Politics!

[Berliner]

You are being naive. You have no idea how many jobs they need to fill, considering how partisan the Bush administration has been - pretty much all of them - in almost every federal agency. Just the dept of Justice alone is going to be a monumental task. The only people around who have the experience to be ready on day one are the people who held those positions during the Clinton admin.

I don't think the Clintons are the only ones with Rolodexes in town. If Obama staffs his administration the same way he staffs his campaign, there's going to be a lot of fresh blood.

[NFox]

Also, I wouldn't elect you president of my ass. You totally ruined that Charlyne Yi thing and refused to own up to it. I don't think you and power would be a good mix.

See, that's exactly what would make me such a good president. All politicians are really good for is cocking things up when everything is going long just fine...I can cock things up with my eyes closed as you saw.

Owned up enough for you? Would you let me be the president of your ass now?

-Nick

[ericluxury]

I really could have choked Hillary last night. She compared herself to Harriet Tubman. Harriet. Fucking. Tubman. She's trying to carve herself out as some kind of historical figure, but she's not. I can't believe the DNC allowed her to give that speech. It was so fucking standoffish and divisive when she really needed to suck it up and praise the shit out of Obama.

She did not compare herself to Harriet Tubman. She was quoting a great woman from the past and a comment about freedom and moving on. Have you ever watched a political speech before? Because they pretty much always contain quotes from people with far greater accomplishments and that doesn't mean a direct comparison.

I have no idea if it will help on the fence Hiliary supporters vote Obama because she front-loaded so much stuff about herself and didn't really get around to why she supports him until the 'is it really about me' stuff. However, I thought that part was very well done and sincere. The biggest problem with watching Hiliary speak is that she telegraphs all her cute lines. It doesn't help that everytime she had a soundbite the camera would cut to Bill who would chuckle and then beam.

[pmottaz]

I was glad to hear someone (the NPR Newswoman, I think) mention that everyone at the convention was probably not going to need convincing by Hillary Clinton on who to vote for.

I thought Hillary's speech was good. There was one part, however, near the early middle that felt more like it was part of what would have been her acceptance speech with a tagged on "...and that's why we should vote for Obama" at the end, but I thought her ending part was solid.

And at the risk of offending people, anyone who felt so close to Hillary Clinton that they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for another candidate, even a Democrat, needs to take a serious step back and re-examine the big picture. I thought Hillary did this very eloquently, basically saying "Me and this Obama guy, we're really after the same things. And we don't want to see John McCain win."

If someone's so loyal to Hillary that you would try to play a weird game of vote-in-McCain-so-Hillary-can-win-in-2012, then they're insane. They would leave more to chance than a typical Joker scheme.

[DiscoInferiorityComplex]

Undecided voters in general make me apoplectic. Well, not all undecided voters. Just those that are willing to go on the record and talk about why they are still undecided.

I will tolerate you if you are undecided, but have enough shame to know you should keep this to yourself. Or, if you're undecided between voting for the independent candidate whose beliefs more closely match your own or the major party candidate you find least objectionable.

However, if you're still waiting to see which candidate will lower your taxes 1% more than the other, or somehow cannot determine in your ever-so nuanced single-issue brain which candidate is more experienced, which one is going to bring more "change" to Washington, or which one will "keep your family safe from terrorists", I don't want to share this society with you.

[scamboogah]

I'm with you Disco. Anyone that says, "I don't like either candidate, so I'm not gonna vote", is basically telling the world that they're too ignorant or lazy to go out and find someone that actually does represent them. Either that, or too apathetic to have any interest in a process that could very well determine large scale parts of their future.

Either way, fuck 'em. The people get what the people deserve.

[NFox]

I'm with you Disco. Anyone that says, "I don't like either candidate, so I'm not gonna vote", is basically telling the world that they're too ignorant or lazy to go out and find someone that actually does represent them. Either that, or too apathetic to have any interest in a process that could very well determine large scale parts of their future.

Either way, fuck 'em. The people get what the people deserve.

That's why I'm going with "none of the above" and voting for a third party candidate. Call me an idealist, but I really think that voting should all be about picking the best person for the job, not party lines.

-Nick

[pmottaz]

That's why I'm going with "none of the above" and voting for a third party candidate. Call me an idealist, but I really think that voting should all be about picking the best person for the job, not party lines.

-Nick

Me personally, I haven't been moved enough by a third party candidate for me to vote for them/NOT vote for the "lesser of two evils" in the Big Two parties.

I would, like you, love to have 3, 4, 14 parties with legitimate chances at winning. Since they don't, the idealist in me gives way to the realist.

[Hated Milk Machine]

That's why I'm going with "none of the above" and voting for a third party candidate. Call me an idealist, but I really think that voting should all be about picking the best person for the job, not party lines.

-Nick

What third party candidate are you voting for?

