Giuliani was a flop because he was clueless. He had popular appeal as an outsider, but no real political machine on the ground in each state.
McCain was the lesser of two evils for me, but he blew my already- shaky confidence by lying to Letterman (seriously), insisting on delaying the Republican Convention, and the way he "parachuted" in to and ran to Washington during the financial crisis in 2008. It didn't leave me with an impression that he would make calm, collected decisions. Obama came off as far more serious and McCain left me with the impression that he makes rash, uncalculated decisions- from the gut.
Obama, after a couple months of "soul searching", became the new lesser of two evils for me. Had things gone right however, I would have voted for Hillary without reservation.
The economy is historically interesting in that it was the real reason Bush1 lost re-election. It took a few more months than he had touted for it to come around from recession. Had it done so on time, Bush1 would have probably beat Bill Clinton. I really liked Bush1 as our President as I did with Reagan. Flaws aside, they still made me feel good as an American. The economy was great during Clinton. The trade deficit was down, social programs were fairly well funded and the dollar was strong. But, I cannot give Clinton all or too much of the credit for that. Economic cycles have lives of their own. Worldwide financial problems hurt everyone else- like Greece and Italy right now.
Anyhow, I have probably given too much fodder here for others to start making personal attacks, I do believe as of right now- Obama wins.
rfenst wrote:
