Most of the time, it's a choice between the lesser of two evils

[Cereal Kyller]

Okay. Three years ago, we voted for Obama. But 2008 was an outlier: You know it, I know it. I voted against Reagan, not for Carter or Mondale. Against Bush I and Bob Dole, not for Dukakis or Clinton. And even though I did have enthusiasm for a Gore Presidency, I'd gauge that 55% of my vote in 2000 was against Bush II. That number jumped to 80% in '04. Obama was the first presidential candidate I ever voted for.

I will vote to reelect the President next year. I may even be voting for him. (I am much more forgiving than some of the badasses here.) But even if I'm voting against Romney or Batshit or Palin, I am totally cool with that. Because it's life.

[polichick]

1. I think I did actually vote FOR Carter, but I voted against McShame/Pscyho Sarah last time...

and I'll vote against the right-wing nutcakes next time too.

[MissDeeds]

4. I voted against McCain-Palin, too

I had huge reservations about Obama, but voted against the abysmal alternative. I want to vote FOR someone I believe in, not against someone I fear and loathe.

[polichick]

5. I'd love to vote FOR someone again too!

[Booster]

2. He was my first "for" vote also, and I'm 68. Kennedy would have

been my first but I turned 21 on the day he was shot. Yes, sadly, every other vote in my life was "against" someone. That's pretty sad when you really think about it.

[treestar]

3. Me too. I hate Republicans, or, I hate what they want to do

I really don't care if Democrats are not progressive enough. Right now, given the idiots out there who vote Republican are great enough in number - I'll vote so as to avoid their getting into power. I do not want more Scalias on the Court. I do not want them to get us into more wars, or to cut the social safety net. People who think the Democrats do too much of it overlook just how much more the Republicans want to do and ignore that Republicans have Congress now.

[Bake]

6. Yeah...sigh. I'll definitely vote against any Rethug.

But I'd like it better if I were voting FOR someone. So at this point, at least (the final results aren't in, of course), that's the best I can do.

Bake

[TheKentuckian]

7. I'm not sold on Mussolini just because Hitler is running.

[MissDeeds]

8. +1

[jefferson_dem]

9. Like yeah!

Obama is exactly like Mussolini!111!!

[TheKentuckian]

10. and Goodhair is just like Hitler!11!!

[The Big Vetolski]

11. +2!

[great white snark]

17. Shouldn't you be finding a primary opponent instead of making inept comparisons?

I would hope that after all of the posturing and condemnation you aren't going to be a good little soldier and vote for Obama anyway.

[TheKentuckian]

19. The magic 8 ball is pessimistic on that. Hasn't been ruled out but not looking good.

I'm not a rich "king maker" so I can't find any candidate all I can do at this stage is lead horses to water which in turn will create a vacuum that a candidate can fill and that a few voices can transform into a chorus that demand a change in direction rather than changing faces with the same policies be it now or the next cycle.

[woo me with science]

23. +1000000

[Bluenorthwest]

12. I voted against McPalin lat time, not 'for Obama' as he is

far to conservative and opposed to equal rights for me to really vote for him.

[seeviewonder]

13. My first eligible vote for a Presidential Election was in 2008.

I was a senior in high school for in the fall of 2004 so I missed being able to vote FOR Kerry. That being said, I will be voting AGAINST and of the crazy ass 'baggers in 2012.

[bhikkhu]

14. How you govern a country that elects 87 teabaggers to congress...

while still suffering in the midst of a severe economic mess caused by boneheaded teabagger policies - that's the real mystery.

[BDavinciNY]

15. Its always a choice between the lesser of two evils

Sometimes the lesser of two evils is always the best and the only choice we have. The way I see it the guy is but my vote for I may not agree with him for some of the reasons I care about but at least he or she will meet halfway on some issues. The alternative is often very worse. When I voted for Obama it was a long shot deal. I'm glad it paid off. I really was voting for anyone but another Clinton. Hillary was an OK senator from my home state of NY but to have her as president after another Bush was out of the question for me. When it was just Obama and McCain alone I though it would be very formidable match. When Pailn came along and Gramps start saying the "Fundamentals of the economy was strong" after the shitstorm had fallen on that day I know Obama had to win this for the future of the Country.

