In a variation on the genie in a bottle game, if you were going to set down three criteria for supporting a candidate financially, what would they be? Like in the genie game, you are not allowed to use one of your wishes to ask for more wishes. Some examples might be that the candidate supports single-payer health care, is pro-choice, supports a Responsible Plan for Iraq, or whatever. But please limit yourself to the three that you think are most critical. As you might notice, different members of the blogosphere are starting up fundraising efforts for the fall, and they are using different criteria. Your input can be useful in defining what is most important.
Update [2008-6-26 20:44:17 by BooMan]: Via Kos, via Rolling Stone, how do you think Obama’s goals match up with goals expressed in this thread?
WENNER: “Is there a marker you would lay down at the end of your first term where you say, ‘If this has happened or not happened, I would consider it a negative mark on my governance’?”
OBAMA: “If I haven’t gotten combat troops out of Iraq, passed universal health care and created a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming, then we’ve missed the boat. Those are three big jobs, so it’s going to require a lot of attention and imagination, and it’s going to require the American people feeling inspired enough that they’re prepared to take on these big challenges.”
The biggest difference is, of course, that Obama means something different than we do when he discusses ‘universal’ health care. We mean single payer health coverage and he means universal health insurance. Still, Obama has stated (find me the link) that he would support single payer, but it is up to us to make it politically feasible. I agree with that.
Damn, I want six wishes now!
I guess I’ll lump that into my Orwellian request (Dept. of Health and Human Services that promotes Health and Human Services).
sorry, too late to end global warming. We’re past that point.
The Independent UK
Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole
My three wishes:
That said, of course, I’d settle for steps in those directions where possible if I couldn’t get all of what I wanted.
1-Enforcing and furthering environmental safeguards, sadly eroded under the current administration.
2-Single payer healthcare.
3-Furthering alternative energy sources.
And, of course, he/she would have to be a dedicated reader of my blog.
I picked my three because IMO without any particular one of them we are doomed within 20-30 years. Without #1&3 we will be a third world country, without #2 it won’t be worth living here. Each of them involves dealing with intrenched corporations and the power they have over society.
nalbar
My wishes exactly, though I would try to sneak an end to war in there.
If you ask me again tomorrow I might have 3 different answers but for today:
Single payer health care. As brendan mentioned a manhattan project for all things environmental which would put millions to work and create a better world of sustainable living-a win/win situation. To me this includes rebuilding the infrastructure with green technologies and that also includes for instance building more schools(than prisons) with solar panels,all eco friendly building materials, etc.
And get the hell out of Iraq.
I didn’t put Iraq on my list because I think the end of that will come in the next administration no matter who is elected to congress.
Didn’t the Inca say the world would end in 2012?
Close. It was the Maya.
WOW!
All of us must be out of touch with reality. On freeber sites they would be;
It’s a long hard road in front of us.
nalbar
(Hey, the genie was so stunned by my first three wishes he didn’t notice I slipped in a fourth!)
I won’t bother making the argument for universal health care. Others have already made it better than I can. As much as I would like to see Medicare For Everyone, or something like it, I think for my third wish I might wish for Universal Education. We all know of the tremendous potential human talent that is tragically wasted all around us because smart, capable people who might make enormous contributions to the benefit of all, get stuck in dead end jobs or worse, lives of crime because educational opportunities to develop their abilities and talents never came their way. I can think of any number of kids in my high school who might have become engineers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, educators, any number of positive constructive careers, if they had somehow been able to go on to college or quality technical training to develop their potential. Instead the majority of them wind up at shit jobs with no future, barely out of poverty if that.
Rather than letting those people sink for lack of access to education, how much better off would we all be if we as a people, acting for the common good, invested in their education, allowing them to develop their full potential for the good of all. Maybe there could be a requirement for some kind of community service in exchange for educational benefits, but I think we would all be better off as a people and as nation if we just provided education commensurate with their abilities to every citizen.
A universally educated population would probably make better decisions about our government, our environment, our infrastructure, our health care system, and all the other important issues that face us all. A well educated electorate would be less likely to fall for the misinformation and propaganda of crooks like those infesting the Bush administration, more likely to make wise choices that preserve our long term future. A well educated population would be more likely to find long term, sustainable solutions to the many problems that we face as a nation, health care and the environment among others.
Come to think of it, give me a return to constitutional government and universal quality education to the maximum potential of every citizen and I’ll settle for just those two wishes. That would pretty much take care of everything else.
3)Health care, Universal Coverage, Single Payer.
Return all currently deposed constitutional rights that the Fascists have removed.
Single Payer health plan
Stop all funding for WAR/make the DOD accountable for its 1/2 trillion dollar budget per year
Eliminate corporate welfare and government pork.
Get out of Iraq immediately and completely.
Make a monumental effort to improve mass-transportation across the country.
re your Update: Obama straddles. He has adapted Clintonspeak.