First Cup 01.29.07

First CupActually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis – a good hot cup of coffee. ~ Alexander King

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) The Wisdom Of Keeping The Powder Dry

My advice, for those who want it, would be for bloggers to refrain from identifying with any one candidate until we get much closer to the primaries. For one thing, we have not necessarily seen all of the candidates yet. More importantly, we have not really seen their campaigning style and effort. 2007 should be considered a test for this wide-open field to make the best case and to hone their craft. Thanks to an early advent of the campaign, we have almost twelve months to consider each candidate, and we should take full advantage of that.

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I’m interested in having our candidates work for us, rather than the other way around, until we know as much about them, their policies, and their skills on the stump as we possibly can garner.

Captain Ed makes the point in his post that bloggers to the right of center have yet to experience the wide open campaign that we find going into the 2008 elections. It is a new situation that, I believe, will take bloggers in several directions.

Many will jump in to support a favorite candidate early, while others will content themselves with pointing out various weaknesses. The former may find themselves in the position of having to shift loyalties when their candidate exits the race. The later may end up having to justify eventual support for a candidate that they have vilified.

I think that Ed’s advice is sound, not only for bloggers, but for voters as well.

The reality is, we don’t get to create our candidates like Dr’s. Frankenstein or Rudy Wells. Every candidate is going to have areas where you as an individual can agree, and areas where you cannot.

This makes the real choice which candidate do you agree with the most and disagree with the least. Layered on that are which issues are most important to you and on which ones do you have less strong feelings.

And that requires learning where the various candidates come down on all issues, not just our pet ones.

One thing is for sure. We have plenty of time to hear each stance. (And each changing one.)

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