Irony

“I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.”  ~Mark Twain

Recently, (and I wish I could re-locate the page), I found a site that said that if I answered a questionnaire, that it would point me to the presidential candidate closest to my beliefs and the issues that were most important to me. When it finished, it said which candidate’s issues was nearest to mine. I didn’t agree with the result, but liked the idea of dealing with the issues. Sometimes I feel that people vote for personalities and not their platform (do some even list their policies anymore?)

Anyway, since that ‘test’ seemed to be a bit off, I will likely have to do my homework the old fashioned way. So these days, news articles about candidates just jump off the page to me anymore, as I absorb and learn about them.

I had a giggle at this headline though, as it just seemed ironic:

Edwards charges $55,000 to speak to UC Davis students about poverty

This is the same man who reportedly gets $400 haircuts. I am truly going to have to dig further to understand what he can possibly know about poverty.

Recently the due date came where all the candidates had to report their incomes. John Edwards reported earned income of $1.25 million, the biggest single source of which was a hedge fund that employed him part time. He and his wife, Elizabeth, reported $29.5 million in assets, including millions invested in the hedge fund  the Fortress Investment Group. Edwards received about $395,000 in paid speeches  most of them at colleges  and was paid $40,000 salary for work at the University of North Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

Oh well, at least he reported all his income by the due date, as several candidates didn’t, they received 45-day extensions, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Mitt Romney, John McCain and Tommy Thompson. Republican Jim Gilmore asked for and received a 30-day grace period.