Is anyone not voting for Obama or McCain?

[broadwayboi]

I was talking to a friend today about their voting plans for November. He told me he would not be voting for McCain or Obama. Though he would not divulge who he would be voting for.


So is there anyone out there not voting for one of these 2?

 

[MidnightPrism]

If Georgia were closer I would probably be solid Obama, but I think McCain is a lock here so I might vote 3rd party.

 

[RandomAccess]

A vote for anyone but Obama or McCain is the same thing as not voting at all. It's perhaps even worse. It takes a vote away from one of the two candidates who is closest to your own views, and who actually has a chance of winning. If they have no chance of winning, then the vote is wasted.

There, I said it: "WASTED." Go ahead and throw your rocks at me, torture me, burn me at the stake. "Protest" votes are wasted votes, pure 'n simple.

 

[jackoroe]

Nope, not voting for either of these losers. I haven't decided quite whom I'll support. Maybe Bob Barr.

 

[IceFier]

Yes, and if the person you vote for doesn't win in your state, your vote was wasted as well, so what's the difference?

 

[RandomAccess]

Some might agree with that..

But, what if you don't like either candidate?

I don't like either candidate..

But of the two I don't like, I like Obama more than I dis-like Mc Same..

However,while I know I'm not voting for his supporters, an elephant never forgets, so to speak.

I can't stand most of his supporters.I refuse to surrender to them.

A vote for Obama would signal surrender.After this primary, it'll be a while before I have any use for most of them.I have identified a few that are not "Obama scum", and they, in a way redeem the other 75 % of his supporters..

Your not gonna call me everything but a white guy, and think I'll vote for your candidate..Fuck them.

In my heart of hearts, I don't think he's a bad guy.I won't say the same about McSame.

Nonetheless, he lost me for good when he voted to support F.I.S.A...Can't say I'm a real fan of his views on guns either..

I'm sick and tired of holding my nose to vote. It sucks even more, being made a fool of, when they (dems)race to the other side of the aisle to rim the republicans, and vote with them on the issues I care most about..

This time,I'll vote with a party that best represents my values..

Some say it's about winning, but guess what?

Now, I'll settle for being able to look myself in the eye when I shave..

(sidebar)...

I don't think this country has quite got it through it's head yet..

Maybe another 4 years of republican "leadership" is just what is needed to deliver the final death blow to this filthy collection of pigs, and their party.

A vote for anyone other than Obama (who is obviously the closest to your views of the two) helps ensure that the Republican scum take the Whitehouse for another miserable term! You want McCain to drive us deeper into GW's shithole? Then go ahead and vote third party. At least then I'll know who to blame.

Yes, and if the person you vote for doesn't win in your state, your vote was wasted as well, so what's the difference?

Your hypothetical lacks balance. "If" your candidate DOES win, then you've had an impact. Voting third party only helps to guarantee that the candidate farthest from your views will win.

Way back when I was young and stupid, I was a moderate Republican. I didn't like Reagan, and I couldn't bring myself to vote for McGovern because he was a (yikes!) Democrat, even though he was closest to agreement with my political views. So, what'd I do? I voted for John Anderson and helped Reagan just the same as if I'd voted for him!

In short, if there's somebody you don't want to see win, you have to vote for someone who has a realistic chance of beating them. I wanted Hillary, but I'm settling for Obama.

 

[Shafted]

Some might agree with that..

But, what if you don't like either candidate?

You're gonna end up with one or the other, so vote for the one you dislike the least.

This time,I'll vote with a party that best represents my values..

Which party would that be, exactly?

Maybe another 4 years of republican "leadership" is just what is needed to deliver the final death blow to this filthy collection of pigs, and their party.

But why would we need another 4 years of them in charge? A Democratic victory will more than likely lead to a revamping of Republican ideology with a shift towards the center and a hopeful divorce from the Religious Right.

 

[chatolandia]

I live is NYS, we are voting for Obama, regardless who I vote for.


