Why does everyone hate Hillary, Socialist Medicine and the National Debt

I don't think Hillary is that horrible of a person. Other than her personality, I don't really see where all the hatred comes from. Her stances don't even seem that far left compared with a lot of the senate. I think too many people just use the Clinton name to get conservatives fired up over losing the white house again.

-All of the current democratic proposals for health care are not a horrible way of doing thing. I think that socialist medicine has turned into a way of insulting someones health care plan, instead of looking at how the plan works. The only single payer health care system was pushed by Kucinich and he is gone now. Obama's and Hillary's plans are very similar(to Romney's Mass plan).

-Currently the dems are the ones cutting spending. They will raise taxes on the rich, but we have to increase income somewhere and I think that somehow they will make it through. Our national debt has almost doubled since Bush took office and I think that we need to start paying off some of that or the interest will start to crush us. In the past 30 years, every time a democrat has been in office the national debt as a proportion of GDP has gone down. Every republican has it it go up. This definitely has to do with taxes, but there are other factors as well.

If/When Huckabee drops out...

I don't think Romney is going to pick up a majority of the crazy christian vote the Huckabee leaves behind. There are a good amount of them who would NEVER consider voting for a mormon.
Also, I think the republicans really don't want to see Romney become the nominee. He has almost no chance against either Hillary or Obama. Look at every poll the pits the potential nominees against each other. Romney has alienated too many people with his policy switches, religious speeches, religion, smirk, negative campaigning and little white lies. Everyone else does have some of those issues, but it seems like he is the complete package.

My Presidental Standings

Not to be confused with rankings, they were who I liked the best.

Democrats:

1) Hillary Clinton(She is leading most states)
2) Barack Obama(Can he get his name out there enough?)
NA) John Edwards(Done.)

Republicans:
1)John McCain(I just can't see any of the other candidates competing with him nationally)
2)Mitt Romney(He has been neck and neck with McCain almost everywhere, I think his only votes come from people who think he is pretty and from people who hate McCain)
3)Mike Huckabee(Almost gone, there just aren't enough politically active evangelicals out there, and he has scared everyone else off)
4)Ron Paul(Never had a chance)

General Election

I think McCain beats Hillary because:
Independants like him better
Most people who dislike him would never vote for Hillary
I can see people on the fence going for an old white guy to be safe

On the bright side, I agree with Bill Clinton that a McCain/Clinton(or McCain/Obama) would not be a mean spirited election(from the candidates). I am confused why he would say that though(not really, he wants to sow distrust among the republicans who hate the Clintons).

Romney would get destroyed by either democrat, and I think Obama could beat McCain with more time to become a more national figure.

Hillary's done, Obama's done, everyone is done

It must be exhausting covering the primary process. Every week it seems like the entire situation changes and there is a new winner or some old front runner who is completely out. How does it happen that in the span of less than a week.

-Obama and Clinton are splitting the black vote
-Obama has 10% of the white vote(in one poll with no other recent actions which would suggest such a drop)
-Obama wins South Carolina(granted by a larger margin than expected)
-Obama can win the white vote(did he have trouble in Iowa/NH?)
-Obama has shown that he can win in the South(it's one state!)
-Obama is the frontrunner
-Florida doesn't count(and by the way the DNC is made up of idiots for doing this)
-Clinton thinks Florida should count(of course, she is winning)
-Clinton wins Florida(as expected)
-Clinton is the frontrunner(because everyone remembers that she leads in almost all the other states)

The republican side isn't much better, but I think they only have one candidate who is viable nationally now that Guliani has completely blown has campaign(and then dropped out). This just seems so ridiculous because the media seems so bi-polar. They need to actually remember what they were talking about last week, or maybe just look at the big picture.

From what I have seen, these seem to be the crucial issues for this primary season.

Democrats:
-Can Obama make inroads with the Latino vote?
-Can Obama get the name recognition across the country before Super Tuesday?
-Will Edwards drop out?
-Who will his votes go to?
-What will become of Bill Clinton?

Republicans:
-Will anyone say something really stupid?
-Will people get sick of McCain's snarky remarks towards Romney(I am starting to now that he is repeating the same crap and its not very funny)?
-When will Huckabee drop out?
-Who will get his votes?

I really cannot see the democratic race coming down to Florida and Michigan, because the uproar would be deafening. The delegates will be sat, but the winner should be decided before then.

My Presidential Rankings

1. Barack Obama- I kind of liked the reagan comment, I think he means it and could govern effectively from the center

2. John McCain- I am concern about his age, he just isn't as sharp as he used to be
3. Rudy Guliani- Why does everyone around him dislike him?
4. Ron Paul-It would never work, but I don't think he is crazy by any means.
5. Hilary Clinton-I think the far right media would never stop complaining
6.John Edwards- A little too anti-business for me
7. Mike Huckabee-I don't think I like the idea of a president who forces his decisions on others
8. Mitt Romney- See below

Mitt Romney, is that your real name?

