Want to rail against Bricker for deciding to vote on the issues? Do it here.
Scylla, you want people to yell at other people for you to earn your vote? Do it here.
Me? I don’t give a fuck who you’re voting for. I will say that this attitude I’ve seen of “I’m voting for this candidate because the other candidates supporters are mean” is a tremendously intelligent way to vote. Basing your vote on actual issues is for chumps anyways.
To be fair, it actually is.
“Read my lips, no new taxes”
“I’m for health care for every American citizen”
“Gays should be able to openly serve in the United States military”
“I’m a compassionate conservative”
So, which one of these actually worked out in the end? Taking a candidate at his word on the issues is setting yourself up for disappointment. The Presidency is about personality and trust, no more and no less. The second component, trust, dissipates in the face of endless barrages by a candidate or his supporters, and right now Obama’s surrogates are pissing off a lot of fence-sitters. That’s a fact. You don’t have to like it, but it’s the reality.
That’s what I love about you Airman: your boundless optimism.
But hey. Whatever. I just wanted to give the attention whores and those who love them their own little sandbox to shit in so the rest of us can go on butting heads in relative peace.
Wanna put money on whether or not it works?
-Joe
That’s me, always looking on the sunny side of things…
If they can’t post in the McCain/Palin threads you’ve effectively cut off half the threads on the board right now.
Might I suggest that if you want to confine them to their own little “free speech zone” (so to speak) you guys don’t start a thread on every little unconfirmed rumor about McCain or Palin and confine yourselves to one omnibus thread as well? That way I can live in relative peace.
Never said they couldn’t post. I’d just like to not have another thread hijacked into another votefest.
They’re no more “my guys” than they are yours.
Okay.
But where was all this ‘rabid bitch’ and Hate Bitch stuff in the Pit when I needed it, hmmm?
Noble idea, Harborwolf, and I sympathize. The Pit is pretty thoroughly infested with US political threads. It’s overload anyway and must be a colossal bore, not to mention annoyance, for non-US Dopers. Hell, I kinda yearn for a nice juicy thread on declawing cats or really stupid customers.
I don’t remember how/if The Pit was organized during previous elections and juicy political flaps. Things won’t improve for a while though, at least until after the election. Then the inevitable dissections and conflicting lab will follow on the results, no matter what they are.
US presidential elections, prolonged suckitude that just keeps giving.
I think my biggest wish this year is not for Obama to win. I don’t care who wins, so long as they win by enough votes in such a way that nobody can seriously entertain thoughts of cheating. If McCain wins, I hope he wins with 60% of the vote, because the quibbling over <0.1% in 2000 and 2004 drove me batshit.
I’m on the fence. I don’t like McCain for a bunch of reasons, though his stated positions are closer than Obama’s to my beleifs. I like Obama. I could tolerate the differences especially if we got a Republican Congress. Gridlock. Oh Yeah!
I don’t like the lunatic fringe of the left, the nutjob haters. Seems their getting more mainstream. I don’t like the idea they’ll be a part of Obama’s base that he’ll have to cater too if elected.
That’s where I am.
I don’t like what Harper’s done to arts funding, but he’s handled the economy fairly well. The Bernier mishap was pretty bad, and somebody needs to get fired over the listeriosis outbreak, but overall I think things have gone fairly smoothly.
NDP suits my interests, but voting for them would be a wash, and I don’t know if Stephane Dion has the chops to run the country. I really rather would rather not hold my nose and vote Conservative this time.
…What?
Well, fine then. slinks off
What I would really like to hear is Obama’s and McCain’s 100 year plans, respectively.
What kind of political and social seeds you gonna sow if we put you in power? What would you change, if you could, if you had time, if you had the resources and the support?
That tells me where your head is really at. Obviously you won’t implement much of that in the paltry 8 years you’ll be onstage, but assuming you aren’t lying when you answer it will tell me the attitude that will be informing all the little decision you do get to make.
Not a citizen, can’t vote. Would vote for Obama.
I’m not particularly enamoured of his policies, but he isn’t for anything I’m wholly against (Creationism in schools, overturning Roe, invading… anyone, denying gays the same rights as the rest of us, etc.)
Much more importantly, he’s the first person- certainly the first politician- to talk about race relations like a fucking adult. That speech he made after the “Pastor Wright” nonsense will turn out to be a watershed moment in American political discourse if there’s any justice.
So it probably won’t.
Nor I, but I do live here. Failing the Greens being viable I would probably grumble and vote Obama. He’s a long way too far to the right for me, but beats the hell out of McCain.
Have you seen any indication of him moving further to the left over the course of his campaign? I’d say he’s moved closer to the centre.
The rabid left nutjobs are all going to vote for him anyway, so he doesn’t have do any pandering that I can see.
Contrast that with McCain: he didn’t start with such a great following among the Republican base, so he’s gradually had to move right to bring them on side. I think the choice of Palin as VP candidate was expressly for the same reasons.
OK, so you’re a hold your nose and vote for McCaine kinda guy, no?
I feel quite strongly about rat fucking the moral majority and that’s been the overwhelming issue for me. Republican actions in office as being fiscally irresponsible doesn’t even make it financially prudent to make taking the moral mojority down as deciderer point number two.
just curious really how you rate shrill harpy lefties as being worse than abortion bombing moral majority types. And doesn’t the forcing of their beliefs such as abortion conflict with basic american notions of democracy, allowing consenting adults to do whatever in private, etc.
genuinely curious how you weight the harpy lefties versus the moral majority and turn into a 'vote against 'em no matter what kinda guy?
First, abortionist-bombers/shooters regard moral majority types as pussies and MM types regard the ABS’ers as criminals. They are not the same thing. ABS’ers are indeed worse that shrill harpy lefties. They’re may be often the same sort of people as MM types. We alas have our share of shrill harpy righties.
Second, notions of democracy and right to privacy are regarded as taking second place to human life.
And that’s how this religious righty view it.
You DID ask.
Apologies for re-replying to your post, but I had a thought that I’m embarassed hadn’t occured to me sooner. At best, you’ve only got three issues there and all of them are campaign promises, which may represent views on the issues but only reflect the candidates stance. How about gun control or judicial nominees? Taxation or approach to diplomacy? Everybody has their issues that they are voting on and all candidates do attempt to stick to their views.
They’re not becoming part of the mainstream. They’re just getting louder and drowning out the more moderate voices. That’s the way of elections. The closer the election gets, the dumber things become.
If you want to believe that, be my guest. It’s not my job to disabuse you of your optimism. Just remember that I told you so when the winner accomplishes little to nothing of what he said he was going to do.
I’m not quite that naive, but thanks for the credit. My point was that either candidate is likely to accomplish part of what they said they were going to do. That’s what you vote on.
Obviously you’ve made up your mind on the election. Do you really think that the candidate you’re voting for is going to do none of the things they say that they are going to do?
I think Obama will try, but he has little chance on health care reform, no chance on gun control, and a modest chance on tax policy. He will likely set a timetable for Iraq, whether he’s able to stick to it or not is something else entirely. On alternative energy, that all depends upon the price of gas when he proposes it. Americans are fickle and they adjust. After a year of $3.50-4.00 gas, does anybody really notice it anymore the way they did that first month? Not really.
So, based upon his speech at the Convention, he won’t be able to do most of what he claimed he wanted to, even if he’s not captured by the system and cowed by realpolitik like Clinton was on DADT.