Election musings and poll

[owlmoose]

So John Edwards dropped out. Since I had finally settled on him, and was actually looking forward to casting a vote that mattered for a candidate I liked, this throws me into a bit of disarray.


[Poll #1130367]

Comments

[iamleaper]

I was 100% Kucinich... until he dropped out. Now I'm 100% Obama. The more I see Clinton and the more I think about it... it makes me sick to my stomach. It's probably not her fault, but I don't like the idea of electing someone from a 'powerful family'. I feel the same way about the Kennedies. She is a woman, true, but the great thing about having free thought is that you don't have to support someone just because you have some basic genetic trait in common with them.

I hope that anyone but McCain gets the Republican nomination... because I cannot stand John McCain and I would likely be violently ill at the thought of him having the chance at being President. No one listens to me, but I was there and I heard him speak in the single most inappropriate manner I have ever heard, and no amount of "straight talk" can ever, ever forgive that.

[iamleaper]

Also, I find it unusual that, in my comment, I twice refer to being physically ill over the elections. I wonder what that means.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I was there and I heard him speak in the single most inappropriate manner I have ever heard, and no amount of "straight talk" can ever, ever forgive that.

Wow, what happened? I don't think I've heard this story. If you don't mind telling it, of course.

I have the same reservations about Clinton. As you say, it's not her fault, but the idea of the White House passing back and forth between two families for nearly 30 years (from 1988, when Bush Sr. was elected, to 2016, if Hillary were elected and then re-elected) bothers me a lot. (That said, if she gets the nomination, I will vote for her -- I still prefer her to any of the Republican options.)

[iamleaper]

McCain spoke at my college graduation. It was a graduation speech.

He got up there and rambled for almost an hour. It started off well, with him saying how proud we should be and how we should thank our parents and how it was great to have so many minds and we should keep using our college education in daily life, blah blah blah, but that was about 5-10 minutes.

The other 50 or so minutes were him talking about Iraq. About how he felt a deep burning need to continue the work over there. About how it felt right in his heart, and how the whole war was justified because "the followers of Islam are extremists who don't respect freedom and liberty" (not a direct quote, but close). This was said before a multinational audience of mostly liberal college graduates, at a place which has a large population of Muslim students. I could hear the horrified gasps and whispers from the business school (where the largest population of Muslim folks were) and, indeed, from all around when we all realized what kind of idiotic thing he had said.

#1: You don't insult a large portion of your audience on what is supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives.
#2: McCain obviously does not understand what a "college graduation speech" is supposed to entail. He took it to mean "Stand up and congratulate everyone and then present your political platform".

This is why I say that I can never vote for someone who doesn't understand context.