It would be easy to turn conservative cheerleader with John Stossel's 20/20 report. The report indicates that, in general, conservatives give more to charity than liberals. However, in light of exchanges on this blog regarding the minimum wage and the plight of the poor, I'm more inclined to say people act in accordance with their ideology. Conservatives—real conservatives, not the latest DC "conservatives"—believe the poor can be cared for in the private sector and the less money the government takes, the better. Therefore, in general, conservatives are more inclined to give to charity. Liberals doubt the private sector can handle the burden and seek the power of government to solve the problem. In general, then, they give less to charity.

The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2006 - John Hawkins of Right Wing News has a great list this morning that is both amusing and sickening at the same time.

The Old Blogosphere Vs. The New - Great thoughts from Dean Esmay today: "The magic of blogging, if it is real, is that you're dealing with a person sharing their honest thoughts. Love or hate that person, agree or disagree with their thoughts, you're dealing with a real person. Not a media figure, but a real flesh-and-blood person. If we lose that, we lose our soul." Read the entire post.

He May Also Be Against Crime And In Favour Of Freedom - Daniel Larison is not joining in the Obama-love-fest and explains why: "Oh, yes, and he wants to bring people together. No more divisive politics! He’s a uniter. He’s building a bridge, or filling a breach, or something. How’d that work the last several times people went for it? This shows that Obama the Idealist is mostly a lot of smoke and mirrors: his idealism is a belief in generic idealism, which will bring people together and “move our country forward.” Forward towards what? He replies: “Who cares, as long as we’re moving and I’m the one behind the wheel?”"

Richardson called out McCain during a speech over the weekend. He said

“The leading advocate for escalating the war is Senator John McCain. I have served with John in Congress and I respect him. But John McCain is wrong, dead wrong to think that we can solve Iraq’s political crisis through military escalation.”

“There are no quick or easy answers to the crisis in Iraq. Our choices are between bad options and worse ones. Some prefer military escalation. Some choose staying the course. These options are illusions. The only realistic choice we have is to stand down militarily and let the Iraqis stand up and face the political crisis which only they can resolve.”

“I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I worked in this region...we should harbor no illusions. This withdrawal will not be pretty. People will die. But fewer will die than if we stay. There are no guarantees that our departure will end the civil war, but it is sure to continue so long as we stay. The Iraqis might, or might not, resolve their political crisis. It is up to them. They distrust and fear one another, and this makes it very tough. But they share one goal – they don’t want to destroy their own country. To save it, they need to stop killing each other and start compromising. And we need to get out of the way.”

So Richardson has come out in favor of a withdrawal and is immediately putting some distance between him and the Republican front runner McCain. Since we won't be winning in Iraq in 2008, either, this seems like a morally correct and politically prudent position to take.

So he makes sense on immigration and wants a withdrawal from Iraq. Remind me again why you don't think he's a good presidential candidate?

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Technorati Tags: Bill Richardson, Iraq, Politics