May 2015

This is the fifth book I read in preparation for the 2016 Presidential Elections.

Hillary Clinton's book is much more upbeat, much more hopeful than Mike Huckabee's, Rand Paul's and even Marco Rubio's. At times it feels like the Democratic Party is the party of the future, while the Republican Party wants to go back to an earlier time (in particular after reading Huckabee and Paul).

Of course I'm biased. If the purpose of reading these books was to truly change my mind the exercise failed -- but I never really expected that. Nevertheless reading the various types of conservative views has given me more respect for the Republican candidates. I would not vote for them, and think voting for a republican president would make America worse off but I understand better what their values, concerns and solutions are.

Mrs. Clinton's book makes a powerful statement. She doesn't boost but clearly shows what an incredible experience she has and how many tough choices she has made. The book implicitly makes a strong case for Hillary as President. It was also interesting to read again about America's most recent foreign policy crises and events.

This is book number three I read in preparation for the 2016 Presidential Elections.

Mike Huckabee is an interesting figure and with this book I got to know him better as a person. He is a pretty smart guy and even though I don't agree with some of his philosophy, he is likeable and I was surprised to see that there are actually quite a few areas where we agree.

Interestingly, both Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee are very much against the current implementation of the TSA and both called for it to be privatized -- they basically want the airlines to take responsibility for security screening, with the understanding that airlines have more incentives to be customer friendly.

I found myself liking Huckabee. I still think his policies are the wrong ones, and I'm glad he won't be our President, but this book made me like him better than I expected.

Huckabee doesn't really seem to be interested in running for President. From reading this book it feels as if he is missing the drive, the passion.

This is the second book I read in my effort to learn more about all major candidates for the Presidential elections.

I'll be honest -- Rand Paul was never going to win me over, our differences are too big. But this was an interesting read.

Sometimes it is as if Mr. Paul is just willfully ignorant of the whole story. Many of the cases of "EPA overreach" where he described "a landowner moving some soil from one side of his property to the other" are much more complicated then that. I found myself searching the names of these "victims" on Google and every time it is clear that there is much more to the story than what's described in the book.

I do understand his mindset, but he is taking it way too far. There are clear examples of grievous violations of the law and environmental rules in his book, for example by the Dutch immigrant who blatantly ignored the warnings and orders by the EPA and Corps of Engineers not to build on wetland. That's not government bullying: that's government doing its job.

Mr. Paul is also disingenuous about what he wants. He'll say that the definition of "wetlands" is unclear, and "wants to clarify it". Yet the proposal that he offers don't just "clarify" the definition -- they severely tighten the restriction and just majorly reduces the power of the Clean Water Act. Abolishing the EPA, as he wants, won't be very good for the environment either.