All Presidential Election Oct. 2009 Candidates - Information and Commentary

Day 682, 19:46 • Published in USA USA • by Astra Kat G

Because what would an election be without patriotic desserts?

*UPDATE: Just want the facts? Short version here. Includes information on how to vote.*

Now I wasn't sure if I wanted to write this, as there's a fairly good chance that I'll anger -- or at least mildly annoy -- my "bosses" : President Gaius Julius, Vice President Jewitt, and Kylero (Party President of US Green Party), but I ultimately decided to go for it. I'm not going to mince words in the course of this article, but keep in mind that all of this is just one semi-newb Congresswoman's very stubborn opinion. And that I have a nervous habit of repeating to you that it is only my opinion.

That said, why even write this article...? Why, to provide you, the eMerican public, with a bunch of useful links all in one place, along with some commentary from the peanut gallery (me). Here's the result of an early poll, which indicates the tag team of Gaius Julius and Jewitt have a strong lead over the competition. It's a shame that the sample size is so small, but let's just get on with the nominees.

Gaius Julius/Jewitt (Supported By: Libertarian Party, Conservative Party, United Independents Party, Federalist Party, Conservative Liberty Party, Enclave Party, Republican Party, Beta Memorial, and P.O.T.A.T.O.E. Party) - The incumbents. Gaius Julius has proven to be effective in many roles, though I personally wouldn't say President of the eUS is the best fit for him. Jewitt remains awesome no matter how much pressure has been put on him and, as a member of Congress who pesters him with every little question on her brain, I have indeed seen much pressure put on him. He's the man I'd vote for, for President, in a heartbeat.

Putting aside my Jewitt fangirlism for a moment, let me break down my opinions on Gaius' platform. It was direct, to the point, and short. I liked that, but it didn't leave me feeling any more informed about what a Gaius/Jewitt Presidency could mean in term to come than before I read it. I wouldn't say Gaius is quite as transparent as he likes to think of himself as, but that's probably just cos he spends all day networking around and coordinating with many different parts of the government. Can't spend all day telling all of them everything, after all. On the other hand, he's more transparent than I saw Harrison Richardson (otherwise known as the thief Franco) and Emerick during their terms. Yes, Emerick wrote to us from time to time in his newspaper, but I remember in Congress that we were often left scratching our heads, punctuated with sudden, random bursts of "Approve this, fags." Err, but this isn't the place for Emerick talk (see, he's so Great that he invades every article!).

One thing that Gaius did accomplish, if mostly by inference, in his short platform is that he knows what's going on in the international realm, and we need a President who knows what's going on far beyond our borders. I'm sure there's plenty of support staff to help a President know what's up, but it's comforting to know that his focus is abroad. Many others may say that his focus should be on us, on the eUS itself, but I think there are plenty of other dedicated individuals within our eUS community that can handle that task (including Congress, one would hope) and I fail to see why even a little Presidential attention is needed to educate our young or train our soldiers.

Collected Media for Gaius Julius/Jewitt include:
Gaius Julius' Platform
An Interview with Vice President Jewitt
*NEW* Gaius on Education - Published after the commentary expressed in this article.
*NEW* Both Gaius and Woxan Speak! - Published after the commentary expressed in this article.

Woxan/Cerb (Supported By: America's Advancement Party, United States Workers Party, Democratic Party, Church of Cerb -- Yeah that's a surprise, and The American Society Party) - The challengers. In stark contrast to Gaius Julius/Jewitt, Woxan/Cerb have shown to constantly be talking about "Where do we go from here?" and their future plans, perhaps because, as they're not incumbents, they don't have a record to stand on. What's strikes me as a little funny is that what they've been saying, in regard to foreign relations, is eeriely similar to what I always assumed was GJ/Jewitt's stand; the difference is that Woxan/Cerb are actually saying it.

On a more personal note, with Cerb, I feel like he's a guy I can relate to, and not just because I served with him in Congress. We share many of the same opinions and I genuinely like the guy. As for Woxan, well... forget it. I don't like him very much at the time, but I remember my opinion of PigInZen was once very low indeed, and it's been completely turned around since then. Let's focus on the issues in Woxan's platform.

"USA on the World Stage" - I agree with most of this, except to say that I think it'd be a grave mistake for eUSA to enter into another large alliance, namely EDEN. Whenever large alliances get involved, what is personally best for the nation gets left behind in favor of helping our allies. I know it's a minute distinction to make, but I firmly believe that if we stay out of a major alliance, we can continue to aid our allies in such a way that is best for the nation, without going overboard and doing something we personally find distasteful. It's these huge alliances that caused the mess we're in and I don't think these huge alliances are going to fix it, either. We should maintain good relations with our allies, as a separate entity. Staying out of EDEN is likely to happen under another Gaius Julius/Jewitt term.

