Debates & Such

Yeah, so it's been a while. I've been a little busy... But I have been paying attention to the election. It's been hard not to. :)

The first debate was a couple of weeks ago. It was out in Denver, Colorado at the University of Denver. As fate had it, I was out in Denver for the debate night for a conference! Unfortunately, the debate wasn't open the public so I couldn't even try to go. It was a strange feeling to watch the debate knowing it was taking place literally just down the road! :) I also watched the debate at a pub full of people - the first time I've ever done something like that. And it was surprisingly quiet, so I could actually hear the debate! And not a lot of crowd reaction either, that was a little bit surprising.

For the debate itself: Mitt was rehearsed. He had his bullet points and he hit them hard. I give him credit that he was well-prepared. Doesn't change the fact I didn't like or agree with what he was saying... President Obama was disappointingly distant. He wasn't nearly as active as he should have been and wasn't make very clear points. However, none of this changed my mind on either candidate.

Last week, we had the Vice President Debates. If I'm going to completely honest here, when Romney first announced Paul Ryan has his running mate and after listening to him at the RNC (not that I agreed with him on ANYTHING!), I thought he would do much better in the VP debate than Biden. However, I was proven wrong! And thank goodness! Now, I will admit that there were times when I thought Biden was being a little bit of a ... prick. A lot of laughing and smirking. I read on facebook that someone thought he was laughing because he was scared, scared of what would happen under a Romney/Ryan administration! Ha! But after every laugh or smirk from Biden, he followed up with the hard cold facts! He was fact-checking on the spot and knocking Ryan down! It was an entertaining debate, at the very least!

Tonight was the second Presidential debate and I feel like it's been far more entertaining than the first one. This debate is also a town hall setting which is always more interesting. There were a couple times where I thought a fist fight was going to break out! Both men showed up to this debate but definitely President Obama. He was energetic and lively and was hitting some good points. He probably could have done better and really fired back at Romney on some of the things he said, but maybe next time. Romney on the other hand, wasn't as well prepared as last time, at least in my opinion. He said some things that will definitely be held against him in the future.
For me, I think President Obama definitely won this debate.

Another thing I just want to mention is that it's been really hard for me not to comment on some people's statuses on facebook and such. I'm all about having an open mind and allowing everyone to have their own opinion. What I don't like is people who are posting things and have no idea what they're talking about or nothing to back up what they're saying. This is frustrating. If you're going to have an opinion, do the research to back it up first.

And finally, the marriage amendment in Minnesota. I've been reading and seeing a lot of different things for this and I'm very nervous for my home state. I'm worried that Minnesotans are going to vote yes on this. I'm worried it's going to pass. And this is not okay. I don't care what your personal thoughts on gay marriages are, it is not our place to judge them and deny them their basic human rights! I have NEVER heard a logical argument for why someone is against gay marriage. If it's against your beliefs - that's fine! No one is forcing you to have a gay marriage! A gay marriage is not going to affect you or your marriage in any way! If you think you have a logical argument against gay marriage, I'd love to hear it. If not, vote no. It's that simple. This is a very personal issue for me and one I feel very strongly about. I pray that the people in Minnesota do the right thing and show the rest of the nation their "Minnesota Nice". 

Well, that's about it for now! I did already send in my ballot so I've officially voted! It's actually pretty ironic... I was scheduling my high school visits and I was trying to make sure I scheduled some fairly close to home on election day so that I would have time to come back and vote. That SAME night, a volunteer showed up at our door and asked if we wanted to sign up for early voting! Yes, please! So we got our ballots sent to us and we have both sent them back. I feel confident in my vote and I look forward to Election Night! :)  

Conventions

Alright, so I'm way behind on posting here. Not really sure why but now is as good as time as any to start up again! Because as we all know - it's convention time!

Last week was the Republican National Convention where Romney accepted the nomination and officially became the Republican candidate for president. His running mate, Paul Ryan, also accepted his nomination.

So to start off, this Paul Ryan character. Let's just say I'm not a huge fan of anyone who wants to take my rights as a woman away so I'm definitely not a Ryan fan. But I will say that he is a pretty good looking fella but he reminds me a lot of Will Schuester from Glee and during his speech I kept thinking, "When's he going to break out in song?" The other take away from Ryan's speech is just how untruthful it was. Even Fox News was talking about the lies that were told. And that is just not okay. I mean sure, every politician at some point has probably told a lie or exaggerated the truth or something like that during a speech but that doesn't make it okay for anyone. Especially not as much as Ryan did.

Mitt Romney's speech was nothing too special. I don't think he really had any flaws or anything that struck out as extraordinary either. But listening to his speech, I personally just can't understand why anyone would want to be a Republican. :) I'm kidding. Sort of. I just don't understand how anyone can benefit from being a Republican unless you're a millionaire and let's be honest, most of us aren't.

Another thing I want to mention is this clip from the Daily Show. Basically it's about how the Republican platform is against abortions in all situations. But Mitt, their candidate, doesn't agree with the platform. So the question is asked, how can you support your candidate if he doesn't support your platform? And their answers? "This is America. Everyone has a choice. They can do what they want." Ah yes. Except in the cases of abortion.

There's been a lot of talk about abortion in the news lately. It seems a lot of states are waging a war against women's rights. Funny enough, most of the people behind these laws are men. And some of the things people are saying are just outrageous. But here is a picture that was posted to Facebook that I really think puts things into perspective. Just something to compare it with...

You might not agree with abortion and that's fine. That's your personal choice. But it should be not be any other person's choice than the woman who has to decide if that's something she wants or not. 

Alright, now on to the Democratic National Convention which started last night. The main speaker of last night was Michelle Obama and she did a fantastic job. It completed delivered and got people real excited for the rest of the convention. She talked about the type of person Obama is, how he was raised, the struggles they both grew up with and the struggles of being in love, married and in debt from student loans. She talked about family, healthcare and hard work. She hit a lot of great points. It's really hard not to like Michelle Obama. :)

It will be interested to see President Obama speak later this week. His speech four years ago was one for the history books. And it was a speech I was lucky enough to be in attendance for. He really got everyone excited and he will have to do it again. And it's probably not going to be as easy.

Finally, I just wanted to put a plug in for this website my brother introduced me too. It's pretty funny. http://stfuconservatives.net/ Check it out when you have time. :)

Getting closer to November!

I know, it's been a very long time since I've posted anything on this blog. But let's be honest... has the election really been that exciting so far? Let's recap what's happened. Santorum dropped out.Gingrich dropped out. Paul I think is still hanging in there but won't be the Republican nomination. Which means Romney is left standing. Which also proves that you can buy an election. I mean really, does anyone really like Romney? He's really not the GOP's first choice. But there's no one else. And so the next question is who will be his running mate? I'm not sure anyone really wants the job... So here we are until the Republican convention this summer.

President Obama has already started his campaigning as well for the election. And while there hasn't been too much to say in this area, there was one major event that just happened recently that needs to be discussed.

President Obama came out in full support of same-sex marriages!!!

This is huge!! There was some talk about why this was such a huge deal though. Yes, it is true that Obama did have some support in the area before, but he was more in support of the idea of civil unions. The statement he gave recently stated, "I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

The reason, I believe, that this is so big is because this kind of support has never come from such a high office, like the President's. And since his announcement of support, many other powerful political figures have also expressed their support for this issue.

Let's hope this is a huge step in the right direction for equal rights for all! Thank you, Mr. President.