Elections 2008

[Senshi1]

I haven't seen a straight-up election thread on TT, but if there already is one, please by all means delete/merge this one.

Also, maybe the reason there isn't a thread like this is because it's too heated a topic. In which case, please also feel free to delete or lock it. 😛

Anyway, a simple discussion-generating question - who are you voting (or who would you vote) for and why?

 

[Duke Diablo]

Well, I'd have to say nobody.
Why? I don't live in USA.

 

[FeatherDaemon1]

OK I am going to jump in here and get everyone to hate me 😉 I am voting for McCain / Palin. I like McCain he's an honest reformer. He's reached out to independents and democrats. He'll keep taxes low without the spending. He's strong on national defense and experienced. Obama has very little experience. He's an elitist. He was a pawn in the Chicago machine. That isn't experience. He hardly even served out his term as Senator. Just 144 days before he announced. Joe Biden isn't picking up that 3AM phone call. It's Barack. I don't like that.

There it is. I'm out of the closet. Feel free to beat on me I'm a big boy. :ayyy:

 

[TKLVR181]

I'm going to go the opposite way--Obama all the way for me. I think his middle class plan makes way more sense, and he doesn't want the Iraq war, which, I probably shouldn't be saying this in public, but I don't like.

McCain says he thinks it'll be another 100 years war, his words.

Do not want.

~K

 

[FeatherDaemon1]

OK... after this post I won't be here I need to head out so don't expect a speedy a reply (if you desire one). About the 100 year thing. That was an off the cuff remark. We will not be in Iraq as an occupying force for another 100 years. That's just silly. It does mean, however that he is committed to Iraq, to resolving the situation correctly. The U.S. just can't leave a vacuum of power behind. The Iraqis don't have the recent experience of running their own affairs. It will take time for all the power sharing between the three political forces in Iraq. He is not going to leave Iraq a weak state. Therefore he is committed, not to war, but ensuring a lasting peace. General Petraeus has gone a long way in rooting out the elements who wish to destabilize the region. So no, there will not be 100 years of war in Iraq.

 

[august spies]

Anybody but McCain

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

I think McCain is a good senator, a good congressman, and just as patriotic as Obama. That said, I DON'T WANT HIM as President. 8 Years of Bush Junior was enough.

 

[TyrantRaveAB]

im going mccain. he at least will have more experience on stablizing the economy with lower taxes. if there are any american out there like me higher taxes from Obama is the last thing we need. i know that the president doesnt really have any 'real' reign over the economy when ppl choose to buy and sell to keep the system working but putting more money back in american's pockets is always a good way to help ensure that it all stays moving.

 

[morgandee]

iraq isn't a war, have you ever been there?

 

[Sockstickler]

I think McCain is a good senator, a good congressman, and just as patriotic as Obama. That said, I DON'T WANT HIM as President. 8 Years of Bush Junior was enough.

I second this one.
Incidentally, have you heard that a lot of states are cracking down on so-called "joke" votes; in other words, people who write names like "Mickey Mouse" on a ballot? Whatever happened to voting for whoever you want to? Besides, I suspect a cartoon mouse could probably do better than what we've had lately.

 

[TKLVR181]

I second this one.
Incidentally, have you heard that a lot of states are cracking down on so-called "joke" votes; in other words, people who write names like "Mickey Mouse" on a ballot? Whatever happened to voting for whoever you want to? Besides, I suspect a cartoon mouse could probably do better than what we've had lately.

I had to laugh, but you're right XD


And as for "he doesn't mean 100 years war", I don't trust a republican to not want a war as far as I could throw him.

Besides, Obama is for stem cell research, his education plan makes a lot more sense, his economic plan makes a LOT more sense, and as for lack of experience, he's choses a VP who would easily make up for that.

~K

 

[Bashiku]

iraq isn't a war, have you ever been there?

So what about Serbia... I will join the crowd and support Obama all the way.

 

[august spies]

im going mccain. he at least will have more experience on stablizing the economy with lower taxes. if there are any american out there like me higher taxes from Obama is the last thing we need. i know that the president doesnt really have any 'real' reign over the economy when ppl choose to buy and sell to keep the system working but putting more money back in american's pockets is always a good way to help ensure that it all stays moving.

giant deficits, printing money you dont have, and economic ruin for the middle class does not in any way shape or form "stabalize" the economy. Unless you are super rich your taxes are not going to be higher under Obama and you will be spending less money on other things, like healthcare and education

 

[TyrantRaveAB]

giant deficits, printing money you dont have, and economic ruin for the middle class does not in any way shape or form "stabalize" the economy. Unless you are super rich your taxes are not going to be higher under Obama and you will be spending less money on other things, like healthcare and education

im not saying print more money, its not like we havent been doing that anywayz though... taxes wont be higher unless im super rich? so the $102 billion dollars per year for obama's health plan is coming from whose pockets again? and not to mention that that plan only covers 23million currently uninsured, Obama-type plan would also face the problem of healthy people who decide to take their chances or don’t sign up until they develop medical problems, thereby raising premiums for everyone else.

 

[FeatherDaemon1]

I had to laugh, but you're right XD

And as for "he doesn't mean 100 years war", I don't trust a republican to not want a war as far as I could throw him.