My problem with Romney isn't the flip-flopping, it is the changing of his positions to suit the current need. If he became the nominee you would definitely see him move back to the center to win voters there. I think his hunting experiences really point to him as a person.
To move to the right he says he is a lifelong hunter. He then has to clarify that he has only hunted twice. And then he says he is a hunter but only meant hunting in certain contexts.
It's just crap like that which keeps happening over and over again with him.
He says A.He said B before.
A is a more conservative stance than B. A is how he really feels and B was taken out of context/a joke/how he felt at a different part of his life/said when he was drunk. A good amount of these changes happened right before he decided to run for president.
It's just too convenient.
With his history of policies, I think I would like Romney over most of the presidential candidates. He seems to be close to the middle on a good amount of things. It seems like it would be good to have a moderate from the republicans, even one that comes in undercover. However, I just don't trust the guy at all. I feel more strongly against him as president than any other candidate.
Also, I hate his smirk.

Thompson and the Flag

Well I am happy, I didn't ask Fred Thompson any questions. He was always too angry anyway, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

One thing I did not realize is that South Carolina put up the Confederate Battle Flag in 1962. Considering what was happening at the time in the civil rights movement, it gets a lot harder to justify it as a symbol of heritage.

In a related note, I think I respect Mike Huckabee less every week. There are just too many times when he seems uninformed and can say some really right things to the people who want to hear it.

Telling a group of evangelicals that he wants to remake the constitution in the bible's image:
Ok, it's one thing to say that the country needs to return to biblical values, it is another to say what he said. They may mean nearly the same thing, but they have very different connotations and Huckabee has to be smart enough to know this. I trust him much less after hearing that.

Telling South Carolinian's he would let them decide what to do with their flag:
More shameless pandering and telling people what they want to hear.

Questions I would ask the candidates:

To All Republicans:
-Is it ever a good idea to raise taxes?
-In what ways did the surge did not reach it's goal?
-Should the government ever make a law to prevent/take away individual liberties(i.e. gay marriage)?
-What would happen to those other than small business owners if there was no estate tax?
-Do you think someone is unpatriotic for wanting to abandon the war?
-Please describe the Democrats health plans and list out the strengths and weaknesses.
-Is Hillary Clinton evil?

To All Democrats:
-How much of a burden should the rich take of our taxes?
-What aspects of the war were positive?
-What steps do we need to take to make the country safer?
-Is saying "Merry Christmas" to a total stranger rude? Why?
-Is it correct to have a defeatist attitude towards the war? If we leave now are we putting Iraq better or worse than we found it? Is that fair?
-Does apologizing for your vote on the war change anything?
-Would you consider voting for any of the republicans?

Mike Huckabee:
-Would you have improved the education in Arkansas if the courts did not mandate it? If so, why do you state that the courts mandated that you raise taxes?
-Have you overstepped your bounds by pressuring others around you?
-Is being reelected in a consistently democratic state a great sign of your conservative credentials?

Mitt Romney:
-Why are you so consistently inconsistent on your past positions?
-Would you find behavior like that suspicious if it was coming from one of your opponents?
-When you say that you will return the jobs to Michigan, do you expect the same companies will return?
-Do you feel that the other candidates have worse families than yours and that makes you a better person?
-Are there aspects of your faith that you disagree with? Can you discuss the "South Park" about Mormons?

Barack Obama:
-Why do you feel that you are better served attacking small changes in your opponents policies over time when you stand for looking at each problem with an open mind? Isn't development of the best idea sometimes a process that needs to be reached through a series of steps?
-Why does everyone feel that you are all talk? Where is the beef?
-Is being right about the war really what you want to build a campaign around?

John McCain:
-Why do you go half-assed over so many things instead of taking a stand? There is no doubt that your immigration plan contains some amnesty, do you need to get bogged down in a debate over semantics?
-Do you regret catering to any group to win their approval?

Hillary Clinton:
-Do you really think your health care plan is that much different than Edwards or Obama's(or Massachusetts')?
-Do you feel that you have become less genuine by trying to appear more genuine?

Rudy Guliani:
-If nobody in your family(past or present) likes you, do you think that is a warning sign about yourself?
-Did you make any mistakes in 9/11?

John Edwards:
-What do you think would happen if all big businesses went away? Why do they not get a seat at the negotiations?
-Given what you were told at the time, did you make a mistake on voting for the war?