Politics and Religion and Bears, oh my!

Republican primary debates have been happening like crazy this month & I'm doing my best to pay attention! It's such a strange flip flop going constantly from the insanity of the current White House to the possibilities that the current Republican candidates hold.

The last debate, Fox News/Google, was really good in a lot of ways. My favorite thing about it: most of the candidates did well except for my least favorite candidate - Rick Perry. Hermann Cain did well. Mitt Romney did well. Ron Paul did well. Michelle Bachmann was okay and at least didn't annoy me. Rick Santorum was strong when given a chance to participate. Newt Gingrich, as always, says a lot in a concise fashion that makes sense...I still oddly don't feel the need to vote for him. Jon Huntsman was less creepy and rigid than the last debate. And...oh yeah, that guy I keep forgetting about...Gary Johnson.

I know I'm a traitor of sorts for not supporting the Texas governor. And he's an Aggie at that, so of course I should be swayed...however, he's big crony government at it's finest. All the guy knows how to do is make buddies and I think we've had enough of that. If I didn't dislike him already, I really disliked his handling of this week's scandal with his Baptist pastor's bigotry. Bad move. More about that later...

Tonight I listened to the Bloomberg debate. It was only broadcast to Iowa and New Hampshire. The interesting thing was listening to the candidates question each other. Very funny, really, but some really good points were brought up in them. Gingrich, Cain, Perry, and Huntsman asked Romney questions. Bachmann gave a zinger of a question to Perry. Paul and Santorum questioned Cain. Romney asked a question of Bachmann. Once again at the end of the debate I still thought everyone looked a little stronger than last time except for Perry. He keeps saying the same things over and over again. He touts the successes of Texas so much it's getting boring. People don't realize that the Texas governor is one of the least powerful governors in the country. What do I mean? All of the success in Texas has very little to do with him.

I should just put it out there now, that I am turning into a Romney supporter. I'm still watching everyone & rooting for some favorites (as well as rooting for a few failures) but I do like Romney. I like Tim Pawlenty, and he's endorsed Romney. I really like Chris Christie and he endorsed Romney today. Is he the perfect candidate? Maybe not, but the positives for our economy and our foreign policy could be great.

Romney has some hurdles to overcome, mainly, the Massachusetts health care he worked on as governor. I think it's a hurdle because the media and his competition are politicizing it to be more controversial than it is. I mean, 5-6 years ago the health care debate was so new for most people. If American's had looked at what was done in Massachusetts back when he was doing it, they might have liked it. In 2008 when he ran for president, I thought the plan sounded great. Just being honest here. His health care bill targeted the people in their state who could afford insurance and chose to take the risk knowing full well that when they got sick the taxpayer would pick up the bill. Taxes were not raised, "death panels" were not established, and most importantly it did not establish the framework for the Massachusetts government to take over the medical industry the way that Obamacare did. Do I understand the constitutional implications of giving the government power to make me purchase something better now? Yes. Did I see it that way 4 years ago? No. Did you? I doubt it, but kudos to you if you did! We've all gotten a lot smarter in the last 4 years so why not accept the same of our candidates?

I can't let the opportunity pass me to discuss the religious nonsense that was brought up this week by Robert Jeffress, Rick Perry's pastor, as he called Mormonism a cult and non-Christian. Rick Perry refused to correct his pastor and truly seems comfortable with the introduction of this divisive language into the race. Mike Huckabee was one of my top candidates in 2008 and when he played the anti-Mormon card he lost me. It just hits me in the pit of my stomach.

If we start evaluating our political candidates on their perceived level of Christianity we all lose. Everyone who believes in protecting the Judeo-Christian principles this country was founded on absolutely must stick together. If we divide ourselves based on religion, then we loose this most precious battle. At the core of our problems today is the great debate on where our liberty comes from. Some in the world believe that liberty comes from government. I believe it comes from God and government can protect it or take it away bit by bit. Those who believe liberty comes from government are afraid of what will happen when ALL of the people who believe liberty comes from God, whatever their definition of God is, stand together to protect that liberty. This discussion simply cannot be allowed to distract conservatives from the more important matters at stake. If we all want to continue freely worshiping as we wish, we have no choice but to stand together.

Nothing to say on the bears here...just seemed like I was hitting on the two most controversial topics in the same post so I should throw something else scary in!