January 20, 2009 is a historic day. We will inaugurate the first black President of the United States. My daughters are to young to understand exactly how significant that is but they do know that it is something special. With all of this presidential stuff going on I got to thinking about the presidents I have seen in my lifetime.

I saw President Richard Nixon at Vance, AFB in 1974, President George H. Bush at Convention Hall in 1992 and I saw President George W. Bush's landing at Vance, AFB in 2006.

I've got a small collection of things from the Nixon visit to Enid. My great grandma was a huge Nixon fan and she waited 3 hours in the sun to see him. These are the things I received after her death.


In 1974, I was not heavy into politics. As a matter of fact, at eleven, I really knew very little about politics and the news. I do remember that countries were always getting attacked by guerrillas. Being just a youngster, I always wondered why gorillas were attacking people. Little did I know.

I do remember hearing about Watergate but not really understanding what all the fuss was about. The first election I really remember was Ford/Carter. I spent the night with my best friend the night of the election and we got to stay up until we knew who the winner was projected to be. Of course, Carter won and we went to bed wondering what was going to happen to the country. I was a republican even then.

Labels: 70's, Enid, Memories, politics

Well, I'm conducting a little experiment. After watching hours upon hours of political crap I finally reached my limit and on election night 2008 I stopped watching the political news. Today is exactly 14 days since I've watched Fox, CNN or any of the Big 3 nightly news shows. I have not even listened to any political Talk Radio.

I'm learning that even though you do not watch the news or listen to political Talk Radio you are still very well aware of what is going on in the country. I catch pieces of news from overhearing people at restaurants, talking to friends and several other avenues. You cannot get away from the news by watching sports, entertainment programs or listening to morning radio. It's always a topic of discussion.

I must say that it has been a little less stressful listening to the same doom and gloom being repeated over and over again. I spend more of my time thinking of positive things like creating my greeting card company. Will I turn on the political whining once again? Who knows. I'm sure if some huge world event takes place I'll have to watch. In the mean time I'm enjoying living in my cartoon world where everyone is nice, everyone gets along and I can color things any color I want.

Labels: Curtis Tucker, politics

I don't want to sway or influence my daughters into believing a certain political view. I think each young person will know which party politics they most adhere to and which issues are most important to them. I also don't want anyone to read this post and get turned off because they do not agree with my politics. They are what they are.

With that said, I do want my girls to know what I believe in and how I view American politics.

I am a registered Republican and have been since I could vote. I've voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since I could vote. I did vote for a Democratic governor in Oklahoma in our last election. I think Jimmy Carter was the worst president in my lifetime and Ronald Reagan was the best.

I'm a soft core conservative. I believe in less government, less hand outs, much lower taxes, the right to own a gun and I feel abortion should not be used as birth control. I believe in a strong military and the right to destroy any enemy that indicates they mean to do any American harm.

I do not believe humans can control the temperature of the earth, thus global warming is caused by natural occurrences and is now being used by Liberals to sway elections. I believe in the death penalty and do not care if the criminal suffers during the execution.

I believe people should take more responsibility for themselves and if they can't, churches and communities should do more to help. I do not believe the rich should pay 1% more in taxes than anyone else in this country and I believe every person should pay some sort of tax. I believe social security is broken and should be eliminated. The health care system is also broken. Independent companies need to create fair health care services that will put the large, unethical providers out of business.

I believe no individual should be discriminated against but do not believe minority groups should be able to set agendas effecting the majority of Americans. I would rather pass a pot smoker on the road than a drunk. I believe illegals should be stopped from entering our country and the ones that are here already should be given a short time period to learn English, fill out an application for citizenship and pay a fine for entering our country illegally. If they do not, they should be deported immediately. I believe English should be the official language of the United States and anyone serving the public should know how to speak it.

I believe most politicians will bend the truth, change their stances and hide the facts to get themselves elected. I believe government is so big it cannot even control itself. I believe the tax system sucks and there should be a national sales tax.

In the 2008 election I do not have a candidate I would do back flips for. I absolutely do not "get" the whole Obama thing. He's a great, young, articulate speaker but he has no experience or history to base his ideas of change on. I would not hire him to be the CEO of my Fortune 500 company, would not pick him as the troop leader of my Boy Scout pack, would not choose him to speak at an entrepreneurial convention and do not feel he has a solid plan that will be able to change one thing in Washington. Every politician says they are going to change government and then fours years later the next guy is saying how bad the last guy was and now he's going to change everything. Not much ever changes, nor will it, until there is a huge change in the governmental process.

I think McCain can do a better job but I know there are better candidates out there. I think he is a war hero and I trust his insights into protecting our nation. I think McCain has the most experience to deal with world situations and will not hesitate to protect our country if needed.

Ideally I think average citizens should be able to run for office and should serve one or two terms and then go back to the private sector. Ironically I think that is what our fore fathers had in mind. Rich, life long politicians have ruined government and divided the country into red and blue states.

Anyway, those are my political views on things. Nothing is set in stone and I am always open to new ideas.

Labels: Curtis Tucker, politics