Comments on: Candidate Selection Tool http://montaraventures.com/blog/2007/07/26/candidate-selection-tool/ Mike Harding's Blog Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:12:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Mike http://montaraventures.com/blog/2007/07/26/candidate-selection-tool/#comment-23086 Mike Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:30:02 +0000 http://montaraventures.com/blog/2007/07/26/candidate-selection-tool/#comment-23086 Great comments Andy, spot on from my perspective. Though they are leading in fund raising and in the polls, I tend to think neither Hillary nor Obama are electable for different reasons. It's too soon to tell what will happen, but it is interesting watching all of the candidates jockey for position. Great comments Andy, spot on from my perspective. Though they are leading in fund raising and in the polls, I tend to think neither Hillary nor Obama are electable for different reasons.

It’s too soon to tell what will happen, but it is interesting watching all of the candidates jockey for position.

]]> By: Andy http://montaraventures.com/blog/2007/07/26/candidate-selection-tool/#comment-23064 Andy Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:28:44 +0000 http://montaraventures.com/blog/2007/07/26/candidate-selection-tool/#comment-23064 This approach identified a candidate that I would support; however, the small-of-stature Dem from Ohio may be unelectable. Regarding issues, I recently heard a Democratic spokesman argue why one shouldn't hold unabashed Israel support against Hilary. His seemingly off the cuff (but I strongly suspect, well crafted, possibly poll-tested) argument was that of the "over 3000 issues” to be debated during an election, one shouldn't hold one or two issues on which they disagree against that candidate when they clearly agree on the other 2000 or so. The convenient Israel example portends the logic that Hilary plans to use when she tries to perpetuate the myth that the rest of the world already knows to be incorrect: you can decouple Israeli-Arab animosity from U.S.-Arab animosity and achieve peace in the Middle East. Only Americans buy this nonsense. This decoupling argument is similar to an argument that one would never make in rational company: “I am not a racist. Of the hundreds of groups (i.e., races; recent human genome work demonstrates that there are no genetic differences among groups/races within our species) in our species, I only hate _________. So I am not a racist.” So for future candidate selection tools, keep in mind who built the tool and how they lump/split on issues. Hilary, Barack and all the Republicans (plus Republicans who claim to have scrambled to a higher moral ground in recent years – they call themselves Libertarians) will use this specific Israel-Arab decoupling argument in the coming months because, I am sure, AIPAC insists. Furthermore, if George Bush can still sell us all the lies that he’s been selling for the last 6 years, imagine how successful an intelligent Presidential candidate’s lying could be. This approach identified a candidate that I would support; however, the small-of-stature Dem from Ohio may be unelectable.

Regarding issues, I recently heard a Democratic spokesman argue why one shouldn’t hold unabashed Israel support against Hilary. His seemingly off the cuff (but I strongly suspect, well crafted, possibly poll-tested) argument was that of the “over 3000 issues” to be debated during an election, one shouldn’t hold one or two issues on which they disagree against that candidate when they clearly agree on the other 2000 or so.

The convenient Israel example portends the logic that Hilary plans to use when she tries to perpetuate the myth that the rest of the world already knows to be incorrect: you can decouple Israeli-Arab animosity from U.S.-Arab animosity and achieve peace in the Middle East. Only Americans buy this nonsense.

This decoupling argument is similar to an argument that one would never make in rational company: “I am not a racist. Of the hundreds of groups (i.e., races; recent human genome work demonstrates that there are no genetic differences among groups/races within our species) in our species, I only hate _________. So I am not a racist.”

So for future candidate selection tools, keep in mind who built the tool and how they lump/split on issues. Hilary, Barack and all the Republicans (plus Republicans who claim to have scrambled to a higher moral ground in recent years – they call themselves Libertarians) will use this specific Israel-Arab decoupling argument in the coming months because, I am sure, AIPAC insists. Furthermore, if George Bush can still sell us all the lies that he’s been selling for the last 6 years, imagine how successful an intelligent Presidential candidate’s lying could be.

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