I’m a Democrat who hasn’t crossed party lines in any presidential election (although in other races I’ve supported Republican candidates)
Democratic candidates who are unappealing:
Joe Biden. I cannot forget about that plagiarism offense, and I can’t believe he’s still in any public office. If it came down to voting for Joe Biden versus some Republican, I’d be looking long and hard at the Republican.
Hillary Clinton: I admire her as a person, but I fear that her enemies are so rabid we’d be in for a presidential term full of smear campaigns, obstructionist tactics in congress, and god knows what else. I don’t have the stomach for it. Sorry, Hillary, unfair as that is, it kills your appeal for me.
Republican candidates that I’d consider:
John McCain is palatable to me. He always has been, long before he was a thorn in Bush’s side.
Lindsey Graham (not that he’s running) occasionally appalls me in areas where we disagree (like this Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act–I don’t agree with its timing or this industry’s need for special federal-level protection), but he has often struck me as reasonable and articulate and I’d consider him. No, really. Stop laughing and making gagging noises.
I’m not really party affiliated, but I’ll sound off anyways.
I don’t know if I could vote for McCain. I’m not sure if he’s a moderate or just a whore for votes. He doesn’t have a cross jammed up his ass, so I could vote for him without gagging.
As for Hillary, no chance. This whole video game thing is just a grab at the family values voters, and it makes me violently ill.
I’d vote for Lieberman, but he sounds like the dad from ALF, and that’s not presidential.
It doesn’t particularly concern me, though. I don’t take part in the selection of the Republican nomination, so so I don’t have to decide among the candidates. During a Democratic administration, who lost is reduced to the level of an historical footnote. And if the Republican party suffers because of stagnation of their leadership, I don’t care.
I wonder if this will ever become an issue, though. Neither the Democrats or Republicans can bring it up because they’re both guilty of it. And I don’t want to see a third party make its mark by just sniping at the two majors.
As a straight-ticket Democrat since who laid the rails, I honestly can’t think of a Republican likely to get the party nomination (especially in these polarized political times) that I’d vote for over a Democrat likely to do ditto.
I like McCain somewhat, because he’s a maverick and a Navy man (I’m an honorary Navy brat myself), but I’d probably vote for Hillary if she ran against him. I voted for her old man twice.
I’ve never understood the significance of this. Sure, the Bush family is looking rather dynastic these days, but Dole? Robert Dole was Ford’s running mate in 1976 and the Republican nominee for president in 1996, but those elections were 20 years apart and he’s a longtime senator. This factoid is no more revealing than Nixon’s having been vice president in the 1950s.
Sure, Elizabeth Dole may end up on a Republican ticket someday, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I’m purely an issues person, and so far every election the Democrat has been closer to my views on the issues, often vastly more so.
The Republican party could nominate the hybrid of Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ, but unless he or she is closer to me on the issues than the Democractic candidate, the Dems will get my vote again. Even if it’s (gasp!) the satanic Hillary Clinton. (cue horses whinnying a’la Frau Blucher)
John McCain might have appeal to me IF he wasn’t going to be 72 in 2008 and IF he had kept Bush’s feet to the fire over the smearing he took in the 2000 race. But he will be 72 and he didn’t keep the heat on Bush so I can’t consider him.
Colin Powell might have some appeal if he wasn’t complicit in the Iraq WMD affair.
Bob Dole makes McCain look young, else I’d consider him.
Other than those three, I don’t have a lot of respect for any Republican leader.
I’m with drewbert on this one. They’re all nutjobs, and I’d like nothing more than the ability to vote “None of the Above is Acceptable” each November. When the Peace & Freedom candidate is the most lucid and reasonable one on the ballot…
I’m normally conservative, but I’d vote for a Democrat if I thought that he actually cared for the plight of the working man. Unfortunately, the only Democrats who have a realistic chance of getting nominated are liberal elitists who went to Ivy League colleges, who I have absolutely nothing in common with. The old “Labor Democrats” seem to have completely died out, at least on the national level.
I might not like some of them but I doubt I’d completely agree with any democrat either. I’d vote for McCain because I believe he is someone who really cares about doing something positive for American citizens. I was also disapppointed in how he stumped for Bush during the campaign but he is still out there trying to stand up for campaign reform and now for human rights, against the White House policies.
The only way I’d consider crossing over and supporting a GOP Presidential candidate is if there were one who had completely distanced himself from Bush and from the party leadership of recent years (Frist, Delay, etc.). Corruption and dishonesty aside, this crew has led the country in directions which I consider to be genuinely harmful, and it’s hard to believe that a vote for a Republican wouldn’t be a vote for more of the same.
If McCain were really such a “maverick”, or if he were as principled as we’re led to think he is, he would have gotten himself as far as possible from these people long before now. I understand people who are frustrated Republicans, hoping to get principled leadership back in place and to see the more sensible Republican ideas rise to the top. However, if a national politician has remained a Republican in the Bush era and continues to support his party, his motives are automatically suspect.
Perhaps we’ll be able to get one of those Ivy League-educated “elitists” to move out of Connecticut, buy a ranch in Texas (specializing in raising brush), and take on a good-ol’-boy drawl. That apparently cancels it out.
I can’t vote in US elections, so this is moot. If i could, i’d be an independent with leanings towards someone like Nader, but who would vote Democrat just to get the Republicans out.
But i can never understand why so many Democrats are so enamoured with John McCain. He is, as Sam Stone has said, a real conservative, and a look beyond his war record and his bipartisan posturing makes that very clear.
I consider voting Republican if they ran Russ Feingold or Denis Kucinich.
I like to comfort myself with the belief that the current crop running the Republican party is a sad aberration and eventually the real principled Republicans will take the party back over. Supporting these sane Republicans is a step in that direction; unfortunately, at the moment, the Republican Party needs a lot more repair than the Democrats do.
It may seem ridiculous to be saying that the Republicans are in disarray when they are holding so much power. But I think the former is a consequence of the latter. There are always going to be politicians who have a set of principles and stand by them under all circumstances. But unfortuantely, there are also going to be politicians who have no real idealogical base and will join up with whatever group seems most likely to advance their own career. Most of these people would be willing to be a liberal Democrat, a People’s Commissar, or a Reich Gauleiter if that was where the power was. But for the last twenty five years, the path to power in the United States has been to be a conservative Republican. So the Republican party is getting weighed down with political hacks who will eventually sink it if something isn’t done.
As someone who admires McCain, I do so because I respect the fact that he has a set of principles and is willing to uphold them even when it’s going to cost him votes. But even more so, I respect the fact that he has shown he is willing to question his own principles. We have too many politicians who seem to think that if their preconceived notions and reality collide, the course is to ignore reality. They even have a high sounding term for this foolishness - “moral clarity”.
If the democratic candidate was someone I found weak or too libertal, I’d vote for Arlen Spector or maybe John McCain. I’d have no problem voting for any intellectual republican who went back to just paying lip-service to the religious right.
Plus, the guy who turns purple doing him on SNL will really be busy!
Harborwolf-I’d vote for Lieberman, but he sounds like the dad from ALF, and that’s not presidential.
THANK YOU!!! I’ve been trying to place that voice! Max Wright!
There’s a pacifist Catholic political activist/journalist whose name I can’t recall who has the exact same whine.
I’m hoping to see Evan Bayh run in 2008. I’ve voted on both sides of the fence, but being a lifelong Hoosier I’ve watched his entire personal and political life and could actually feel like I voted for the “best man” rather than the “lesser of two evils”.
