I was iffy on New Hampshire myself, but for completely different reasons. I had hoped Obama would come out on top of Hillary, and I hoped that Romney wouldn't do as well as he did. I'm sorry, but I just don't like Romney at all. I see McCain as far superior, but apparently that's debatable.
It seems that lots of people like Ron Paul. It kind of makes me sad. Some of his ideas are good in theory, but really, only in theory. Whenever I see interviews with him or read articles about him, what I see and read about is a candidate who doesn't really know much about what he plans to do. He would truly be the candidate of "change", but there is such thing as too much change. Plus, I have a beef with him on his taking away of government welfare programs. Sure, many people leech off welfare, but there are people who really need them. My brother, for example; he suffers from severe autism, mental retardation and speech impediment. If someone like Ron Paul was elected and got rid of those programs, people like my brother would have nowhere to go. I guess the reason I'm as adversed to Ron Paul as I am is because of my brother.
I basically agree with Paul on everything (except immigration), so he's my candidate of principle, not, unfortunately, pragmatism. But I can support him without compromise. (Dang, I never realized I was such a pacifist...)
And I like Huckabee as a guy. He seems like he would be a cool guy to hang out with, and he is probably most appealing Republican candidate to me, but the thing about him that scares me is his lack of knowledge on foreign affairs. So I don't know. But he seems smart enough to hire a cabinet around him that would know a lot about foreign affairs, so I guess if I were to pick any Republican candidate, it'd be him.
Yeah, I was rooting for Obama to beat Hillary too (as implied by my saying I was annoyed that she won.) I honestly don't trust her. At least Obama is idealistic and honest. Plus, he's personally likable. If he wasn't such a socialist, I'd vote for him myself. Too bad about that. At the same time, something about his attitude makes me feel that even though he's marginally more radical than Hillary, he has a greater respect for personal freedom (as exhibited in the one real difference between their universal health care plans.)
Now, I don't know why you think Ron Paul wants to abolish welfare. He's opposed to it in principle, but as far as actual proposed policy is concerned, he isn't even going to abolish Social Security. No one, least of all myself, would ever take obviously needy people off government help. (Heck, I also have a brother with something similar--aspergers.)
Huckabee...I don't know. His credentials are just so lacking, and I sincerely doubt what this country needs is a pastor-in-chief. (As a Mormon, I don't particularly emphasize with the whole evangelical mindset anyway.) Mostly, it's hard to see where he stands. His war rhetoric is pretty standart, though it seems slightly less hawkish than the others. His homeschooling support record is mixed (though at least he does have one.)
McCain, again, I just don't trust. Something about the way he acts...that and his policy record isn't so good in my eyes. However, that's something I could forgive if it weren't for the whole package. That, and the principles he claims to hold so dear seem to be straight from Pluto.
I'm profoundly disappointed with Romney, but there are still a number of things about him I do like, since I am basically conservative on social matters, just with a strong Libertarian bent everywhere else. I just wish he didn't toe the Bush party line so very much (and wasn't so hawkish.) A lot of his positions are just impossible ones (such as his ultra-hard stance on illegal immigration) that he's taken to convince everybody of his conservative solidity.
As far as predictions go, I'm actually thinking we might have Romney vs. Obama, and then Obama would win, obviously. The Bush backlash still hasn't begun to exhaust itself.