"Support our Troops and Take the Fight to PEACE" - I agree strongly with everything said here, except to say that taking the fight to PEACE, which I'm assuming by that Woxan means liberating Indo-Hun-held regions and returning them to their original owners, sounds an awful lot like he's saying we should go on the aggressive and attack PEACE, which concerns me.

"Better Citizen Education" - Education and Economy can be seen to be Woxan's strong suits, though I expect uber-capable Tiacha will be involved in reviving the NAU (North American University) and other education programs regardless of who is the President. In any case, I don't disagree with anything Woxan has to say in this area.

"Market-Friendly Economy" - While I agree with Woxan that Economy is one of Woxan's stronger points, he doesn't need to be President in order to get the ball rolling on improving our economy. "Under my administration, we will employ means to counteract these attacks on us or our allies and use them to hinder our enemies." The first part I agree with, but in the second part, he's admitting that he'll have us use economic warfare against our enemies. Not cool, man, not by any stretch of the imagination. Can you imagine people high-fiving each other, saying "All right, we just killed another newbie, economics-style! Awesome!" I don't think so. While traditional warfare, especially defensively, is often seen as honorable, means such as PTOing and economic warfare are shady at best and deplorable at worst. So if you don't have that particular moral qualm, go right ahead and accept it as viable option.

"New Infrastructure" - "There are other states that would serve our interests to become fortresses in the future after meeting a certain population, most notably Texas and Tennessee." I'd prefer Pennsylvania and Texas, but we can quibble over details later. The point is, in this area, Woxan shows he knows what he's talking about when it comes to proper fortress placement. We can only hope that current and future Congresses will be as informed and not cave to public pressure to get Q-whatever Hospital or Defense System placed in their "home" states. "Hospitals must be placed very infrequently, and we should never place anything below a Q4." This is where I run into disagreement with Woxan. I'm not sure if he meant to imply that placing a Q4 Hospital is okay or not, but I must stress that Q4 Hospitals in non-fortress states is just as dangerous as Q5 Hospitals and would likely lead to more people being stubborn about moving to fortress states to contribute to national defense. I agree with Woxan's later point of placing Q5 DSs in states with naturally high populations, however, as Q5 DSs serve only one purpose: to make the attacker pay more in order to tank the bigger wall down.

In an interview, Woxan said, regarding Colombia: "While they were just a pawn thrown in by PEACE, we should not let them get away with out some repercussions. It made/makes us look weak. PEACE can and will say "Hey guys! Attack the USA for us! They won’t do anything back to you!" The countries near Romania and Croatia, know better than to mess with them. They know they'll face repercussions, whether a PTO, economic warfare, or conquest."

I don't agree with this at all. We shouldn't sink to the level of certain PEACE GC member countries with their PTOs and conquests (we've already engaged in economic warfare, that's pretty darn unavoidable at this point). It adds one more piece of evidence to the pile that Woxan is a little too aggressive for me to really like him as a President, but that's just my opinion. I was in favor of laying the smack down on Colombia right when it was attacking us, but after a while it just seemed like overkill, given Colombia's small size. eUSA should be seen as fair people, not bullies. I'll end this commentary there, though, to keep myself from getting on my personal soap box a little too much, and because I know I'm in the minority on this topic.

Collected Media for Woxan/Cerb include:
Woxan's Platform, Stance on Education
Interviews with Woxan: 1, 2
An Interview with Vice Presidential Candidate Cerb: Part 1, Part 2
Another Cerb Interview
*NEW* Both Gaius and Woxan Speak! - Published after the commentary expressed in this article.

Additional candidates that just magically appeared on the ballot on Election Day, but I know nothing about them, were:
Don Keedick - Umbrella Research Party
Rusty_Shackleford - Pastafarianism
Enderlm - The Jewish Community Party

Dodgecatcher - Current Senator who is running for "lulz" value, it's just as well, considering I read that he won't have as much time to spend on eRep during the school season.

