This past Wednesday we had the Republican CNN/YouTube debate. After having a chance to watch it, I got a better understanding of why people are willing to stand behind these men as the next president of the United States. I’m still not in favor of these candidates, but I did learn about some of the issues that are important to the Republican party. It might be the independent in me, but I feel it is vitally important to pay attention to what the other parties are saying. It helps to understand their point of view, respect that they have a point of view ( that may not be different than yours ) and can open your eyes up to things that might be important to you but not to the party you support. With that said, I got a bit miffed that it is even an issue that some of the questions may have come from people who are connected to Democrats, especially ones running for president. ...

My first reaction to this “issue” was - If you can’t handle the other party asking question you don’t deserve to be President of the United States of America. However, I was still interested in the reasoning behind it and something Governor mike Huckabee said on the subject enlightened me.

I think it compromises the integrity of what it was supposed to be and that is a very objective people's kind of debate.

From that statement I started to understand that this was a Republican debate for Republicans to decide who they(Republicans) want to vote for. With that said, I feel that they are missing an opportunity by making an issue of it.

The opportunity they have is to prove to other Republicans that they could handle questions from the Democrats. If you want to be electable in the general elections you are going to need to show that you can handle yourself with these questions. Isn’t that an issue Republicans are concerned about? Choosing the most electable candidate? From what I’ve seen of the Democrats, that’s what they are concerned about – which is unfortunate because some of the so called “un-electable” candidates, in both parties, actually seem to stand for something. It would seem to me, that if any candidate came forward and said it was a non-issue because it allowed them to show their conservative credentials in the face of liberal bias.

Some people may still look at those I currently support and think I’m just attacking the Republicans. The smart ones will ask me if I would hold Democrats to the same standard. My answer is to them would be yes. While I’m currently registered as a Democrat and supporting Democratic candidates, I still consider myself independent. I keep checking back on the so called third party candidates who aren’t given the weight in presidential politics that they deserve*. Because of this they always have to deal with questions from Democrats and Republicans if they are lucky enough to have as large of a venue to promote themselves.

In politics, as with everything else in this world, the technology and information age is changing the way business is done. The old guard is holding on to ways of doing business that they know while the consumer is asking for something different. Politics as usual are not what the general populace wants anymore. The general populace wants to believe once again in a government for the people, by the people and of the people. Please do not replace the people with the party.

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* = It can be argued that many "3rd Party" candidates don't do the work that is required of a presidential candidate and thus don't deserve much time at all. I agree. But some have a political record and a dedication to this country that deserves media attention.