For those of you who care, John Edwards’ wife Elizabeth recently learned that her cancer has returned and spread and is now in an incurable form. They’ve been married a very long time and have seen a lot of pain, and this is a new hardship for them (like him or not, the shadow of eventual loss is something we can all relate to… he seems like a good person to me and no matter what else his perseverance and courage during Elizabeth’s illness, as well as his son’s tragic death years ago, are a testament to his character). If you’re one to pray, prayers would most certainly be welcome to him and his family. If nothing else please keep them in your thoughts.

On a political note, I’d be quite pleased to see John Edwards elected as the next president. His stance on the uninsured resonates with me, and he seems like a good and authentic person (unlike our current King George). As for the others:

• Al Gore isn’t running yet, but if he ends up running I’ll have a tough time choosing between him and Edwards… the current leadership is up to the tops of their metaphorical waders in bubblin’ crude and have done nothing but waste time denying that billions of tons of CO2 by us tiny little humans can have any effect on such a big planet (founded on a religious belief in “dispensationalism”, that is, no matter what we do it doesn’t matter because God’ll fix it anyway). It’s time for a radical revision of our environmental policy.
• Barak Obama seems to be a good person as well but he’s rather inexperienced at a time when we really need someone more seasoned (some time as Veep would hone his foreign policy experience and generally increase his breadth and depth in preparation for a future term or two as president). He is quite popular though, so we’ll see.
• Hillary Clinton: she just has not come across as strong or decisive on the big issues (particularly Iraq and even her old favorite, universal health care), and though we’re way overdue for a woman president, that doesn’t mean she’s the right choice. If she was elected I see a whole lot of nothing getting done, except perhaps more general discord.

For those of you who are leaning towards Republican candidates… the funny thing for me is how un-Republican the Republican party has become. About 10 years ago I noted that the “party of smaller government” was spending an awful lot of time promoting and investing in more government. Even old guard Republicans have noticed the irony. I recommend American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, which examines this phenomenon. Look at how much taxpayer time and money Republicans have spent on legislating their version of sexual morality, while holding out against any sort of universal health care that encourages people to get proper care. Buy a sex toy in Texas and your immorality is punishable by law; die from an inability to afford quality medical care and it’s just too bad. That’s just twisted.

Letting Americans die of preventable diseases for lack of proper healthcare coverage is pretty cold (dying because a disease is not caught until it’s too late due to a lack of preventive care, primarily due to being economically disadvantaged). Letting people die of AIDS in poor nations for a lack of (artificially) costly medicine is reprehensible… as if letting people die is preferable to giving away medicine at cost to those who can in no way afford it’s market price. That’s moral? Nope… for those who rail against Darwin, that’s Social Darwinism at its best. It’s all about the money and control (the only way morality enters in such an equation is in judging such people unworthy of the government’s help). It’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

Note: this isn’t to say the Democrats have done much better at getting things done over the years either… but at least some of the present candidates seem to intend to make progress on the big issues in a way that goes beyond campaign fluff. I sincerely hope they do, and that this election means we don’t have any more of this foolish war, religious fundamentalism driving public policy or the general divisiveness we have today.

Are Republicans THAT different from Democrats? Not really… it’s mainly on issues of “morality” as it pertains to individuals that any difference is readily apparent across the respective parties. Edwards, Obama and (potential candidate) Gore seems to stand out from that crowd… I hope whichever of them wins proves my hunch right.

As a disclaimer, I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool liberal and I’m only conservative on a few issues (I’m centrist for the most part, left-leaning). This post is not paid for or otherwise endorsed by any of the candidates, parties or others, period. I’m just speaking my mind (warning: mind subject to change without notice…)