>>>*My feelings are they can be beaten, in fact, as I said earlier...If I was a betting man...

But somehow I doubt that Obama is going to be the running mate. Perhaps.

Right now Mr. Obama is still making headway on media rock star status, and when it gets to the down and dirty the empty suit will appear.

I think Ms. Clinton will show some true colors before this is over, too. Part of her talking about Obama as a running mate had to do with the fact he is ahead of her, just a political trick and a good one, too.

The one thing I don't like is I keep hearing comments regarding race and the fact Hillary is female (At least I think she is)..I sit here and wonder just what THAT has to do with anything? All I care about is electing someone that realizes that most of us really DO struggle each and every day.

That one debate where they were all talking about people who "Make up to $150,000 per year." Got to me.

$150K?? Gimmee..That will work for me!!.....I think I did that just one time in my entire life and that was a lucky shot with some stocks.

I will make an offer to any of them, come run my tiny company for just 30 days, and have the doors still open 30 days later, and still out of debt. Do THAT and I would vote for them.

Let's see any of them figure out how to get 1000 timing chain tensioners out of a storage bin in LA where they have been for 5 weeks?

I would hazard a guess not one of them could do any of that.

But my best thought is that John McCain will be our next President. The Republicans had better choices and ignored them though. The Democrats had better choices but most had given up before the race started.

It doesn't matter anyway. I am continuing to dig that hole to crawl into and hide, I figure 50 feet deep will be about enough......*LOL**...

*Where the he** is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him?.....*EB

A lot of people are assuming the county is split 50/50 between Democrats and Republicans and that either party has a real shot. Sort of like it was back in 2000/2004.

I have to wonder if the country has recently undergone a massive shift to the left in the last couple of years. The Democrats "appear" to have come out in such force that they appear to outnumber Republicans by a wide margin.

Add the fact that McCain is very much hated by many Republicans who will very likely stay home and I think you have a clear victory for either Oboma or Hillary.

Each candidate has major flaws. But McCain is the ultimate anti-candidate. He has hardcore positions that absolutely alienate both sides. He absolute steadfast believes in staying in Iraq for as long as it takes, which the Democrats absolute hate and he's a illegal alien and amnesty supporter, which the "normal" Republicans hate. Add his fake smile, total load of BS, and speaking ability on par with GWB and one scandle after another and if that isn't a receipe for landslide, I don't know what is.

Of course, there are some caveats.

Will there be an 3rd party candidates?

Will the Democrats go to war with each other over the nomination, especially if Oboma wins the popular vote, but loses to the super delegates.

What scandle or swift boat situation will be brought and played over and over and over in the media against any of the candidates?

I think those of us that been around longer than 30 years under estimate how dramaticly our society has changed in the last 20 years. We are far more dependent on the government and our debt just to survive. In other words, the average American is anything but indepedent. We are heavily dependent on the government and what the government will do to support us and bail us out..as evident by the current housing and financial crisis.

With that in mind, I think the Democrats are going to be far more popular...unfortunately.

The other thing is...if I was an outsider that wanted to destroy this country and somehow could arbitrarily pick the President, I don't think they could done a better job than GWB in 2000 and 2004 and these three idiots we have to choose from in 2008.

I mean seriously. Either this is one hell of a joke, we are being purposely destroyed from with in.

...I mean seriously. Either this is one hell of a joke, we are being purposely destroyed from with in....

Ask Cheney. He knows the answer. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

On a sad note, this will probably be the first time in 30 years that I will not vote for a President. Sure is shaping up that way. I can't even feel like I'd be voting for the lesser of two evils. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

That's simply unacceptable. Vote your heart, even if it's not for someone who has a chance at winning - at least VOTE.

Not voting is a vote too. It's a vote against the system. If your choice was between Stalin and Hitler would you still vote?

No, you'd probably abstain.

If we lived in a real Democracy where multi-candidates and parties had a real chance at running, it might be different.

Instead, we live in a country where two private corporate-like entities, called the Republicans and Democrats, control the entire process and privately decide which two candidates the rest of us get to "choose" from. Even then, the popular vote doesn't even mean squat and is nothing more than a formality as we saw again in 2000. Powerful individuals cast the real votes.

And the mainstream media considers not only the two parties to be the only legitimate candidates, but only selected candidates from either party to be legitimate. Whether they are popular or not. And then they run only those names through the media, over and over and over again, so that Americans end up voting by name reconignition instead of who is actually the better candidate.

The whole thing is a damn sham.

To make matters worse, it's been made purposely difficult in many states for another party or indepedent to even get on the ballot, much less run against these two parties.

So, while I have a right to vote, I also have a right NOT to vote in an election that is really nothing more than confirming the privately pre-selected to two candidates.

At least I can choose whether or not to vote. The privately controlled Democratic party has so much power to decide who your President is going to be, that they were able to eliminate TWO entire states from the primary election, just because they didn't like when their primaries were held.

And why is that legal? Because they are private organizations. Again, there is nothing public, open or fair about our current Presidental election system.

My heart has nothing for these guys, sorry to say. I am true to myself, and I haven't voted FOR anyone for a long time, only AGAINST someone.

Some friggin' choice eh. And YES, there is a difference on how ya feel when you walk into the booth with the ballot. I'll just be feeding the election judges at my precinct. At least that's a community gesture that means something.

LIke I metioned in another post, the Race/Gender issue is starting to raise its ugly head, with Ferraro's comments today. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> It is going to be fun to watch the Dems tear themselves apart over which minority gets to be the nominee, i.e., a black man whose ethnicity has been a core(votes only) of the Dems, or a white woman, whose gender has had the most success in the Dem party. Either way a major voting block of the Dem party is going to be left out in the cold <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />.

You missed my point completely. And no - a non-vote is not a vote against the system. I disagree with that 100%. What do you think has more impact? The fact that most people don't vote or if those people who don't participate voted for a third party?

My point is to vote for SOMEBODY - be it a write in candidate that you like, a third party, or anyone other than the top two, if they don't appeal to you.



They do have a real chance. All the people who stayed home in '06 could have made a tremendous impact on the country if they voted 3rd party. But they instead chose to thumb their nose "at the system" in and now complain about the end results. Voting is the only opportunity we have to make change, and I promise you that people who choose to not participate are doing more to perpetuate the problem than correct it.

When I talk about not voting, I'm talking about not voting for the big two. Unless another Ross Perot shows up or Ron Paul decides to run, there is no practical challenger, which means my voting for a write-in or a 3rd party is just as futile as not voting at all. But, I don't blame anyone for voting or writing in just so they can say they did vote.

The MSM has proven that they are not going to give a 3rd party candidate a chance this time around in the way they so quickly concentrated on only a couple of major primary candidates and snubbed all the rest.

Besides, our country is currently facing one crisis after another...5 year long war, oil price crisis, housing crash crisis, dollar crash crisis, financial market crisis, and potential stock market crisis, debt crisis, yet not a single peep out of the candidates or challenge from the MSM on any of these issues. Just a bunch of garbage about "change" and the "challenges" ahead and crap like that. The only person who ever talked about specifics was RP and look where that got him?

Basically I can waste my time while being overun by a tidal wave of ignorant masses that buy into the marketing of the two parties, or I can withdraw and concentrate on my contingency plans for when stuff gets really bad around here in a few years. Like my financies, job situation, etc.

If RP or another decent person runs as an indepedent, I might reengage.

I think most of us offroaders will have to trade in our 4x4s for hybrids and the gun toters will have to well either take themselves out or attempt to fend off the feds. And I will be out of a job because I will no longer have a job fixing military equipment. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />