Straw Poll

PJM Straw Poll:

Pajamas Media is running a 2008 Presidential Straw Poll. You can vote here, just click on the flag.

It's a little unusual, in that you get to vote for a nominee from each party. That might give us a sense of which candidates have the biggest cross-party appeal, since it will let us know which Democrat is most acceptable to Republicans, and vice versa, while also allowing independents of various stripes to select which candidates best suit them.

I'm going to endorse -- for the purposes of this poll only -- these candidates:

Democratic Party: Bill Richardson

Republican Party: Duncan Hunter

Richardson is the best of the Democratic list, being NRA endorsed, and a successful diplomat. He's weak, in my reading, on North Korea. Even though that was one of the areas of his success as a diplomat, his proposal to directly engage the DPRK in negotiations is foolish. The DPRK wants us to slim down from the six-way talks to bilateral talks, as a breakdown in the six-way talks reflects badly on China. Since China is the only party that can really put pressure on the DPRK, it is in our interests to have Chinese "face" concerned with their ability to bring the DPRK to a settlement on these issues. If we go to bilateral talks, the DPRK is free to break off from the talks at any time. There is no practical penalty to doing so; they will blame the US, which will cost them nothing.

China, meanwhile, wants to be in the six-way talks as a point of international prestige. The price tag for that is forcing at least some concessions from the DPRK every time we come to the table. If we're going to try to resolve the DPRK's nuclear situation through diplomacy, the six-way talks are the right way.

That said, he's a pretty good, moderate candidate. Among the Democratic party's current national leadership, I'd say he was the best by a long shot.

On the Republican side, I think Duncan Hunter may need an introduction to many readers, but a few words should suffice. He is a former Army Ranger (75th), former Airborne (173rd in Vietnam), and has in Congress chaired the Armed Services Committee. Our friends at China E-Lobby have endorsed him in the Presidential race over all candidates of both parties. He is stronger on the immigration/border problem than Richardson (from my point of view), but has a weakness in his connection to a firm involved in Duke Cunningham's scandals. Investigations have not found that Hunter committed any inappropriate actions, as Wikipedia notes:

A Department of Defense inspector general found that the department awarded ADCS, a company owned by Brent Wilkes, a $9.8 million contract in mid-1999 after "inquiries from two members of Congress." Hunter has repeatedly acknowledged that he joined with Representative Randy Cunningham that year to contact Pentagon officials, who then reversed a decision and gave ADCS the contract, one of its first big ones.

Between 1994 and 2004, Wilkes and ADCS gave $40,700 in campaign contributions to Hunter. In 2003, Wilkes's foundation hosted a "Salute to Heroes" gala to give Hunter an award, just as it did for Cunningham a year earlier. The Wilkes Foundation also gave $1,000 in 2003 to a charity run by two of Hunter's staffers. However, Hunter has not been found to have committed any crimes or ethical violations. Wilkes is currently an unindicted co-conspirator.

Again, compared to the rest of the field he looks pretty good. It's amazing how much chaff there is in each of the parties' candidate fields this time around.

Second choices, for me, if it interests you:

Democratic: Hillary Clinton (Yes, I know, but she's tough.)

Republican: Newt Gingrich (Yes, I know, but he's smart.)