I knew that Obama was a moderate to conservative Democrat but don't tell that to the PUMA victims and the whiners of the world. They thought they had their messiah until reality hit them in the face and now they are crying and whining about it now.

What the worse sufferers of PUMA and ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) fail to realize to get progressive legislation that is favorable to all of us in DU and the liberal blogosphere that we need MORE PROGRESSIVE DEMS IN CONGRESS !!! The Blue dogs, Conservadems and Joe Libershmuck screwed up progressive legislation in HCR. NO PROGRESSIVE DEMS=SHITTY WATERED DOWN BILLS!!!!. 2010 shouldn't happen because the whiners had a lot of their panties in knots because Obama didn't do what they wanted them to do. They also forget that Congress didn't do what they was supposed to do under Nancy Pelosi's leadership. Before the midterms the Dem leadership should have taken up expiring the Bush tax cuts but they didn't because they were afraid the Rethugs was going to find a billionaire that was going to plead poverty by letting the Bush tax cut expire and lose their precious majority. Now look at the House where it's chock full of teabaggers who are THIS close in destroying the government by defaulting on the debt ceiling. Of course Obama because of the Dems in congress failure to do their job had to keep the Bush tax cuts for 2 years more in order to keep some of the 99ers Unemployment Insurance and 9/11 heroes some help (Which I care about)

So I will vote Obama again in 2012 because with Cain, Bachmann, Romney,T-Paw et. al. showing us their alternatives to Obama their future with them will be a bleak America where everybody will suffer and nobody would want to live here. So to the PUMAs and whiners out there bitching about Obama, in a choice between mediocre to good or worse to bleak, I'll will choose the mediocre to good option as the best and only choice!

[bklyncowgirl]

20. Wisely spoken

A politician who I agreed with on every particular would not be able to be elected and if by some miracle elected would not be able to govern. Politicians have always compromised and at times sold out their followers. Even FDR gave in on spending cuts and this helped prolong the Great Depression though we prefer not to remember this these days.

So Obama will compromise and we will wail and whine but in the end it will come down to him or one of the Republicans. Who do you want to see appointing the next round of Supreme Court justices and making decisions on Social Security? Mitt Romney? Michelle Bachman?

That's what it comes down to, folks. Anything else is just blather.

[nemo137]

16. I've been weaving back and forth on this.

On the one hand, any kind of state is inherently coercive - I've basically come around a left-anarchist position on this. On the other hand, there's a huge difference, not just in degree, but in kind, to the type of coercion that the R's and the D's use in people's day-to-day lives. Claiming that there's no difference because they both continue the war on drugs or both are willing to continue military adventurism is, I think, misguided. States do what states do. Collective violence is part of that.

But the amount of harm caused, for one thing, will be less under a D than an R. While we have our retrograde assholes, I've noticed a distinct lack of anti-PP and anti-choice bills coming out of D controlled statehouses. For all that our involvement in Libya or Yemen don't pass the smell test, we're not as ass-deep in it as we were in Iraq or AfPak. If you're just interested in reducing harm and building lifeboats, it looks like voting D's the way to go.

It's not even a little satisfying, but I can't really stomach the argument that participating perpetuates and entrenches a coercive state system, so it's better not to do it. We're all complicit, we've all benefited from state violence - since we've got the privilege, we might as well put our bodies to the wheel and reduce the suffering where we can.

[lunatica]

18. By its very nature politics is always a murky area

Purity of issues is for activists. Tea baggers who have been elected are not doing this country any good because they're purists and they have no political acumen. They're out to get what they want, regardless of laws and the Constitution and at whatever cost the rest of us must pay. And what they want is bad for the country on every level.

[bigwillq]

21. Congrats on 400 posts!

:toast: :bounce:

[kjackson227]

22. I voted "FOR" Obama in 2008, and I'll be voting "FOR" him...

in 2012.

[lame54]

24. I voted FOR Clinton his first term...

I voted Against Dole the 2nd time around

[Beacool]

25. Why do you assume that everyone voted FOR Obama and not against the Republicans?

It was almost a foregone conclusion that a Democrat would win the WH in 2008. After 8 years of Bush, the war in Iraq and the economic collapse of September, 2007; there was no chance in hell that a Republican would win the presidency.

Forgot to add, I voted for Bill Clinton and I would gladly do it again.

:shrug: