Good Points

• Authored the Violence Against Women Act
• supports biodiesel and other renewable energies, but not ethanol (yes!)
• supports a guest-worker visa program
• voted to prevent nuclear proliferation
• advocates following the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations, and opposes the administration’s lack of respect for habeas corpus at Gitmo
• supports Roe v. Wade

Bad Points

• supports prayer in school
• supports abstinence education (ugh)
• supports building the wall between the U.S. and Mexico

I’ve never understood the need for people to pray in school. Muslims are supposed to pray 5 times a day, so I can see not being able to pray at school kind of a challenge. But most of the time the school prayer advocates are the completely deranged Christian Right types. And they openly advocate the breakdown of the separation of church and state anyway. I think they talk a lot about 1st Amendment stuff, but that’s not really the top item on their agenda.

Abstinence education follows directly with the whole religious thing. The Heritage Foundation thinks abstinence programs are great (or at least they did in ’02). But in 2007, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy said the programs aren’t effective. I’ve never met a teenager who unswervingly did as he/she was told, so I can’t imagine that these programs would work.

I think everyone is just a little worked up about the immigration thing. There are legitimate concerns for national security, I’d say, but this country functions largely on the cheap labor provided by the people who risk their LIVES to come work here. A responsible path toward citizenship and a guest-worker program makes a lot more sense than building a big-ass wall. At least it does to me.

So we’ll see how it comes out with Biden in the mix. As of right now the media portrays the race as neck-and-neck. I’m no giant fan of Obama, but I’ll choose him over the alternative.