[KevinLee]

I don't mind when someone doesn't vote because politicians are slimeballs.
If you all were wondering who I'm voting for this year, and I'm sure you all are, all I gotta say is, "NFox 4 President of Funnyclown's Ass 2008!!! Wooo!!!"

[Vanessa]

Does anyone else want to commit violent acts when Hillary supporters say they aren't sure who they're going to vote for?

she doesn't vote on the first date:

[DiscoInferiorityComplex]

she doesn't vote on the first date:

Ooooooohh, they're just doing performance art. Phew, for a second there, I thought she was real. The twitching was clearly inspired by Wiig.

[Jenny]

I'm with you Disco. Anyone that says, "I don't like either candidate, so I'm not gonna vote", is basically telling the world that they're too ignorant or lazy to go out and find someone that actually does represent them. Either that, or too apathetic to have any interest in a process that could very well determine large scale parts of their future.

Either way, fuck 'em. The people get what the people deserve.

Either that or they reject the whole democratic process and dream of a Leninist revolution. Sorry, I had an encounter with one of those guys last night and I'm trying to get it off my mind.

[angryrobot]

to be fair, the Obama supporters were total assholes to the Hillary supporters. Total. They unjustly turned Hillary into Nader (who is right about the Democrats by the way). I doubt very much any of Hillary's supporters are going to vote for McCain - at worst they'll stay home. I understand them wanting revenge but I hope they understand that if McCain wins they are going to catch even more hell than Ralph Nader did in 2000.

[Berliner]

I don't think the American system was set up very well for third party candidates. However, I hope that one day someone will at least introduce runoff voting. Will never happen though.

[DiscoInferiorityComplex]

to be fair, the Obama supporters were total assholes to the Hillary supporters. Total. They unjustly turned Hillary into Nader (who is right about the Democrats by the way). I doubt very much any of Hillary's supporters are going to vote for McCain - at worst they'll stay home. I understand them wanting revenge but I hope they understand that if McCain wins they are going to catch even more hell than Ralph Nader did in 2000.

I don't think it was that unjust. She continued on in the race, long after she had a reasonable mathematical chance to win. She wasted countless dollars, and more importantly, made negative stories about Obama's credentials and reputation the top of the news cycle for two unnecessary months. If she had pulled a Mitt Romney, and said "I might be able to pull this one out, but it would do irreparable harm to my party in the process", we wouldn't be having any of these problems.

Believe me, if Hillary had a huge enough lead that Obama needed to win 65% of the vote in each of the remaining states to win (and we was polling well, but not well enough to win), and he stayed in the race and constantly bashed her credentials and brought up past scandals and policy debacles, I'd greet his unabashed supporters with scorn as well.

[angryrobot]

the assholery by the Obama people started well before Obama clinched. I understand that Hillary lost a lot of good will from the lefty blogosphere when she voted for the war but they all became bullshit hypocrite misogynists to me when they embraced Joe Biden as VP. A man who voted for the war AND championed a usurious bankruptcy bill that condemned millions of Americans into indentured servitude. The American Idol-type worship of Barack Obama has me more than a little uneasy.

Just turned on the convention. Does the stage for Obama's speech look like a big dick and square balls to anyone else?

[Jenny]

the assholery by the Obama people started well before Obama clinched. I understand that Hillary lost a lot of good will from the lefty blogosphere when she voted for the war but they all became bullshit hypocrite misogynists to me when they embraced Joe Biden as VP. A man who voted for the war AND championed a usurious bankruptcy bill that condemned millions of Americans into indentured servitude. The American Idol-type worship of Barack Obama has me more than a little uneasy.

Just turned on the convention. Does the stage for Obama's speech look like a big dick and square balls to anyone else?

So you're going with Nader, I assume? I think the Clintons were dismissive of Obamaduring the campaign,but many were also turned off by the rabid Clinton fanbase. (the three am ad, bill saying Obama wasn't ready to be president) And what is this bill you speak of?

[NFox]

What third party candidate are you voting for?

Right now, I'm going towards Bob Barr, but I'm open to change. I'll be researching any candidate no matter how obscure until the moment I step into that booth in November.

I fought long and hard to like either of the main two candidates, but just couldn't in good conscience say I was voting for one for any other reason than to vote against the other. So, I started reading up on the third party guys. I don't align myself with any particularly party, but if pressed I guess I would say I'm Libertarian (Socially Liberal, and Economically Conservative) as I want the government out of my personal life and out of my wallet. For the moment, Bob Barr is the closest to my ideals...so, for the moment he has my tentative vote.

...If he ends up having a really boring sex scandal (I can't imagine him being caught having anything but really boring sex) or something between now and election time, I may have to realign again*, but It appears for the first time in my life I'll be voting for someone who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, and I gotta say, it feels good.

-Nick


*If he has an awesome sex scandal...I may find a way to vote for him twice.

[Jenny]

Uhm, you know Bob Barr signed the defense of marriage act,right?