So I am voting for a third party candidate, that way this third party may get enough votes to start getting attention

We need a third party, so I am voting for what we need.


If I voted for McCain, in here, my vote would be wasted too. And I would rather drink bleach than to vote for McCain.


If I lived in a swing state, my story would be different, but NYS swings one way.

 

[Shafted]

Texas may become a swing state, so I'll be running to the polls to vote for Obama in November.

 

[RandomAccess]

That's you..I didn't even like Hillary that much..

I liked her better than Obama, but that might have been more sentimental than anything..

Her office intervened to get a cousin of mine (a 9-11 first responder) the benefits she was having difficulty obtaining..

That counted for something with me, and I would have felt like a dirtbag to NOT vote for her.

She got fucked, her votes weren't counted,and this caucus farce was allowed to dictate the nominee..

That's cool..

You guys play..I won't..

Look, I'm as pissed-off as anyone about the raw deal handed to Hillary by my party. . . but I'm not going to stand by and watch McCain take the Whitehouse Rovian style while my vote gets wasted elsewhere.

Go ahead, waste your vote. Then you'll have nothing to complain about when McCain wins.

 

[RandomAccess]

I'm a trucker..We can always find something to bitch about..

All bullshit aside, I don't see a hell of a lotta difference between "the rovian"tactics anymore..

Both sides are using them now..

Me, I see the writing on the wall..

I think back to my Grandfathers day..

He fought with the Irish Republican Army,and when faced with an ultimatum to accept Britain's "free state" elections or face "immediate and devasting war"..

He chose to fight his former comrades, who accepted the elections, and bowed to Britain's "authority"..

They lost,(I.R.A-his side)and he was run out of the country.But he never bowed to the lessor of two evils.

Neither will I.Not anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbrd6v4J3jo

Very idealistic. But impractical, and totally different from the IRA analogy. I hear all your platitudes "voting in lockstep" etc., but I've no idea what the hell you're talking about. What has BARACK OBAMA done in lockstep with the Republicans? What has the congress done? YOu're crying foul, but you're not making it clear where this foul is occurring.

Hillary got screwed by our own party. Get over it. I had to. . . because the alternative is ANOTHER FOUR (or EIGHT) YEARS OF FAILED LEADERSHIP! THAT I cannot sit-by and accept! I'll support Obama as staunchly as I did Hillary!

That has NO parallel to the British vs. the IRA. In your misguided harrumphing about "Neither will I. Not anymore" you're piddling-away what little voice you have in the American Presidency. Move-on, man, move-on!

 

[RandomAccess]

". . . Baby with the bathwater. . . baby with the bathwater." <sigh>

 

[swerve]

IF I can get COMFORTABLE with Bob Barr actually being a Libertarian...

AND...

Obama has NO CHANCE in Georgia...

I'll probably cast my vote for the Libertarian party...

And KENNYWORTH -- you are one of my SMARTEST and most INTELLIGENT friends...

But CYNTHIA MCKINNEY???

She USED to be my congresswoman -- and unless someone came up with pills that cure CRAZY...

AND -- she TOOK THEM...

She is STILL CRAZY!!!



p.s. I love her anyways...

 

[cityboy-stl]

We have the dip-shit, lame-brained, moron president we have now because people voted for Ralph Nader. There is no way I'd vote third party and help elect George W McCain. We're doomed if we have another four years of the same crap.

Bob Barr? No way. I'd vote for McCain before I'd vote for Bob Barr. He's a first-class asshole.

 

[RandomAccess]

We have the dip-shit, lame-brained, moron president we have now because people voted for Ralph Nader. There is no way I'd vote third party and help elect George W McCain. We're doomed if we have another four years of the same crap.

Amen Cityboy!

