Archive for April, 2007

Going – uh WENT to the Candidate’s Debate…

Published
by
seanb
on 27 April 2007
in Biden, Clinton, Democracy, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, Political and Richardson
. 1 Comment

South Carolina State University at Orangeburg, South Carolina, was the scene of the first debate of the 2008 Presidential Campaign season. This debate pitted the eight candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination against one another, and gave a broad first look at the field. Following is what I thought about each of the candidates, in alphabetical order. (Don’t expect to find information on this page on any Republican debates… I do not give fair air time…)

Senator Joseph Biden was cool, calm, and collected. His first answer of the evening was perhaps the funniest of any of the candidates. Brian Williams, the moderator, said that Senator Biden had been accused of oftentimes being verbose, and not being able to give any answers. He was asked by Williams if he were elected President, if he would be aware of this, and be able to control it. Biden answered “Yes.” To laughter, Williams had to move on. Nonetheless, Biden didn’t strike me as overly impressive.

Hillary Clinton, senator from New York, still cannot find the right answer to the question about her voting for authorizing President Bush to go to war with Iraq in 2003. While other candidates have answered that their vote authorizing this was a mistake, she still avoids the phrase “mistake” at every opportunity. Perhaps this is to avoid being shown as weak; however, I think it’s more a sign of an inability to admit wrongness. She also comes across as being rather plastic in her emotion. Fake.

Christopher Dodd, like Biden, was well spoken. In fact, he exudes an air of calm authority. Almost like he is very familiar with every issue that is thrown his way. In his years in public office, one can only think that this rehearsed nature is just that – rehearsed. Brian Williams summed it up best when he called Dodd “the most Washingtonian of any of the people on the stage.” While I understand that one needs to have the knowledge of how to work with others in the arena, I’m not certain we need someone so rehearsed in the Oval Office.

John Edwards, former senator from North Carolina, seemed quite real; however, he gives the feeling of overdoing it. Perhaps this is the trial lawyer that he is, coming through. Polished. In my years in high school debate, this would be the guy I’d hate to come up against – the one who would make my brow sweat, just from his appearance. Edwards also gives the appearance that he is well grounded, and would make an extremely viable candidate in my opinion – able to bridge the people of this nation, no matter what his party (or theirs) was.

Mike Gravel, former two-term senator from Alaska, came across as being against all others on the stage, saying that we could get out of Iraq tomorrow, if only we’d pass a law making it a felony for us to be there. While I agree that we should be out of Iraq as soon as possible, and while I agree that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, Mr. Gravel’s acerbic attitude was quite disturbing, and very effective at making the moderator (and others, read: me) uncomfortable.

Dennis Kucinich, my personal favorite going into this debate, is still my personal favorite coming out of the debate. He is not afraid to voice his opinion, and is not afraid to call a spade a spade. He’s plainspoken, and has kept his middle-class roots close to home. Unfortunately, it is for this reason that I think he won’t make it much further, because to become President in this day and age requires polish. Something Kucinich, unfortunately, lacks.

Barack Obama, who was recommended to me as someone to watch, is perhaps one of the more conservative of the individuals being put forth by the party as a runner for the office of President. In touch with himself, his family, and his religion, Obama appears to have the polish necessary to achieve victory in being elected. Unfortunately, like Dodd and Biden, he appears too rehearsed, perhaps too polished, to actually connect with his audience.

Last, but not least, we have Bill Richardson. Of the eight, Gravel’s antics aside, Richardson is the most enigmatic. He’s a regular guy. Unfortunately, I think he’s a little too plainspoken to make the cut. Like Kucinich, Richardson is clear on his message, and clear in his principles. Something other candidates, Edwards aside, appear to be lacking. Richardson, though, is missing the polish required in this day and age to achieve the office. While many candidates would hate to have this particular nomination, Bill Richardson is clearly vice-presidential material, but I mean this in the most sincere way. Especially as defined by the current administration, the President is mostly a figurehead, and the VP does the heavy lifting. Richardson would work wonderfully in this capacity.

