Super Fat Tuesday

Alabama was one of the states in the Super Tuesday primary and I cast my vote. Apparently, God did not agree with my choice and sent a tornado Wednesday morning at 3AM to show me His displeasure. Happily, the Finger of God just pointed at me and didn’t land a jab. I swear I heard laughter, not thunder.

Here is the journey my brain took to reach the conclusion to cast my primary vote. Maybe you’ll be as angry and amused as the Almighty.

First, in Alabama you can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary. You just tell the poll worker which ballot you want. I could have voted in either. I could have voted against someone in the other party, but that’s just dumb. After all, you’re really voting for delegates, not the candidate. I picked the Republican ballot.

Second, I’ll just say it out-right. I will not vote for Hillary Clinton under any conditions. I’m not going to be part of circumventing the 22nd Amendment. I’m tired of the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton dynasties. I’ll get to Obama in a minute.

So on to the Republicans.

Romney
No way. I was talking, post-voting, to a friend who said Romney comes off as arrogant. That sentiment was echoed by a caller on the evening drive-time radio talk show. You know what? Romney does come off as a dick. He strikes me as an out of touch, condescending rich boy. It bugs me that he portrays himself as a conservative, but was elected governor of one of the most liberal states in the country, Massachusetts. How does a Republican get elected by the people who keep sending Ted Kennedy back to D.C. year after year? My only conclusion is he bought that election the same way he’s trying to buy this one.

Romney has raised over $90 million for his campaign, but $38 of it is his own money. It honkers my hooter when I hear people say he’ll be a good president because of his business background. He’s spent almost all of the $90 million he’s raised and is still trailing in the delegate count. That’s a horrible return on investment and bad business.

McCain
If push comes to shove and McCain ends up being the Republican nominee, I could vote for him. I wouldn’t really like it, but I could do it. But this was the primary and he wasn’t my first choice.

So I spent a lot of time looking at the “Issues” sections of Huckabee’s and Paul’s web sites.

Huckabee
I like this guy. He was my impulse vote, but something about his stand on some of the issues gave me a bad feeling. Take this from his Plan to Strengthen America’s Infrastructure. To put this in context, he’s writing about improving I-95 where 1/3 of the American population lives within 100 miles.

This nation’s infrastructure is falling apart. And if we built those lanes of highways — with American labor, American steel, American concrete – I believe it would do more to stimulate the economy.

And the reason I say that is because when we were going through a recession in my state, we were in the middle of a billion-dollar highway construction program that brought about 40,000 jobs and brought a billion dollars of capital into the economy.

I could buy that if it were cased as infrastructure to stimulate the private sector. What I take away from it is Hoover Dam, a giant public works project where the government creates artificial jobs. Sure there is something lasting that comes from it, but the reasoning behind it bugs me.

Paul
Which brings me to Ron Paul. I read through all his issues and could agree in-whole or in-part with every thing on the site. I find it a shame the he’s been excluded from some of the debates and marginalized. I haven’t been one of the fringers who call radio shows, yells “Ron Paul!” and hangs up. I looked at the issues. I was undecided until Tuesday. I vacuolated between Huckabee and Paul. I marked my ballot for Ron Paul’s delegates. He spoke to my inner Libertarian and Constitutionalist. I hold no delusion that he’ll be around for the general election, but it felt good to vote my conscience. It felt good to vote for an idea and not so much the man.

The General Election
I’ll vote Republican under all but the following circumstances: Obama v Romney. If it comes down to Romney as the Republican nominee, I’ll gladly switch parties and vote for Obama. The only ticket that will cause an aneurysm is Clinton v Romney. If that eventuality happens, it will be the first time in my life I use the write-in line. I’ll still vote, but I won’t like it.