Buffalo Boy's Blog

I did something novel yesterday, how many actually go to the candidates webistes and read up on the issues? If you do you will find substantially more than if you listen to them speak. Try it, I came away with a whole new outlook.

For instance on an issue that means a lot to me, the environment and energy, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have a much more substantial look at their ideas and solutions than does John McCain. Both have substantial solutions proposed and line by line items. Mccain has more on his site on gun control or lack there of on his site than he does about the environment.

On gun control, after the Virgina Tech inncident, McCain lists nothing in his 2nd amendment issue about doing mental health background checks on potential gun owners. And why does he feel that this is an issue on his site yet Hillary/Obama don't have it?

There is such a deep divide between the two parties after you go to their sites and read about the issues. For instance both Obama and Clinton have substantial solutions for education and McCain must feel that things are peachy with the education system because he has none. That should be encouraging to republican voters, is education just not important to any of you?

Barack proposes not throwing away No Child Left Behind but actually funding it the way it was meant to be funded so that it works and running it the way it was meant to be run. There is an interesting one that Bush obviously forgot about over the last 8 years. Funding his programs probably would have helped. Instead he has cut funding to education, I have seen it happen directly when the Bush cut funding to Head Start, a very important program if you are talking about seriously running a program called No Child Left Behind.

In addition, Bush slashed after school program funding which hit me directly. I used to coach swimming for an urban Outreach Program that created opportunities for inner city children to participate in after school activities including swimming. Our program applied for grants through the federal government. When I started we had 300 inner city kids swimming and over 50 of them competing through USA swimming, with in 3 years, our funding was dried up and thus we lost all hope of running our program. Thats 300 kids who are doing something other than walking the streets or getting into something else. Obama would restore that funding for after school programs.  

Clinton on education proposes the following: to end UNFUNDED No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (again for you republicans, ending something that you all support that was never funded), she is going to also meet funding for IDEA (individuals with disabilities education act) to insure that students with disabilities get the attention and support they need, doubling after school funding, and fully funding universal preschool for all four year olds and headstart programs. It is not as lengthy as Obama's but I like the idea of junking NCLB, it was never funded so it was technically, never used.

So, not to get into all the issues, but read the web sites, I can see why the consevatives booed Mccain off the stage after reading his site as opposed to Clinton and Obama. Mike Huckabee's site is also worth a visit, he addresses much more than McCain and actually has some very liberal like ideas like energy independence by the end of his term. That said, these guys should be spilling their guts in their speeches not just providing some flashy verbage when they are up talking. Tell us what is in your website so we all know, because not everyone has the time to site down and read volumes about each and every candidate, I would much rather hear it.