Grammatically speaking, it’s “whom,” of course, but I won’t get into that right now. What I wanted to do here was take a look at all of the major candidates (and potential candidates) of all political stripes and break them down as I see them. My intent is to provide a brief description of the candidate in general, where they end up on the political spectrum (left, center, right, etc.), what their potential presidency might mean for our country, and how viable they are as candidates in the general election.

This breakdown will happen during Part II of the series, to be published soon, because first, in Part I of this series, I thought I’d provide a little background on my political perspective, because nothing is more important when it comes to digesting a political discussion (or any other thing for that matter, particurlarly food) than knowing “source.” In my article about vegetarianism, for example, I explain that my main reasons for choosing not to eat meat are based on my knowledge of where the vast majority of meat comes from in our country, its “source,” which in my opinion isn’t particularly healthy, neither nutritionally nor ethically. So before you digest my opinions about each of these candidates, it’s important to know where I’m coming from.

To provide context for my political experience, I’ll explain it in terms of my first political memories as a child, followed by my voting record for each Presidential contest I have been eligible to participate in, dating back to 1992.

In second grade, back in 1980, my class conducted a “vote” for the presidency between Reagan and Carter. I “voted” for Ronald Reagan because he seemed more handsome than Jimmy Carter. Reagan “won” my second grade class’s election and later, the country’s.

My next political memory came in 1989 as a tenth-grader at Episcopal High School in Northern Virginia, which by the way, is Senator John McCain’s alma mater. In January of that year I attended George H.W. Bush’s Inauguration. During his speech was the first time I heard the phrase, New World Order, although I didn’t know what it meant at the time. Instead, I remember thinking Bush was cool and was excited to be a part of the whole thing. Earlier in that school year, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the future first woman Speaker of the House (who’s son is also an alum of my prep school) came to speak one morning during chapel. Being the son of an Army general, I didn’t like her criticisms of the Republican administration, particularly the defense budget and our spending on the then high-fangled, experimental Stealth Bomber. It seemed that most of my classmates leaned Republican at the time.

The next time I was in the same room as a politician was four years later, in January 1993, when President Bush gave his last official speech while in office, this time at West Point’s Eisenhower Hall. Earlier in the day, he ate lunch with all 4000 of us in the Cadet Mess. All I remember from that meal was the fact that each of us had to pass through a metal-detector on our way into the Mess Hall, and that they dismissed all of the cafeteria staff and servers (who were mostly immigrants) for the day for security purposes. Consequently, we were forced to eat sandwiches stuffed with cold cuts instead of our usual hearty, hot meals. I remember thinking it was rather ludicrous to check all of us cadets for weapons or to be worried about us from a security perspective. There was no doubt in my mind that being among 4000 West Point cadets was probably safest place on earth for the President of the United States to be.

By this time Bush had already (obviously) lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. He looked weary and old. And his face was all sweaty. That’s all I remember. I think he was no match for Clinton’s youthful energy and was riding on the Gulf War I victory to propel him to a second term in office, and was shocked to see his “plan” backfire.

In November, a few months earlier, I was 19 years old and had my first opportunity to vote. Although I had leaned Republican as an adolescent, probably influenced by my father, I decided to cast my vote instead for H. Ross Perot. Clinton I didn’t trust, and Bush, well, Bush just seemed so washed up and angry that he even had to go through a whole election again in order to stay in office.

Four years later, I was dissatisfied with Dole and Clinton and decided to sit that one out. Dole was so boring and out of touch with the youth vote that had helped Clinton’s candidacy so masterfully back in ‘92. I think Mitt Romney was right recently when he compared John McCain’s candidacy’s to that of Bob Dole’s in ‘96. Both of them are/were over the hill and a couple of the most boring speakers you can find anywhere. I will get into more on this when I break down each candidate in my next post.

In 2000, after much deliberation, I voted for George W. Bush. With hindsight, I feel at least somewhat assured knowing that my personal vote didn’t really do much to swing the thing in either direction, as I was voting in the State of Georgia, which went overwhelmingly in the Bush column. I considered Gore, but actually became really turned off with what I perceived as arrogance during the debates. After 8 years of relative peace with Mr. Clinton in office, never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be at war with two different countries simultaneously within three short years, so honestly I had no idea how important this election was at the time. I think the Clinton Presidency had lulled me into thinking that prosperity and peace “just happened,” and that who was in office really didn’t matter that much. I mean, GWB’s dad may have invaded Panama and fought back Iraq in Kuwait, and RR invaded vacation-spot Grenada, but never did I think that any President would engage us in all a full-scale, all-out war, a la Vietnam. I knew Bush was no genius, but I didn’t think he was THAT DUMB!