In all, there is a great field vying for the Executive Office of the President. I can’t wait for the field to be whittled down a bit more, so that I can focus my efforts on the ones with the most potential. If I had to call it today, I’d say that the viable candidates would be Edwards, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama. Biden may replace Dodd in that ranking, just based on looking Presidential (Dodd looks a bit like a commentator, while Biden has more of a CEO look).

And making an early guess, I’ll say that it’ll be Edwards or Obama getting the nomination, leaning toward Edwards.

Virginia Tech: Enough Blame to Go Around

Published
by
seanb
on 19 April 2007
in General and Society
. 1 Comment

When I first heard about the shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, it appeared to have been one of a “domestic” nature; two students, dead, in a dorm room – the police having apprehended a “person of interest”. It wasn’t until a meeting I had on Monday afternoon that I heard that the death toll had grown from two to 32. The first time I rolled my eyes in regard to the incident was when a co-worker of mine said: “They are going to have a lot to answer for.”

My initial question was: “Who is going to have to answer for what?!”

The police, as police will do, set up a perimeter around the initial crime scene, and thought they had it locked down. They had a person of interest in custody, and were questioning them. That, alone, could have taken the two-hour timeframe in incidents between shooting scenes.

The administration, as administrators will do, convened almost immediately (within 45 minutes of the first reports of the shootings), and discussed what the university’s response would be. Given the police departments impressions and information they had at the time, the administration agreed with the police, and determined that the problem was of a local, residence hall, issue – not the widespread massacre that it turned out to be. The deliberations taken by the administrators could have easily taken an hour or more. Given that this is already one hour and 45 minutes after the shootings, little would have come from any announcements they possibly could have made.

Parents of students who will be entering school in the fall called in to the Diane Rehm show on Tuesday, on which Ms. Rehm was focusing discussion on the events of the Virginia Tech shooting. Some of them commended the police department’s reaction, some parents called for guarantees that their students be made safe.

Being a parent, I understand both sides of the coin; but I believe I’m realistic enough to know that incidents like this will happen from time to time, and it’s not the job of the police departments (or even of university administrators) to plan for every single eventuality possible under the sun – there isn’t enough money available to do so.

Yes… this boils down to money.

Sure, VT’s police department could have had a loudspeaker system in place in every single one of the 200+ buildings on campus, to warn people in those buildings to stay put, lock down, and protect themselves because there was a shooter on the loose. But there isn’t enough money for the police department or the university to do so. Then, once it’s installed it needs to be maintained.

Sure, VT’s police department could have hired enough manpower to be able, at any given time, to go building to building and stop people from moving from building to building, in essence locking down the campus. But there isn’t enough money for the police department or the university to do so. Then, once the police force is hired, it needs to be maintained and trained.

Planning for an eventuality like this is hard to do, if not impossible. It’s kind of hard to plan for an eventuality that has never occurred before, nor was foreseeable in the grand scheme of things. (Remember, just five days ago, a gunman coming onto a college campus and killing 33 people was unfathomable – even in our aggressive, handgun-ridden society).

We have to teach our children to be free thinkers; give them the tools required to protect themselves in any eventuality, as best they can. Teach them to have faith that what they are doing is the right thing, and to do good by others, always. It’s only through free-thinking preparedness like this, that you have people like the German students who were able, once their class was ambushed, to barricade the door to prevent the shooter from coming back in – AND have the wherewithal to stay hidden from the gunman’s persistence in shooting through the door and the desk.

We also have to teach our children to be compassionate toward others. I am not being an apologist for Cho Seung-Hui, for I believe that we choose how we react to things, no matter how negative those things may be. But I will say that something caused this individual to feel marginalized by society – and anyone who remembers their school years, will know that this is difficult to get over, but most of us do, indeed, get over it.

Regardless of the fact that Mr. Cho, alone, shoulders the responsibility for killing 33 people, our society does share in some of the blame for creating a world where it’s not cool to talk about mental disease. Where we might be ostracized for seeking mental health treatment. Where health plans don’t cover mental health as much as they cover physical health.

Perhaps this will serve as the wake-up call that is needed to create reform in this industry, and encourage people to open up their minds to treatment options that may be available.