Have you registered?

I have just registered online to vote for presidential delegates at the West Virginia GOP Convention to be held on February 5, 2008.

My voice will be heard, will your's?

Get It Right Politicians

If you are running for president listen up. If you travel to the great state of West Virginia you had better do the right thing.

We know that all you are doing right now is collecting money. We have no problem with that. Treat us differently than you do the big city voters. Sitting at country club in Morgantown eating rubber chicken may get you money from the rich Republicans, but you will not make friends among the small town folk.

To be a successful candidate in West Virginia you need to carry the big four cities (Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling and Morgantown), but you also need to court the Eastern Panhandle and the hardest nut to crack - Southern West Virginia.

If you aren't working class, don't pretend to be. There is nothing we hate more than some rich politician looking down on us by pretending to be one of us.

There is nothing we love better in West Virginia than a candidate that talks to the people not at them. And especially don't use us to get your message to a wider audience.

Drive! Drive a truck, jeep or motorcycle. If you don't drive one of those vehicles, own one (unless owning or driving one would appear to make you phony).

Listen to us, our concerns and problems are the same as most other Americans. And every now and then we come up with a dandy solution.

I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. If you have comments or differing opinions, please let me know.

Where Do I Stand Politically?

On the outside.

Do I support the President? I support the office of President. I respect the office of President. But I have not agreed with any sitting President for many years.

Do I support the war in Iraq? Yes, I do not however support how it has been carried out. If we wanted to do it right we should have gone in full bore and secured everything in the first few months. Most of the problems we have over there now are because we did not secure everything as soon as possible.

Now, since we are there, we have a responsibility to the people of Iraq, and the Middle East to clean up our mess, and help the Iraqi people find some sort of safe, secure system to live under. Otherwise we will have caused more problems than we went over there to prevent.

Am I a Republican or Democrat? I am part of the vanishing breed know as "Moderate Republicans". Don't automatically tune me out now my Democratic friends. People from both sides of the aisle will find that they can agree with me or disagree with me. That is fine. That is what make for a good arguement. But what makes a good Democracy is how you argue. You will not find name calling here. You will not find insults here. You will find opinion. Hopefully, you will find discussion and dialogue. Solutions that work can not be found unless people work together.

Is your opinion relevant? That is for you to decide. I think it is.

Comments?

First Post

This blog will have several purposes.

1. A place to sort out and make known my political views.
2. A place to show my support for various candidates from local, state and national levels.
3. A place to have civilized debate on issues and candidates.

There are a few things I know that will happen here. You will probably disagree with many things I write here. I will probably disagree with many of the things I write here. Candidates will probably disagree with many of the things I write here.

I will try to post here at least a couple of times a week. It may be more, it may be less.

I will try to moderate and reply to comments in an orderly fashion. (Don't go ballistic if your comment does not show up for a day or two.)

About me: I am a married father of two living and working in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. About a year and a half ago I quit a very nice paying tech job because the commute was becoming too long and I wanted to spend more time with my family and see what was going on it the area.

Well, that is enough for the first post. I guess I will try to post tomorrow with some political fun.