Anonymous US Presidental Poll

[9lives]

Palin is hot like the flames of a thousand burning suns.

I would it that.

[Sternhund]

I'm pretty much with Howl, and coming from one of the most liberal cities in the world, it's awesome to see Obama posters everywhere. I hear back at my hometown there are lots of "Obama Bin Biden" and "NObama" posters everywhere, but honestly I'm not sure how anyone can vote for Sarah Palin, who could be one 72 year old's heartbeat away from the Presidency.

If the Republicans didn't empathize with the values of the religious right so much, and if they put up competent candidates, I would put them in serious consideration. Though, frankly, I think they're current campaign is a joke, and I'd like to hear why anyone is voting Republican, because I'm sure they must be misinformed on something.

[Cake_Or_Death]

It's a fascinating thing to sit and watch from over the pond! So much more grandeur that we display in our little country. Excuse my ignorance but when it the big vote day?

[DeputyCool]

November 4th.

[Yalta]

I am English so can't vote... but if i could it would be Obama.
 
He isn't perfect (in fact is far from it) but better than what is offered from McCain/Palin. Before Palin was announced i wasn't so sure but a couple of things scare me greatly about McCain/Palin

• Sarah Palin believes Planet Earth is 4000 years old and humans were around at the same time as dinosaurs.
• Sarah Palin does not agree with abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
• Sarah Palin has had a passport for 18 months

Sorry to get serious, but McCain has had 4 reported heart problems in his life and is 72 years old. He may well die before he 76th birthday and we would have Sarah Palin as the leader of the Free World. Honestly that terrifies me.

[wcsherry]

I live in an incredibly red district in a swing state that is currently littered by those obnoxious "nObama" signs for a great many blocks. They are ridiculous.

I am going to be voting for Obama, personally.

[PanamaLane]

Sorry to get serious, but McCain has had 4 reported heart problems in his life and is 72 years old. He may well die before he 76th birthday and we would have Sarah Palin as the leader of the Free World. Honestly that terrifies me.

Actually, he's had cancer 4 times. Not sure if that's any better?

Anyway, a lot of what I am seeing is positive feelings for the change Obama offers. I think this is a trend with youths around the world because our world has changed. Just imagine the kinds of things we grew up with compared to our parents. We know that the same old ways of doing things are no longer going to hack it. The people holding onto the past are those that are destroying the future. The last half of the 20th centurt brought about the biggest explosion of scientific thought in human history. It opened up a big can of worms and the old religon vs. science or left vs right mentality that has been the crux of America since its founding, is no longer contected to our lives. We have big issues that we will only solve by working together. We are a new generation for a new world. We have a new way of thinking about things, and new approaches to life on this globalized planet.

Obama inspires me personally, and reminds me of the potential of not just America, but Americans. I personally am willing to work for a man like him, because I know he is working for me. On sheer policy, I agree with him on the issues and I guess that's what has always made me a liberal. I want healthcare, I want a cleaner environment, alternative energies and to eliminate our dependence on foriegn oil. I wanted them 8 years ago. In fact, I've wanted them my whole life. I don't trust that the other side even cares about the things I do (honestly, a lot of them -are- the oil companies to begin with). When it comes down to it, they don't care about me at all, and point to the failed idea that poor and working class people should help themselves.

Shit man, I help myself everyday, by going to work where they don't give me benefits (while the executives I work for get 7 figure salaries), I help myself by paying rent to my ghetto apartment and buying a meal a day cause i can't afford any more then that after 60k worth of student debts. I'm not looking for a handout, exactly, just someone who understands that life is tough when you are where I am. Life is tough for all the people I know. It used to be you got out of college, got a sweet job, got married and bought a house right away. People who didn't have these things by the time they were thirty were outcasts. What about our generation? Try to get yourself a loan for a home now, or a high paying job. Got a great idea for a bussiness, try to get Merill Lynch (Bank Of America) to fork you some start up cash. It isn't going to happen. If you're not like me and can personally afford to do these things, kudos, but at the moment I'm 25 years old and those things seem so far away, I'm no longer certain they'll ever happen. Deep down I feel that someday I will be successful. I want to be rich (more importantly, I want to live a rich life), but I hope that when I am, I never forget the kind of struggles I had to go through to get there, and how the working class is America.

I believe Obama really will work to bring back the realities of that American dream that has become a work of fiction. The dream that actually does allow people in my position to move up in the world instead of putting more and more barriers in place that keep people in thier born class. Whether sucessful or not, I'd rather have someone who is working for me then someone who is working for the fat cats. When my president is working for me, it inspires me to work for my country. It reminds me that we own the government, that they are us and through the government people like me have a say in the direction of the world.

[Yalta]

Yes, cancer not heart problems. My mistake.

[Madskillsmike]

There are many more positive feelings about Obama out here in Brazil, at least, than about McCain. I'm not sure if he'll make any difference in the whole, but it seems people prefer a candidate who might cause less disgrace and political/economical(not not mention humanitary) disasters, rather than the one they imediately associate with the one who did cause that many disasters.

I'd vote Obama if I were there, as the less of the two evils that he is.

[JackOfSwords]

I like to consider myself an independent, though my values fall in line most often with Democrats.  On the one hand, I believe in less Federal government (local and state should have more impact on their communities,) but also believe strongly in programs aimed at helping the less priveleged and in regulating corporations to prevent corrupt practices.  During the primaries, I was rooting for McCain to win the Republican ticket, and Hillary to win the Democratic.  At that time, I would've been happy to vote for either.  I was slightly sad Hillary didn't make it.  
Now, however, I have seen McCain turn his back on all the qualities that made him a desirable candidate, and take on the mantle of the party that brought us Bush.  I am sorely disappointed in him, and his choice of Palin as V.P. is scary.  I like Obama, however I would've preferred to see someone a bit more "proven".  I believe Joe Biden is actually more suitable as President, and would've like to have seen the ticket reversed.  I do believe Obama will be a good president, and I'll be voting for him come November.

