Giuliani is terrifying, and an asshole.

And has proven to be not much of a Yankee fan.

(always knew he was a fraud)

Olbermann couldn't wait to jump all over that, of course.

And, for anyone keeping score at home, my opinions of the Dems:

HRC - Nothing against her, and I believe she'd do a fine job. The Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton thing still bugs, as does the idea of the first woman POTUS being the wife of a former holder of the office, but if I'm thinking in terms of competence and reliability and what's good for the country, she comes out on top.

Obama - Was my favorite, but his campaign has seemed amateurish in spots, so I don't know if he's ready.

Edwards - I like a lot of what he has to say, but have never liked him. He just seems fake and oily.

Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell

(Dunno how old this is)

I'm so politically burnt out -- I know there's some hugely strong reason for my visceral repulsion from McCain, bigger than his merely having pussied out in 2000 and big enough to override my love of his fierce and eloquent anti-torture speeches of late, but I can't remember exactly what it is and I'm too weary and sickened by all of it to go through my old links and dig it out.

Ron Paul is indeed batshit crazy, but he worries me because he's fairly smart and eloquent and, despite all the ugliness that's right there if you dig more than an inch deep, seems very capable lately of making all sorts of seductively pseudo-centrist noises. I heard an interview on NPR with the fellow he defeated in his first Congressional campaign, an incumbent who thought Paul's campaign was ridiculous, pointless and doomed, and who was shocked as shit to lose hard. He said he's followed Paul's career since then, and in his opinion the problem most of his opponents have is that they underestimate him, just as he himself did. He was very firm about the necessity of taking Ron Paul deadly seriously if you want to defeat him.

And ICompletely ON, Lee, I think Monday went pretty well. I hope. We'll see. I'll know by the end of next week if I've made the second round of interviews, and the final decision will happen the first week of December. And in the meantime, my current supervisor is meeting with our department's admin head to push for a contracts & grants position for me. Which, yay, but scary with the numbers and the huge budgets and shit. I'd really just rather continue answering phones, scheduling meetings and making sure the copy machine and printer have enough toner and aren't jammed; I just want a little more money for doing so.

Truthfully, in my 9-5 day-job world I'm horribly lazy and unambitious.

Susan, ITA on all points. [eta: Well, except that I was never on the Obama train. He's always seemed to be running for Preacher, not President.]

Edwards' smile freaks me out. I know that's not a fair reason to dislike him, but there it is. Every time I see him on TV, my lizard brain screams "ACK! POD PERSON!" and I can't concentrate on any of his actual policy positions.

I'd classify Clinton as the Democrat most likely to bomb Iran -- especially if you look at her foreign policy advisors.

If you look at policy rather than personal impression, Edwards is the best of the big three. (Kucinich has the best policy in absolute terms, but not a serious possiblility.) Bush was elected as "the guy people would like to have a beer with". I really think personal impressions are a bad way to judge a candidate.

Bush was elected as "the guy people would like to have a beer with". I really think personal impressions are a bad way to judge a candidate.

I'd consider voting for Bush, if the criteria was, "The guy you'd most want to reenact the wood chipper scene in Fargo."

I do always vote for Kucinich in the primary. I know it's futile, but he's the only candidate on the ballot who's always exactly far enough to the left without crossing over into crazytown. (Okay, except for the UFO thing. But that's more charming-crazy than scary-crazy.)

Edwards is my current favored candidate on the Dem side. I wanted Obama to be the guy I liked the most, but his campaign has not helped. I need to learn more about all the candidates before voting time though.