I've been thinking about this issue all day. People don't seem to realize that the United States is a huge BEHEMOTH, and thus can't be changed radically in anything like a short period of time due to good old fashioned inertia. Think of the US Government as a big ol' Peterbuilt (No offense intended, Kenny!) loaded with the hopes and dreams of America, traveling 90 mph on a long stretch of ice covered highway that someone spilled a few tons of Mazola on! You dare not do ANYTHING fast for fear of two possibilities: 1) complete failure (Think of Bill Clinton's rookie attempt to lift the ban on gays in the military) or 2) over-correction (ala GWBush tax cuts).

Anyone who believes things can be changed rapidly in the way our government does business is either naively idealistic, or insane. There is, by nature, so much compromise required to get anything done that the best we can hope for is to gradually nudge the country toward the desired course.

See, MOST Democrats had learned this, until Obama started preaching his "change" rhetoric. Republicans STILL haven't learned it (probably never will) and that leads to their proclivity to attempting sweeping changes based on anecdotal evidence (Welfare Reform, Tort Reform, No Child Left Behind, just to name a few).

You guessed it: I'm NOT overjoyed with Obama. But he's the only one in the race who has a ghost of a chance of nudging this big ol' Peterbuilt in the direction I feel it needs to go. McCain will either be paralised by fear of doing anything, or he'll send the truck sailing into the nearest ravine. Like it or not, those two people are the only choices in the race. Nobody else matters except as a distraction/disruption. Voting third party or independant only bolsters the chances of the less favorable of the two front-runners winning. Senator Obama has my vote.

 

[NineOfClubs]

I usually vote Libertarian. But I remember too much of Bob Barr's past to vote for him.

I may not vote at all.

It's a given that Oregon will go for Obama, regardless.

 

[Giovanni]

A vote for anyone but Obama or McCain is the same thing as not voting at all. It's perhaps even worse. It takes a vote away from one of the two candidates who is closest to your own views, and who actually has a chance of winning. If they have no chance of winning, then the vote is wasted.

There, I said it: "WASTED." Go ahead and throw your rocks at me, torture me, burn me at the stake. "Protest" votes are wasted votes, pure 'n simple.

But voting for someone who doesn't share the same views as you is even more of a waste.

Like the people who are voting McCain just because Hillary didn't win the nomination.

 

[ShortBoy]

But voting for someone who doesn't share the same views as you is even more of a waste.

Like the people who are voting McCain just because Hillary didn't win the nomination.

Those people are willing to sell the country down the river for four years to give Hillary another chance at being president.

 

[G-Lexington]

I usually wait until two or three weeks before the election, go online, read up on all the candidates, and vote for whoever I feel is most in line with my thinking. Sometimes, that's one of the "big two". Sometimes, it isn't.

>>>A vote for anyone but Obama or McCain is the same thing as not voting at all. It's perhaps even worse. It takes a vote away from one of the two candidates who is closest to your own views, and who actually has a chance of winning. If they have no chance of winning, then the vote is wasted.

I'm good friends with several "casual Republicans". These folks are registered Republican, and tend more often to vote for Republicans, but are by no means slavish in their voting. In 2004, one such friend and I were bemoaning our choices in the presidential campaign. He thought Bush was a moron, and I wasn't exactly crazy about Kerry. And it seemed silly for him to vote for Bush just to keep Kerry from winning, and for me to vote for Kerry just to keep Bush from winning. Our votes would just cancel each other out, and end up making both candidates look more popular than they actually were. So we made a deal - neither of us voted for our party's candidate. We both voted for a third-party candidate. My vote was definitely not "wasted" - I kept a vote from going to Bush. And I supported my notion that democracy need not be an either/or thing.

Lex

 

[broadwayboi]

Lots of good opinions on here. But a quick observation.

A lot of people have been talking about third party candidates...not only on here, but in my day to day interactions. In 2000 it was a third party that in essence stole the election from Al Gore. And some people believe that a third party might still this election from Obama.

But what happens if a third party actually gets some ground in this election? A lot of people are not satisfied with Obama or McCain, so they will be voting for a third party. While it's not likely for a third party candidate to win, or even win a single state, do you think that a third or fourth or fifth party might have more relevance to American politics after this election?