Nobody wants war, unfortunately the world out there isn't all roses and kittens. I'm not a warmonger. I don't want to see innocent people killed anywhere. Yet all options must be on the table. I don't trust Obama to have all those options realistically open. I respect you and your optimism, you're a good person at heart. I only wish the rest of the world saw it that way as well.

and as for lack of experience, he's choses a VP who would easily make up for that.

~K

There it is, his lack of experience. Joe Biden will not be President. Obama will be President. Obama must make those decisions. In most national emergencies the President and Vice President are separated to ensure the continuation of the Presidency. Obama himself must have that experience.

Please don't take my reply as being pushy or anything like that. I'm just putting my opinion out into the aether. 😉

 

[morgandee]

i don't think anyone has the right to say a war needs to take place unless he signs up for the armed forces or some branch

 

[general zod1]

Bob Barr

Screw the two ruling parties in the USA

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

Fuck Obama and McCain!

I'm voting RAPTOR JESUS for president!

^_~

...don't look at me like that...he went extinct for our sins!

^_^

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Bob Barr

Screw the two ruling parties in the USA

You'll vote for who we tell you to or the bunny gets it. Understand?

 

[Big_Dogg85]

I would throw in my two cents on the US elections but up here in the great "Kanehdia", we have a federal election of our own to deal with now so... Any and all Canadians out there: SPEAK OUT ABOUT OUR ELECTIONS. I would more than love to see Stephen Harper get punted out of 22 Sussex... I know I can't do much about that where I live (guaranteed Conservative stronghold, damnit all) but I wonder what others think. Sorry if I sort of hijacked ur thread Sensh but we have elections too so it's somewhat on topic.

 

[Big_Dogg85]

and as for my two cents on the U.S. matter: 8 years of Republican rule with Junior Bush at the helm has brought little in terms of enough benefits to outweigh the detractors. My view on the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan is that the Americans are engaged in a costly and seemingly never-ending war of attrition. When is it going to end: when every last insurgent is gone? Another big fumble to me was FEMA and Katrina and how the entire incident was handled from a federal point of view. Those are two detractors, of many I'm sure, that stood out for me.

I don't care much for either McCain or Obama but, somewhat like Obama's platform slogan: I think there needs to be a change in office away from the Republicans, a fresh standpoint on everything.

 

[Wade1]

I used to like McCain but he's really mortgaged his honor in conducting this campaign. His people have clearly decided that it's more important to win dirty than to lose admirably--and I understand that mindset; you can't govern if you can't win. But McCain's whole appeal was that he was an honorable freethinker, so when you take that away from him and make him just another opportunistic and dissembling politician, in my view there aren't any reasons left to vote for him. Sure, maybe he's just putting out TV commercials full of lies and letting his VP candidate lie in every speech she gives as a pragmatic move, to get to the Oval Office and once he gets there he'll change tactics and govern like the sensible straight-talker he was in 2000, but when you're putting the fate of the nation in his hands for the next four years it's awfully hard to take that on faith.

All of which, frankly, I think is George W. Bush's fault. We would've been a lot better off if McCain had been elected in 2000, which might have happened had Bush's team not torpedoed McCain's primary campaign with abhorrent lies and dirty tricks.

But that didn't happen, and it's 2008 now, and McCain has sacrificed his integrity for expediency, and so I'm planning on voting for Obama, who's a helluva smart guy.

 

[QueenBeeBeeMari]

I really just don't agree with any candidate right now and I think not one of them will really do much good for our country.

 

[Wade1]

I have to admit that I'm surprised when I hear Americans say that, in this particular year of all election years. I could understand that attitude in, say, 2000, when the choice was between two wealthy risk-averse white guys, both elite sons of privilege who were full of entitlement and seemed to put their own needs and desires before anyone else's, and whose platforms were not radically different from one another.

But this year you have two presidential candidates with uncommon and compelling biographies, both undeniably talented, both with records of working for a communal good, both articulately expressing a desire to get past partisan divisiveness, each with a well-defined platform of positions that differs significantly from his opponent's, vying for the leadership of a nation that's currently in a whole bunch of ugly messes and is in desperate need of ideas.

I'm as jaded about the political system as the next guy--it's too driven by money, the two-party system has a straitjacket on voter choice, the electorate is too easily distracted by lies and irrelevancies, the government is a lumbering behemoth that no one individual can move or change--but if you can't find a candidate to at least tentatively get behind this year, it's hard to envision a slate that would meet with your approval.

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

I have to admit that I'm surprised when I hear Americans say that, in this particular year of all election years. I could understand that attitude in, say, 2000, when the choice was between two wealthy risk-averse white guys, both elite sons of privilege who were full of entitlement and seemed to put their own needs and desires before anyone else's, and whose platforms were not radically different from one another.

But this year you have two presidential candidates with uncommon and compelling biographies, both undeniably talented, both with records of working for a communal good, both articulately expressing a desire to get past partisan divisiveness, each with a well-defined platform of positions that differs significantly from his opponent's, vying for the leadership of a nation that's currently in a whole bunch of ugly messes and is in desperate need of ideas.

I'm as jaded about the political system as the next guy--it's too driven by money, the two-party system has a straitjacket on voter choice, the electorate is too easily distracted by lies and irrelevancies, the government is a lumbering behemoth that no one individual can move or change--but if you can't find a candidate to at least tentatively get behind this year, it's hard to envision a slate that would meet with your approval.

I'm Rick Tibbler, and I endorse this message.