It seemed to me there were a lot fewer of these people in '04 than there were in '00....

Um, I think I might have been one of those people, were I Americanly inclined - If I don't like the options, I'll turn up and spoil my ballot, assuming there's no 'abstention' box.

flea - I heard some of the Muslim stuff IN MY OFFICE this week. I have a pretty strict no politics at work policy and I still had to say into the air - "He's not a muslim, he was NOT sworn in on the Qur'an.'

Just a reminder, there are people I respect among us (Buffistas) who have voted for 3rd party candidates. I hope you respect them too.

I voted for Nader in '00, though I wouldn't have if I hadn't lived in CT at the time (safe Gore state). I voted for Gore in '04, even though as a NC resident (safe Bush state) there was little point to my doing so.

I think Brenda summed it up very precisely.

Yes, but those reasons are all (a) vague and (b) not based in reality.

When she ran her last campaign for Senator, she picked up huge numbers in the more conservative areas upstate simply by showing up and being demonstrably non-Satanic. Once she was standing in front of people, they had a much harder time remembering what specifically she'd done to piss them off in the first place.

I voted for Nader in '00 as well, again because I was in a safe Gore state. I wanted a third party to be able to get funding. I would have voted for Gore in a state that was more on the line.

I can't decide which I hate more, bigotry or ignorance.

They go together like heat and humidity--one makes the other feel worse.

Just a reminder, there are people I respect among us (Buffistas) who have voted for 3rd party candidates. I hope you respect them too.

I have to respect the desire for a more representative system than the two parties we have currently. I wish that we could do something more than symbolically casting a vote to push for actual change.

I was overhearing 2 black people on my bus talking about Obama, and they were really hung up on his name. Not necessarily the Osama/Obama thing, but that it wasn't "a black man's name" so they weren't sure if they would vote for him.

The NYT had a depressing article yesterday with quotes from white men in TN who brought up Obama-Osama and thought he was a Muslim. (To make it clear, I personally would be happy with a moderate Muslim as president; these people were clearly in the "Muslims eat babies" demographic. Also Obama is not and has never been a Muslim, as I know you all know; he is an active churchgoer.)

I can't decide which I hate more, bigotry or ignorance.

Why are flat-out IGNANT people allowed to vote, damn it? I know, I know, land of freedom, long may the republic wave, democracy, one person one vote, 50 acres and a mule, blah blah blah.

But STILL. To not vote for Obama because his name doesn't sound like a "real black man's name"????? Great criterion, yo.

In some quarters there was just such an outrage that HRC failed to adhere to her traditional First Lady role that it set off years of demonizing her every move simply to justify the virulence of the reaction and make it something other than what it was.

The upshot is that to this day, there are tons of people in this country who simply aren't rational on the subject, in the sense that their perception of her postion on the political continum is quite at odds with reality. And I don't how that changes.

I think this is totally true. I have relatives who are RABID anti-Hillary, and when I ask them why, they just snort and say, "She's PUSHY!"

Uh....that's IT? THAT'S the reason you think she should be thrown in the gulag?

Just a reminder, there are people I respect among us (Buffistas) who have voted for 3rd party candidates. I hope you respect them too.

Just to be clear -- I'm registered independent. I'm married to a libertarian. One of my guaranteed will-rant-for-hours triggers is the fact that NC makes it harder than any other state for other parties to get any representation at all... and I see a vast difference between voting for a 3rd party and cashing out because you don't want to bother with either one.

In other funny news, my parents got my voicemail apologizing for my childhood wall drawings. They called me this morning laughing their asses off. My dad reminded me how we found my murals when they were pulling off the wallpaper of my childhood bedroom a few years back. He promised me I'd survive this phase.

When she ran her last campaign for Senator, she picked up huge numbers in the more conservative areas upstate simply by showing up and being demonstrably non-Satanic. Once she was standing in front of people, they had a much harder time remembering what specifically she'd done to piss them off in the first place.

This makes me feel better. Seriously.