Republican Presidential Candidates

My pet peeves on presidential candidates.

Keep your religion to yourself.  That's the best way to make it a null issue.  If you don't want people pointing at your religious beliefs, don't bring it up.  It's impolite, it's improper, and it should not in any way influence your decision-making as the head honcho of this country.

I have always felt an absence of a religious prerequisite for running for president means that you should be able to exercise your right to exercise your religion, but don't let it influence your decision while you are president.  Once you start embedding your religious beliefs and doctrines into your presidential decisions, that's when you will no longer be taken seriously.  Honestly, once you start classifying/categorizing people as good and evil, you're in serious trouble.  Language like that is not only scary, it's ludicrous.  Imagine what our overseas allies think about a leader who speaks with vocabulary from the Bible?

Another pet peeve that I have (and I know this asks too much of candidates) is to stop wasting my TV time attacking each other and focus only on the issues at hand.

I know the mentality and research that negative attack ads are very effective at eliminating competition, but it doesn't work on me.  It doesn't work on rational human beings who care more about what you have to offer than your ability to spotlight the microscopic flaws of your competition.

If you put every candidate under the microscope, you will find all sorts of filth.  They're all politicians.  Of course they have things to be ashamed of or aren't exactly proud of, but to use that as reasons to get your unqualified ass into office is a pipe dream.

Another pet peeve I have is for candidates who pretend to know everything about every issue.  They pretend that they have all the answers or they deflect from the original question to an arbitrarily related issue.  Don't patronize my intelligence.  If you're clueless or haven't the foggiest idea how to address this concern, then admit that area is not your area of expertise and that you would most likely appoint someone with the expertise necessary to address these issues.

Nobody has asked candidates who they would surround themselves with.  Who will your cabinet members be?  Who would you appoint as your Education Secretary and why?

In a field like education you cannot convince a classroom educator that as president, you have all my best interests at heart when you appoint Mr. knuckle-head to create one of the most putative educational systems on the planet for educators to work in.  If you want meaningful issue-based support, focus on the expertise and experience that matters in your subordinates.

The last thing that bothers me in presidential debates, wear a suit that fits you...  Sorry Dr. Ron Paul, but you look ridiculous...