsidy, I'd start to support him more heavily, but his rhetoric is too generic for me to know what to think. He has softened on gun control. His energy policy has a good background but his current rhetoric reflects the current chicken little viewpoint on greenhouse gasses. His healthcare viewpoints are sound as they rely on individual subsidy and avoid community rating and mandating coverage limits. I hope he remembers that younger voters are voting him in when it comes time to start pushing healthcare reform. His foreign policy seems to be UN based. I dunno. I can always "Hope" that the huge cavern of possible policy stances his rhetoric could encompass leans towards liberty over socialism.

Here's a quote from David Boaz of the Cato institute.

The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community.