Jumping in with what will probably be my only thoughts on the issue....

I supported John McCain early on, even though I've traditionally voted
democrat, because I thought there was a man of great substance up there behind
the podium. I don't believe in following party lines, I try to find the best
person for the job.

I think Gore is okay. I'm not massively enthusiastic, I think we could've done
better on that count, but at the end of the day, he's okay. I think he'll do a
decent, reasonable job.

I definitely do NOT want GWB in office, for very strong reasons.

This is a man who said, when he was told that there might be a huge budget
shortfall in Texas as a result of his administration's choices, "Well,
hopefully I won't have to worry about that." This is not a man who we should
put anywhere NEAR the White House.

Further, major corporations put up nearly $100 million bucks, the largest in
history, for his primary campaign. Corporations like that don't put up money
at that level unless they think they're going to be getting something back in
exchange. This is a man who is going to be absolutely beholden to big
business, as he was in Texas, where the first things he did was to provide a
massive tax break for big oil, and the "tort reform" he lauded later was a bill
to make it harder to sue corporations when they do bad stuff.

This is a man who is a total chameleon. When McCain trounced him in one of the
primaries as a reformer, suddenly Bush came out with all these banners saying
HE was a reformer. He co-opts the other guy's stance when the other guy is
ahead because he really has no other stance other than "I want the job."

He was packaged and picked because the party heads think Bush was a brand name
they could promote, and because he was well placed to get the southern vote.
They picked him because of logistics, not because he was the best man for the
job.

He's prissy, arrogant, brittle, not terribly bright, and if he gets anywhere
near the White House the damage he will do the country will, I believe, be
*substantial*.

jms

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>Are there references to this statement of Bush's? Not that I don't believe
>you that he said that, but I'd like to read it in its context.

Jeez, it was everywhere about a month ago...even showed up in Newsweek's Quotes
of the Week section. I saw it when it first aired, and the context was this:
when Bush came in, there was a budget surplus which he said could be used for X
purposes and still give a whole bunch of tax breaks to major businesses in the
Texas area. This year, due to those policies, there's expected to be a budget
*shortfall*, and no one yet knows just how bad that's going to be yet. That's
not in contest by anyone, even Bush. The final context was that he was asked
what he thought the shortall would be, and he said he hoped he woudn't have to
worry about (on the theory that he would be in the White House by then).

Now, THAT'S what I call responsible governing....


jms

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>Quick! Somebody call Joe a nazi, and we may end this thing before it
>gets really bad.

Well, you know what I always say about nazis, the fuhrer the better....

jms

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>It's a hard choice to decide if we want our
>country sold out to big business or the Chinese communists.

In 20 years they'll be out of power. Trust me. Look at North Korea, which is
looking for some way out of the same system.

>the polls clearly
>showed that the Republicans would likely win by a landslide if they
>nominated McCain

Which is a very telling thing. The big money guys want somebody who they can
control. That ain't McCain, who I still think is very much his own man.

A vote for George W Bush is like a vote for Charlie McCarthy, without knowing
which correlating Edgar Bergen has his hand up the dummy's butt.

jms

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>Please, don't complain about the system because your guy lost. If McCain
>was so overwhelmingly popular, why did he get beat so badly in the
>primaries? His popularity is a media-supported myth geared at weakening
>Bush. Even with the full support of the media, McCain was resoundingly
>beaten by Bush. People were not allowed to vote for him? Give me a break.
>The vast majority of Republicans chose Bush over McCain or any of the others
>just as the vast majority of Democrats chose Al Gore over Bradley. It
>happened. It's over. Live with it.
>

McCain got beaten because his party wanted ONLY GWB to win, instead of being
open to whichever candidates were running to select the best man. When your
own party hobbles your efforts at organization and fundraising, it's awful hard
to win.

I was talking to one Republican candidate here in California, and he mentioned
that the Republican party was REQUIRING of all its incumbents and new
candidates that they sign a form pledging their support to GBW -- this DURING
the primaries, when McCain was still strongly in the running -- and if they did
NOT sign the endorsement, the money for their various races would be withheld.

Go ahead...tell me that's a level playing field.

jms

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>"I believe the puppet on the right shares my beliefs."
>"I believe the puppet on the left is more to my liking."
>"Wait a minute--there's one guy holding up both puppets!"
>"SHUT UP! GO BACK TO BED, AMERICA! YOUR GOVERMENT IS IN CONTROL!"

If you like that, you should go to Michael Moore's site (www.michaelmoore.com)
and watch the video he just did for Rage Against the Machine, wherein aliens
dispatch a ship containing a mutant to Earth, it divides into two politicians
(Gore and Bush) and convince people they're different entities even though they
say the same things.

I don't necessarily agree with the point of view, but it's still damned
funny....

jms

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