Been a while

I know it's been a while and the honest truth is that I stopped because I didn't feel like I had a whole lot to say. Well, that and I had some in-laws move in with us and, well, I didn't have anything good to say about it.

And to be honest I still don't have many good things to say about my inlaws. Except my grandpa and grandma-in-laws. They are fantastic.

Moving right along, I was inspired to write because I just got back from my very first political debate. It was a lot of fun. I live in Jason Chaffetez's district and that guy has always rubbed me the wrong way. So, of course I've been leaning the opposite direction, contrary to my Mormon/Republican peers.

Karen Hyer is Jason's opponent and honestly I think that most people should be able to see that she is the clear choice. She has years and years of non-government experience and is a little rough around the edges. She is certainly conservative, and so much so that she didn't even register as a Democrat even though she is the Democratic candidate (She's unaffiliated). She is very well educated and certainly knows how to express herself.

Jason, ooooh, Jason. He's a politician, and he's good at it. He knows how to make it work. He certainly knows how to play the voters here in Utah. BYU football kicker, part of the Huntsman campaign and a handsome guy. My wife says his wife doesn't look too bad herself, but I wasn't looking at her (What kind of man am I?).

Karen did really good at the beginning. Her ideas are strong and clear. She knows that healthcare isn't going to get repealed, but she knows that they need to fix the bad parts of the bill. She also knows that the major problem with immigration is that we have 12 million illegals here in the US. The problem that I really felt she had was that she ran a little negative against Jason. I agreed with her completely, especially the cot thing when she told him it was a publicity stunt, which I think it is. But, she doesn't realize that negative campaigning doesn't work where I live. Here, when you run a negative campaign people get turned off, and it gives the opponent the opportunity to not only dodge the question, but say, "She's so mean, she's attacking me!" Therefore the sympathy vote kicks in.

I was able to go with my Dad, the only guy that I can really talk politics with that doesn't shun me for my less then Republican ideals. He was turned off by Karen's negativity, but when I asked him about Jason he realized that Jason didn't really have any ideas. Karen had the ideas, and Jason was just showing off and feeding sound bites.

Overall I had great time and I hope that I might be able to make a bit of a habit of getting more involved and maybe a little more blogging would be useful.