[Squyrl]

Try to get yourself a loan for a home now, or a high paying job. Got a great idea for a bussiness, try to get Merill Lynch (Bank Of America) to fork you some start up cash. It isn't going to happen.

That's because for the last several decades the Liberal Democrat controlled congresses have forced banks, under penalty of law, to grant loans to people who could not afford to pay them back, leading to the collapses of the housing and financial markets.

I want to be rich

I'd rather have someone who is working for me then someone who is working for the fat cats.

How can you be a fat cat if you put your trust in someone who is working against it?

Sarah Palin has had a passport for 18 months

What does this have to do with anything?  Somebody who hasn't done much foreign travel can't be a politician?  The only reason she probably got it is because up until 18 months ago, Americans were able to freely travel back and forth through Canada without a passport.


  Barr '08

[Kiaring]

I find it almost amusing that the #1 banner old school GOP supporters will put up is that they are for "a smaller government". Sure, they're not too fond of social programs. They believe in a free, unregulated market (unless current polls show sticking up for a model that is causing the subprime mortgage crisis will lose you a few million votes). These things, in turn, allow them to make tax cuts a major part of any campaign they're in. Less spending means less taxation, right?

Except, I don't see how a party that is so in with all sorts of powerful interest lobbies could ever put forth that they're 'for less government'. Sure, the government might be smaller, but the private initiative will take over where government leaves off, and then decisions that rested in the hands of elected officials (no matter how contrived the selection process, they were elected!) now pass on to the hands of the Board of Directors of some obscure major holding with offices God-knows-where and meetings God-knows-when. Republicans always talk about how they'd like to diminish the role of government in the lives of people, but under Capitalism, to do so is to remove the only tool the small and poor may have (in an ideal situation, of course) to mitigate the inherent flaws and injustices of a Capitalist economy. To downsize government in favor of 'economic freedoms' is to allow the big fish to hunt the little ones with complete disregard for any notion of fairness and justice.

Quote: Squyrl
Originally Posted by PanamaLane View Post
Try to get yourself a loan for a home now, or a high paying job. Got a great idea for a bussiness, try to get Merill Lynch (Bank Of America) to fork you some start up cash. It isn't going to happen.

That's because for the last several decades the Liberal Democrat controlled congresses have forced banks, under penalty of law, to grant loans to people who could not afford to pay them back, leading to the collapses of the housing and financial markets.

Let's not forget the opposition of all those Conservative Republican-controlled congresses to any sort of government regulation on the financial system, which in turn led to the housing credit companies selling these debts (with interest, obviously) further down the road to investment banks and other types of financial institutions. This, and not 'years of Dems forcing the poor bankers to grant loans against their will' is what led to the current cascade-like crisis in America.


This all having been said, it certainly feels to me as though Obama is nothing more than a band-aid to cover a gaping, deep cut. All government can do in the lives of people, is to mitigate suffering, through social programs and steering the government as fairly as possible. But Obama isn't going to be the one to overcome the limitations of private property, the principle of, the true (and only material) cause of suffering in the Western World today. Like I said, it is my belief that the best he can hope to be is a woefully inappropriate band-aid to a gruesome and enormous gash, the blood from which is the lives of people everywhere - America and abroad.

I am not an American, but if I could vote in the US of A I would certainly be picking Obama as the much, much lesser of two evils.

[Garem]

Let's not forget the opposition of all those Conservative Republican-controlled congresses to any sort of government regulation on the financial system, which in turn led to the housing credit companies selling these debts (with interest, obviously) further down the road to investment banks and other types of financial institutions. This, and not 'years of Dems forcing the poor bankers to grant loans against their will' is what led to the current cascade-like crisis in America.

Where did all this debt come from? That's what Squyrl was saying. Limitations on financial institutions may have been a band-aid (to steal Kia's words!), but the damage was already done (because of too much government interference on banking, in my opinion, but that is somewhat debatable).

Honestly, the partisanship going on is abominable (here and nationally) regarding this financial "crisis". I refuse to blame one party or the other, because it was NOT caused by any one party as much as people may want to believe it (because, quite frankly, this couldn't have happened at a shittier time what with the elections and all). Obama and McCain and their respective parties will blame each other because that's what our politicians do to get elected.

Partisanship won't solve this problem. Hell, nothing may except maybe time.

[Howlando]

I'm sorry if I sounded too partisan, it's just that I find myself very frustrated these days by the extent to which the Republican party and its leadership have deviated from true conservative values (which I definitely respect), and which makes it difficult for me to take them seriously as the necessary opposition until they succeed in reforming themselves.

Is McCain a reformer? I really don't see him as being one in any way. In fact his campaigning tactics and some of the fundamental, pandering decisions he's made on any number of issues really upset me as a voter... but that's going into more detail than I wish now.

If Ron Paul won the primary, that would be a sign for me that the Republican party was going back to its conservative values.

The big issues for me are:

- Fiscal sanity
- Responsible management of the economy
- Appropriate investment into infrastructure/new technologies/"building up the US" (and yes I think government has a role in that)
- Improving world stature/getting the hell out of Iraq

Squryl wins though for voting for a Libertarian candidate. I can certainly respect that, although perhaps I wouldn't advise it if you live in a swing state >_>

One thing I will definitely give McCain credit for (and one of the few things he actually bucks his party with) is his clear and very unqualified opposition to torture, which has been a terrible stain on the country.

[Squyrl]

Squryl wins

Can we lock this thread now? :)