yono/Claire Littleton - The best thing I can say about yono is that he's persistent. There are more lulz to be found in yono's serious platform than DC's fake one. Not only does he bring real-life politics into the game, but also -- well, isn't bringing real-life politics into eRep enough of a LOL? I said I wouldn't mince words, but for yono's sake, because I can tell that he's really, really trying here, I'll try to be kind. Or as kind as one can possibly be when a candidate absolutely screams COMPLETE and UTTER n00b. Oh, gosh, that wasn't very nice of me, was it? I clearly suck at mincing words. Well the point is, I cringed when this newb ran for Congress and I cringed even more when I saw him announcing his bid for the Presidency. To say that he doesn't understand the game, and needs a lot more schooling, and could use a lesson in how to use spellcheck, would be an understatement. Ironically, the word "spellcheck" is picked up by spellcheck. That is irony, right? It's clear that yono is just roleplaying being a politician, as, after officially conceding the Congressional race, he posted to let us all know he'd appointed himself eAttorney General of Louisiana on the forums because no one else had. It's all there in his "newspaper" (and I use the term loosely); he's told me privately that Claire Littleton has indeed agreed to be his running mate. Quite the fall from grace for the one-vote-garnering would-be Congresswoman of Hawaii, but I can say with absolutely certainty that if yono were to become President, it'd be Claire Littleton wearing the pantsuit in that relationship. *UPDATE: No longer running.*

Kylero (Supported By: US Green Party and Social Democratic Party of USA) - My Party President! I don't think he'd make a good candidate for the Presidency and, without going into too much detail that might get me into trouble, he's not very careful or thoughtful, isn't as tactful as I'd like a President to be, and doesn't quite understand as much as I'd like a President to. Somehow I managed to split the infinitive there, but oh well. He's made some rash decisions in the past that make me shudder just a bit when I think of him at the helm of our country. He made our awesome party forums and almost single-handedly (at least in the beginning) brought our party out of hibernation. However, he's not as active as he used to be, which is a shame; I guess RL is getting in the way. And we all know how we need a President who is knowledgeable and will pour hours of thankless work into keeping our country afloat, even prosperous, and I just don't think Kylero is that guy. Now that I'm done making an idiot out of myself in the national media, I have to point out that according to our official site, Kylero isn't even an option in our Presidential Primary, so he probably isn't running for real. *UPDATE: Not really running.*



To me, and for the vast majority of eUSA, this Presidential race comes down to one of two choices: Gaius/Jewitt or Woxan/Cerb.

It's a difficult decision for me, because I think I'd like to Woxan as President and Jewitt as Vice President. And that's not an option on the menu. No offense to Cerb, who has proven to be, you know, really nice, but when it comes to whom I'd entrust the nation, between the two of them, it's Jewitt. And while Gaius Julius has proven himself an effective President, there have been some goings-on under his Presidency with which I was not completely comfortable and I'd like to give Woxan a chance.

I'd prefer to go with the one who won't invade eUK or any other nation for that matter. We aren't the bullies in the current world stage, trying to rule with fear and intimidation. I think we all know the countries who fit that description. And I wouldn't like us to repeat PEACE's ridiculous, unjustified "wars of revenge," either (this isn't propaganda; revenge was, just earlier this week, quoted to me as justification for PEACE's aggression by a certain Iranian citizen). I haven't seen Gaius Julius' stance on the issue, but I've seen Woxan say that he'd like to focus on liberating conquered territories from PEACE, which is something with which I definitely agree. Woxan and Gaius Julius would both like to see Hungary out of North America and to push PEACE out of the Scandinavian countries, so I'm hoping that both are the kind of guy I'd vote for, when it comes to war goals.

The way I see the two main contenders for the Presidency/Vice Presidency, Gaius Julius and Jewitt are the foreign relations team while Woxan and Cerb are the domestic affairs aficionados. Both spheres of governing are important, but which one does America need more in this time of rebuilding? Repairing foreign relations or tending to our own garden? Difficult choice. I realize neither pair of men are going to focus on one at the expense of the other, but both pairs have clearly differing main focuses.

What's particularly interesting to me is that The Report (Jewitt's newspaper) had a public opinion poll in which respondents, who could be taken to more likely be GJ/Jewitt supporters than Woxan/Cerb supporters, listed Foreign Policy as the top issue upon which the U.S. Government needs to improve. Conversely, the topics of Social Welfare and Education were at the bottom. The Public Opinion Poll can be found in the link I provided to the interview with Jewitt. What this says to me is that I'm not completely off-base in seeing GJ/Jewitt as the foreign affairs team and Woxan/Cerb as the domestic affairs option.

There's a solid case to be made for either choice, but, unfortunately, I'm rather certain the majority of eMericans are going to blindly choose the incumbents. I like to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing, so I'll most likely be voting for Woxan/Cerb. This is, despite all my kidding around, a decision I make mostly on the basis of Woxan and Cerb having more to say about what they'll strive to see in the future than Gaius Julius and Jewitt.

No matter what your choice, I hope you keep an eye on the media and attempt to educate yourself further on your choices! Don't be like me and click somewhere random on the screen just for the hell of it, in some vain hope of making ice cream cake (or, if you're voting for Gaius, pie) magically appear in front of you.

Make an informed choice, America,
~ Katherine "Astra" Gallagher