Bob Cramer's Blog

Word has it that the Georgia Democratic party is looking for a U. S. Senate candidate for 2014. Well, I thought, look no further I’m your man.

My loyal reader(s), don’t panic: I know I’m jumping the gun, am way too full of myself, and not quite ready to “throw my hat in” for such a distinguished position.  But as a political science major, this is good blogging material and therefore my first candidate-in-waiting proclamation is to require every high school AP Gov student (including my son who just took the exam yesterday) to join me and write his or her own campaign platform.

Here’s mine:

Pro-people.  My main goal would be to help Georgians and their families “be all they can be”.   That starts and ends with jobs, with education, with training. Our knowledge-based economy moves at light speed and we need to be smart, with it and wise, statewide.

Pro-growth.  Simply put, keep taxes low so that people keep more of what they make, grow the total economic pie and slow the growth and perhaps even cut federal spending.  As an technology entrepreneur and business owner, one who has had to meet payroll every two weeks for the past 20+ years, I guarantee you that we could find all kinds of waste, fraud and stupidity in the national budget.  Consider me a blue-dog Democrat or whatever, but we would rather spend our precious dollars on people and programs that have impact.

Spending money on our children, on programs like Head Start, on immunizations, and demanding that our public schools do better makes sense.  We need our kids to grow up strong, smart and stimulated, ready to create an America of the future.  On the other end of life, we must be sure that society’s safety nets are in place, that we deliver as promised but start to adjust these programs to reflect changing life spans and try some new approaches that strengthen long-term Medicare and Social Security.

I am in favor of a strong military, but one that is designed for today’s challenges.  Not sure why we need so many different branches of the military and that perhaps we could consolidate, save money and still be the greatest power on earth.

At home, we should invest more in fighting chronic diseases, and there is an important role for the federal government in basic research.  Along with Al Gore, the federal government did provide the core funding to invent the Internet and clearly that was money well invested.  Furthermore, as it is the law, we need to try and make Obama health care plan work, as many of its basic tenants: greater coverage for more people, health exchanges, private insurance and the like seem reasonable, but the bureaucracy around it might be stifling and needs to be controlled.

On other controversial positions, here’s where I stand.  I am in favor of: smart and humanistic immigration reform; reasonable but stronger gun control; abortion that is safe, legal and rare; state-based gay marriage rights.

My common sense views and business experience position me well to lead a resurgence of the Georgia Democratic party.  As a blogger and quasi-social media expert, my campaign will be everywhere in cyber-space while I personally travel this great state to meet all of you.  I may literally run for office, wear my running clothes as I traverse neighborhood after neighborhood in search of like-minded folks who want to restore some sanity to Washington, DC.  I do promise not to get too close especially if it is a hot day.

Finally, I want to come clean on one issue from my past before it is dug up by the media and spoils all of the fun.  When I was 8, I ran for color war Lieutenant at my camp in Maine. It dawned on me that if I passed out Fireball candies to my electorate, I had a better chance of winning.  It worked.  I won.  I did go on to be elected color war Captain twice and my team won each time, I’m just saying.  For the record, I am unequivocally denying that I did anything wrong, and trust that my worthy opponents will not stoop so low as to use this issue against me.