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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Karl Rove vs. Hillary Clinton

Yesterday Karl Rove was on such interview programs as Meet the Press, and he had a bunch of negative things to say about Hillary Clinton. Some of the news community seemed to wonder whether he was doing that because he wanted to energize the anti-GOP Democrats to vote for her in the primaries, because he (and Republicans generally) thought she would be the easiest Democrat to beat. Others thought he was doing it for exactly the opposite reason: that Republicans were scared of Hillary. I wonder why they didn't just take Rove at his word: he believes she is the person the Democrats will nominate. Given that belief, there is no reason to attack Barack Obama, or any other also-ran Democrat: it will be Hillary that the Republican nominee will have to run against next year, and so it is Hillary that any Republican will have to put in a bad light. (I hope the GOP nominee is Giuliani, of course, but any Republican has to think the same way: it is Hillary who will be the competition in 2008.) I think Rove's action is totally logical.

2 comments:

Jacob Ditkovski said...

I'd just like to point out that so far Obama is actually polling better than Clinton in head-to-head match ups with every Republican contender. That doesn't mean Rove is trying some sort of reverse psychology mind trick. But it's interesting to note.

Opinionator said...

I think a lot of people just do not like Rove, so they want to come up with some ulterior motive.