I just noticed that my last-minute edit didn’t take (the board was being fiddly when I posted the OP).
I’d be holding my nose and voting for Hillary. The country just can’t afford another GOP presidency*.
*I was gonna say “Republican president”, but in many ways, I see Hillary as a DINO. Well, the INO is going to have to do, if it’s the best we have to choose in November.
I don’t see why voting based on character is wrong. It’s just as easy to lie about your policy positions as it is to present a false image of yourself to 300-something million people. Easier, even.
Not voting is not an option to me. I feel it is important to participate in the process, even if the candidates are not up to the standard you would like.
I fully believe I won’t have to worry about choosing between Clinton and McCain, but if it came to that, I will not vote for Clinton. I don’t like her, I don’t trust her, I don’t think she will be effective, I think she will continue the divisiveness gripping the country.
My state, Illinois, is pretty solidly blue at the moment, so it is likely she would win here. I would be voting for either McCain or one of the “Other” candidates, though.
McCain. As I’ve only had 2 “Families” pretty much running things since I was born.
I’m tired of that.
And i’d be pretty disappointed if the Super delegates override the popular vote.
I’m sort of torn about this. I won’t be voting Republican any time soon…until they clean house to my satisfaction, even if then. So, it’ll either be Hillary or a write-in/no vote. I expect not to choose until put in the position to do so, though…
McCain. I don’t like the fact that Hillary is a part of a machine any more than I like the same fact about McCain. But at the same time, while McCain might not do what I would like about some key issues, he’s more palatable to me than Hillary.
However, I (currently a registered Republican, but will change that back to libertarian when I can find out where the heck to change my registration…) will be very happy to vote for Obama, if that is possible.
I have no idea what I would do. On one hand, I’m not sure I agree with a single policy of McCain’s, and the differences between who he was in 2000 and who he is now is alarming and telling of his true character. Honesty? Integrity? Stop swallowing the lies.
That said, I’m afraid of Hillary. Mostly because I don’t think either political party, with a mandate from a cooperative congress, can be trusted. I’d rather our government be deadlocked and ineffective than allow the nut-cases free reign over policy choice.
Elvis, kiss mah grits. There are perfectly good reasons to vote for third parties. One of which is to help them stay on the ballot for next year.
Mcain. After the way Hillary has ran her election campaign, I can just imagine how screwed up her press corps would be, and many other things. Plus, I can see her easily deciding to stay in the war a lot longer, so the different there isn’t really there imho. She has no anti-war cred to me.
I’d probably vote for Hillary on the SCOTUS issue alone. If it weren’t for that, then I’d probably go McCain.
Pochacco, this yellow dog…what’s its position on Iraq?
I much prefer Obama. If something should happen that he didn’t get the nomination I would be very disappointed in our system. I already wonder why it had to get this bad and why we let it happen.
Be that as it may, if Hillary was the democratic nominee I would vote for her but with a whole lot less enthusiasm.
I’m torn as well. But the only way Clinton would get it would be at the convention by overturning the popular vote, and I don’t think there would be enough time after that for my anger to subside.
I’m a libertarian at heart, so I’d probably vote L.
I’d vote for Clinton. However, my vote won’t matter in the general election anyway.
Veto power, power to choose supreme court justices. One’s misrepresentation of one’s policy positions, if that were in some fantasy land to actually occur, could only influence things on the margins. We’ve actually seen the effects of selecting someone based on their facade of a character.
Vote for the party that best represents your principles and where you want the country to go, not for the candidate you think is the nicest or best to have a beer with.
This thread makes me sad. No wonder our country is so fucked up.
I’d like to amplify my answer. While I have some serious issues against Clinton, I would have happily voted for her if she had simply beaten Obama. But that’s all but impossible now. If she wins, it will almost certainly be because the party had a small minority of its elite decide to overturn a clear majority of the pledged vote and (very likely) the voters as counted. And I can’t get behind that.
Besides, I live in a state that if it doesn’t go Democrat as surely as the sun rises, then that candidate is already pretty fucked. If I lived in an actual battleground state, I might have a tougher decision.
This, almost word for word, is my outlook as well. The McCain of 2008 is not the McCain of 2000. It really would be like a third term for Dubya, and the country cannot afford that.
I agree with you about Gore, but it has happened before. George Clinton served as both Jefferson’s and Madison’s vice president, as did John C. Calhoun for both J.Q. Adams and Jackson.
I’ve said all along I would gladly vote for Clinton if she wins the nomination. Now? I would still vote for her, but it wouldn’t be gladly.
The Iraq War is by far the most important issue to me, and McCain cannot be allowed to take the White House with that kind of stance.
I’m getting quite tired of this lesser-of-two evils crap, and this is only the second presidential election I’ve been able to vote in. But I still think that Clinton will do the least damage.
If elected, I don’t think she’ll do much else in her first term, though, other than planning how to get elected a second time. For someone who’s such a…politician…she sure as hell doesn’t know how to get along with people.
McCain will be the same old crap. At least Clinton has a chance of being slightly different crap.