In 2004, I regretfully voted for a loser named John Kerry. In the Democratic primary, I voted for Dennis Kucinich, whom I had the pleasure to spend some time with during the filming of my documentary, Swing State Ohio, about the fight for Ohio during the 2004 Presidential Election. I knew he wasn’t going to win, but I viewed the primary as an opportunity to vote with my heart, and I felt it important to cast a vote in the name of peace, as my views on American militarism had changed sharply with the illegal, unconstitutional, undeclared war in Iraq and the misguided foray into Afghanistan, which incidentally is probably illegal too, as it came without a Congressional Declaration of War, which is the sole providence of the Legislative Branch of Government.

But back to John Kerry. I call Kerry a “loser” not in a perjorative way, but in a factually accurate way. He is a loser because he, well, lost. He is a loser because after several months on the campaign trail in Ohio, I rarely heard anybody say, “I’m voting for Kerry because he’s an excellent leader and will carry this country in a positive direction.” When I asked people who they were voting for, all I ever heard was, “Not Bush,” “Anybody but Bush,” and so on. All the energy during that election was about Bush, Bush, Bush. Of course much of it was anti-Bush, but from an energetic perspective, the prevailing idea that millions of people were putting out to the Universe was Bush, Bush, Bush. And what did the Universe respond with? MORE BUSH!

This is a classic, albeit heartbreaking, example of the Law of Attraction at work, in which we manifest that which we focus on. This works in either direction, regardless of whether the outcome is aligned with the original intention. What I mean by that is, if we focus our attention on reducing our debt, if we constantly ask ourselves, “How am I going to get out of debt?” all we attract is more debt, even though that obviously wasn’t our intention. The Law of Attraction knows neither “good” nor “bad,” and works purely from an energetic standpoint. So in the 2004 election, millions of people were focusing on the ills of Mr. Bush instead of focusing their energy in a more positive manner, towards an outcome or candidate they actually felt passionate about. See, so many people, record numbers of people, had tremendous passion for Bush Jr. The Universe doesn’t distinguish between positive or negative passion. It just hears “Bush” with a ton of passion, and poof: “Four More Years!”

Now, I’m not so naive to presume that this energetic law was the only thing at work during the ‘04 election. Kerry was an undynamic candidate whose personal charisma was unable to overcome the shenanigans that occurred in the state of Ohio, much like they occurred in the State of Florida four years earlier. I was in Ohio, I made a film about Ohio, I’ve done a ton of research on the subject and the evidence overwhelmingly points to yet another stolen election. And although Bush and his cronies are responsible for this, not all of the blame lies on their shoulders.

Kerry himself should share the blame, along with someone else you might know. I’m talking about you. Me too. All of us. The American people, who take their marching orders from the bought-media. And the Congress. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), a dynamic Congresswoman I had the pleasure to meet and spend some time with on the campaign trail, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), had the courage to challenge the 2004 election results, an action well within the bounds of their Constitutional powers. Their challenge was met with derision from the Republicans, and general apathy among the Democrats, save the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who courageously raised up their voices in protest as well. The challenge was snubbed and forgotten about, and virtually ignored in the mainstream press. Ask the average American if they knew that there was a Congressional challenge of the 2004 Presidential Election, and the answer almost assuredly would be “no.” Ask the average American if they were aware that a recount was conducted in Ohio, and I’m sure you’d get another “no” (of course the recount itself was an absolute joke, but I won’t get into that right now).

I say that I regret voting for John Kerry because I wish I had wasted my vote and instead cast a ballot in favor of the Green Party, whose platform closer aligns with my own values, rather than the pandering interests of Sen. John Kerry.
This was a calculated thought as well, knowing my vote for the Green Party wouldn’t swing the election towards Bush, as I was casting my vote in the State of New York, which was firmly within the grasp of John Kerry. We interviewed Green Party candidate David Cobb for our film and he had more balls than John Kerry in the aftermath of the 2004 fiasco, displayed in his efforts to demand a recount in the State of Ohio.

With the painful memories of 2004 behind us, we now find ourselves in the midst of another primary season. I currently live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which held its primary this week on “Super Tuesday.” Although I don’t consider myself a Democrat, I registered as a Democrat as the only way to ensure my enfrachisement during our country’s election process. This year, I casted my vote for Barack Obama, although Dennis Kucinich was still on the ballot. I heavily considered changing my party affiliation to Republican so I could vote for Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), the ONLY candidate in the fray who strictly practices Constitutionalism, which is a concept many of us might think we understand or believe in, but is in actuality a commodity severely lacking in in our current “democracy.”

In my next post, I will analyze the following candidates from an Independent, progressive, and constitutionalist perspective:

*Senator Barack Obama
*Senator John McCain
*Senator Hillary Clinton
*Former Governor Mitt Romney
*Former Governor Mike Hucakbee
*Congressman Ron Paul
*Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Until then…Keep Asking QUESTIONS!