On the Issues - National Security/Immigration

Greetings again! This blog series promises to be quite lenghty so please bear with me. I will create a seperate entry for each of the issues we will cover. The issues are The Economy, Energy Policy, National Security/Immigration, Foreign policy/Iraq, Healthcare, Education, Ethics/Civil Rights.The following information in bold is take directly from the candidates web pages. I have elected not to name the candidates until a seperate blog to be presented after all of the others, not that the enlightened among us won't be able to figure it out. All that said lets begin with the issues, National Security and Immigration:

Candidate 1:We may not yet be in the nightmare world of George Orwell's classic novel "1984", but time is fast running out for a society that values freedom and liberty. Certainly, the government must be able to confront crime and terrorism, but its powers must be limited to those truly necessary to protect Americans and which are consistent with the Constitution. Also, government officials must always be accountable for their actions.

There is no perfect immigration reform. The government must balance security and sovereignty concerns, which necessitate controlling the border, with the economic benefits of immigration. The best policy would be to stop illegal immigrant flows while accepting more of the world's economically productive who want to come to America.

Candidate 2: Five years after 9/11, our country is still unprepared for a terrorist attack. From improving security for our transit systems and chemical plants, to increasing cargo screening in our airports and seaports, the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission have been underfunded and ignored. The 9/11 Commission gave the government five F's and 12 D's on the implementation of its recommendations. He is a member of a Committee and has supported efforts to base homeland security spending on risk rather than pork-barrel politics. He has also introduced legislation to strengthen chemical plant and drinking water security and to enhance disaster preparedness.

He has played a leading role in crafting comprehensive immigration reform. He believes the immigration issue has been exploited by politicians to divide the nation rather than find real solutions. This divisiveness has allowed the illegal immigration problem to worsen, with borders that are less secure than ever and an economy that depends on millions of workers living in the shadows.

Candidate 3: The most sacred responsibility vested in a president - the commander in chief - is to "preserve and protect" American citizens. He has the necessary vision and unrivaled experience to command the United States armed forces and adapt our nation's defenses to the demands of a changing and dangerous world.

He has always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure. If we have learned anything from the recent immigration debate, it is that Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make the border secure.


My Take: Candidate one is starting to sound like a broken record here isn't he? First he says that the government needs to be able to confront crime and terrorism within the reigns of the constitution and he makes this even worse by claiming that the government officials must be held accountable for their actions. Take a look at On the Issues -The Economy for more information here. Candidate one then claims that there is no perfect solution to the immigration problem (can you say unelectable? gah!) but that border security is important as is allowing a regulated number of migrants in to be PRODUCTIVE members of America. Interesting...

Candidate two invokes 9/11 and says that we are still unprepared for a terrorist attack. This is extremely interesting since this candidate is also the one who always claims EVERYONE ELSE is a fear monger for bringing up terrorism, however, it seems here he is using fear politics. He again mentions how great his leadership is and the commitees he is on. He seems desperate to prove his experience doesn't he? Interestingly he also brings up cutting government spending, unfortunately he uses another hot word "pork spending" and I don't think anyone knows what that means. He also claims he's been working on immigration and quickly blames divisiveness for the problems we have on the border. This was the same candidate who previously divided us into classes you remember...

Candidate three begins my claiming the most important job of the president is to protect and preserve the american people. Umm well the constitutions says protect, preserve and defend THE CONSTITUTION but I guess the constitution isn't voting is it? He also claims he has tons of experience and that politics ruined the border. Candidate 2 and 3 sound a lot alike. Three ends by saying people don't trust the government to get things done, and I think he might be right about that.

The bottom line: Candidate 2 and 3 seem to be appealing to the same people, while candidate 1 seems to be speaking off the top of his head. 2 and 3 think people don't trust the government to get things done, or that the government has messed stuff up yet both want more government intervention.

Candidate 1: National security is important but so is personal liberty. There is no perfect solution to immigration but secure borders AND immigration are important.
Candidate 2: We are going to be attacked by terrorists but I am working hard on that even though we are too divided to do anything about anything.
Candidate 3: The job of the president is to protect the people and I can do that really well. The government messes stuff up and people don't trust us.

This one is (again) an easy win to Candidate 1. Candidate 2 and 3 just might be the same person...who knows?