People assume that just because I’m a member of the Democratic party I will blindly vote all the way down the ticket. I haven’t done this in the past, and I won’t do it now. I remain pleased with myself for having voted for Governor Tom Kean when I lived in New Jersey, and I voted for Congressman Tom Campbell when I lived in Silicon Valley. I think both are honorable men who generally did well on the issues while they were in office. Kean in particular did a good job of boosting NJ revenues, cutting taxes, and improving our school systems.
As an expatriate, as I recently discussed, I get to vote in federal elections, meaning senator, congress(wo)man, and senators, based on my last residence in the States, which was San Francisco. This means that soon – much sooner than most people – I will have to cast my ballot for the president and vice president, as well as for or against my current representative, Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It may be the case that she is a good speaker, but she has not been very vocal about it, and on more than one occasion I’ve felt very uncomfortable about her choices. As we will see, however, it would seem that her choices are really those of Barack Obama.
In the next few days we’ll go through some issues that you might find important, and see where the candidates stand. They’ll include Education, Foreign Policy, National Savings, The Internet, Crime & Civil Rights, and Healthcare, just to name a few.