I have trouble understanding how decent people can see Obama as an imperfect good rather than a really horrible lesser evil. In case that provides perspective.

It does, actually. And I remind myself that there's a lot about Obama that I'm not happy with. Fucking drones, man.

I'm often surprised with how people plan on voting. We have a teacher at my school who is planning against voting against Prop 30, which will raise taxes, but will also mean that we don't' have to take an additional 15 furlough days on top of the 10 we are currently taking. Also, at my school, we will lose 2-3 teachers if it doesn't pass.

But this teacher said, "I just don't want to pay higher taxes." Um. Really? Because your 15 extra days without pay will actually cost way more than a tax increase.

I don't get voting against your self-interest.

I've been shocked to find a lot of parents and people in the neighborhood who I would have definitely pegged as Democrats put Romney signs on their lawns. They all have really nice houses, for the record.

I don't get voting against your self-interest.

I have at least 3 gay friends who are loud and proud pro-Romney voters. That spun my head hard.

I try not to know what my neighbors and coworkers think. It's usually depressing.

I have at least 3 gay friends who are loud and proud pro-Romney voters

I have at least one. He said, "I'd rather have a boyfriend in a Beemer than a husband in a Hyundai." Clever line. Stupid sentiment. But his uncle was the Shah of Iran so perhaps he has other things at play?

I think people sometimes vote for what they want their interest to be. Sort of aspirational voting.

Damn, my finger hurts.

I do a lot of teaching about failure and how awesome it is. I often say, "That's a great error!" and explain why and I also reward good corrections. I sometimes am pretty careful about how I phrase a correction, depending on the kid and the relationship, but I will also totally belt out a "WRONG!" from time to time when warranted and when the relationship is a teasing one. I will fake mock outrage at a particularly egregious error if I know the student is just not paying attention and can do better, and they grin at me and do better. We have a big session with all our new students about learning to make mistakes big. We talk all the time about working on what's hard for us, not what's easy. We laugh a lot about mistakes.

WTF, gifted teacher, your students will never get to any of this awesomeness!

I don't get voting against your self-interest.

The last several election cycles have made me very cynical about human intelligence.

I didn't used to think that lots and lots of people were total fucking idiots. But now I do.

Yes, there are lots of idiots, and there are also lots of people with different priorities who are making different choices based on the best information they have.

My immediate department at work is a bunch of yellow-dog democrats, and it does my heart good.

My extended family, OTOH, is not having Thanksgiving together for the first year since I can remember (and I'm 41), and it's because of the election. No matter who wins, 3/4 of the family will be giant jackholes either gloating or whining and spewing racist garbage. One aunt thinks Sarah Palin would make an excellent POTUS (no, seriously), and the other aunt told my mom, in so many words, that she will burn in hell because she thinks gay people should be allowed to marry.

I just want this fucking election to be over.