managing impressions

[update: I fixed the link]

Come November, I will likely vote for the Democrat (as I always have, no matter how much I loathed him and no matter how often Democrats have betrayed liberal ideals—and it was always a him, I note pedantically rather than from the perspective of gender politics, which bores me).

I’ve never been into identity politics, and I’m not emotionally invested in this election. So far, I’m amused by the campaign and I think the rowdy atmosphere surrounding it is good for America (because it calls attention to the political process and gets people involved on some level).

In this upcoming election, my primary concern is that our next president stay focused on external threats to America and Americans and that s/he take the foreign policy baton from Bush without breaking stride. Almost as important, I want a president who is going to look at health care and do something to provide a safety net for the uninsured. This country must also face head-on the conundrum of illegal immigrants. (I come from a “legal” immigrant family myself, was naturalized as an American citizen as a teenager, and I am deeply offended by the nativism animating much of the “conversation” about “illegal aliens”: Lou Dobbs, I’m talking to you. This is not an “identity issue.” It’s an issue of “Who is an American?”.

I also believe that there should be a push to reintroduce civics into the American high school system, as a means of encouraging young people to participate in the representative government they are so lucky to live under (but I won’t get militant about that idea). I don’t think we desperately need a brand-new foreign policy—who even knows what that would look like? and isn’t that what got us into trouble (if that’s what you believe happened) after 9/11 when Bush reached for a response and found an answer, courtesy of his powerful vice president?

Anyhow, chastened by my country’s “over-correction” as a result of 9/11, I’m standing back and assessing this crop of candidates as they present themselves to me over the course of primary season.

Here’s the impression they’ve made on me so far:

Romney: good for business

Obama: full of hot air

Huckabee: slick Mikey

McCain: Old Faithful

Giuliani: father knows best

Clinton: Tracy Flick (see amusing vid here)